Vathakozhambu is a famous dish of Tamilnadu and it is cooked by Iyers of Kerala too. But when it comes to Kerala, it is cooked in a slightly different way from what is followed in TN. Here is the version cooked at most of Palakkad Iyer homes.Ingredients
Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - lemon sized
Red chilly powder - 1 tspn
Hing - 1/4 tspn
Turmeric - 1/4 tspn
Method
Wash and pressure cook tuvar dal with water. Add little turmeric and 1/2 tspn of oil. Adding oil helps cook dal mushy.
Soak tamarind in a cup of warm water for 10 minutes.
Soak tamarind in a cup of warm water for 10 minutes.
Extract the tamartind juice. Add 1/4 tspn turmeric,1 tspn of red chilly powder, 1/4 tpn of hing and salt.
Let it simmer till the gravy thickens.
Mash the cooked dal and add half cup of water.
Stir in the cooked dal and water to the thickening gravy.
Bring to a boil.
Seasoning
In a pan, add a tablespoon of gingely oil, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add chundakka vathal. When chundakkai is fried, pour the seasonings over the cooked gravy and garnish with curry leaves.
Serve with hot rice with a teaspoon of homemade ghee and roasted papad. Its simply divine. Mezhukkuparatti ( Stir fried vegetable like raw banana and yam) is also an excellent side for vethakozhambu. Another popular side for this is paruppu thogayal.
Paruppu Thogayal
Ingredients
Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
Grated coconut - less than 1/2 cup
Red chilly - 1
salt as required.
Since Vathakuzhambu is spicy, this thogayal uses only one red chilly for flavor only.
Dry roast tuvar dal till it turn light brown. Roast the red chilly too.
Grind all the ingredients to a coarse paste using less water.
Yummy parippu thogyal is ready.
(I forgot to take the photo of thogayal. Shall update next time when I prepare it)
Chundakkai Vathal
there is one on palakkad also.great!..
ReplyDeleteI have never tried these recipes... thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so nice..
ReplyDeleteadding coconut to the dal made it so delicious. thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jaya, ur right , it is different ur Vatta kozhambu, we do not make with dhal....Totally different gravy but sounds delicious with ur ingredients
ReplyDeletelooks nice..remember having a similar curry in my hostel days
ReplyDeleteyum yummy vethakozhambu jaya. I first got to know abt it thru my Tam roomate..:D
ReplyDeleteSiri
I love this combination....and a little bit of thogayal and rice with a hint of nalennai makes the whole thing deadly!! Yum! But I make vatha kozhambu - Tami Nadu style I guess, as we don't add dal to it!
ReplyDeleteValli thanks.
ReplyDeletecinnamon - do try it sometime
smn , thanks.
uma, thanks for the FB.
cham, i love both versions and each one is unique with its prepration style.
divya, siri, thanks. Try it sometime.
SSMom, true. thogayal and nalennai with hot rice is truly out of the world.
Adding dal definitely makes it different from TN style vathakuzhambu. This looks delicious, too!! :)
ReplyDeleteohh..i sooo love this one...was about to ask amma for the recipe...the molagushyam post was also good!! :)
ReplyDeletekalai, thanks. dal and chilli powder combo makes this unique.
ReplyDeleteSuperchef, thanks for dropping by my blog. Glad u found the recipe here.