Vethakozhambu - Palakkad Iyer recipe

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.

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

Chundakkai Vathal

Chundakka Vathal (Turkey Berry)

Chundakkai is very bitter in taste. The fresh ones can be used to make tamarind based gravies. Usually, chundakkai is preferred to make vathals, so that it can be stored for later use. It is mainly used for the preparation of vathalkuzhambu or can be deep fried and used as sides too.

Chundakkai - 2 cups

Buttermilk - 1 cup

Urad dal - 2 tblspn

Red Chilly - 3 nos

Salt to taste

Soak urad dal and red chilly for an hour.Grind it to a smooth paste.

Wash and slightly crush the berries. Crushing helps to remove the bitterness when later soaked in buttermilk mixture.

Add buttermilk, ground paste and salt to the crushed chundakkai. Mix well.

Leave it for a day.

Drain the chundakkais and dry it under sun. After each day of drying, continue to soak
them in the leftover buttermilk mixture till it is completely absorbed.

Dry the chundakkais for a day after no liquid mixture is left in the vessel.

Store in airtight containers. It will stay good for more than a year.

Shall post the recipe for vathakuzhambu soon.

Kariveppila Podi (Curryleaves powder)

Kariveppila or Curry Leaves is mostly used as a garnish. It indeed enhances the flavor of the dish. But most of the times, it is not consumed and is always kept aside while the dish is served. This podi is a good way to consume curry leaves, which has fair amount of Vitamin A and good source of Calcium. Curry leaves has many medicinal properties too. You can read more about it here.

Ingredients

Urad dal- 4 tblspn

Chana dal - 4 tblspn

Red chilly - 12- 15 (adjust the nos to suit your palette)

Tamarind - lemon size

Hing - 1 tspn

Salt to taste
Curry leaves - 2 cups

Gingely oil - 2 tblspn for roasting

Wash and dry the curry leaves.
Dry roast urad dal and chana dal separately till they turn light brown

Add a teaspoon of oil and roast the red chillies.

Transfer the roasted chillies to a plate and roast the curry leaves in a tablespoon of
oil.

When cool, powder all together with required salt.

Store in an airtight bottle. It will stay fresh for more than 2 weeks without refrigeration.

Serve kariveppila podi mixed with hot rice and ghee. It can be served as a dip for idli and dosa.