Chinna Vengaya Sambar or Baby Onions in Lentil Gravy

BABY ONION SAMBAR
A great many varieties of Kozambus (thick gravies) are served with rice as the first course of a meal in all South Indian homes. Kozambus with dal, without dal, with tamarind, without tamarind and even without either, are the many varieties served as a routine. Among all of the kozambus, Sambar occupies the first and foremost place. Sambar is prepared by cooking dal and vegetables in tamarind juice and spices.

I consider baby onion sambar as the king of all sambars. It is a delicacy, and is usually
prepared for special guests. Onion sambar is prepared in all restaurants and served along with idlies, dosas and vadas. Vadas soaked in sambar is a connoisseur’s delight.

We took our friend’s family for a treat to a restaurant which was famous for its mouth watering masala dosas and basundi milk sweet). My friend’s 3 year old daughter was bowled over by the taste of the sambar, served with the dosa. We were all awe struck to see the little girl slurp cup after cup of the spicy hot sambar as though she were relishing a cup of ice cream. Now restaurants usually serve an extra cup of sambar free of cost on request. Watching cup after cup disappear, my husband assured the flabbergasted waiter that he would pay for all those additional cups. The poor waiter finally looked greatly relieved!

BABY ONION SAMBAR
INGREDIENTS:

Baby onion - 250 gms
Tur Dal (Red gram lentil) – 1 tea cup

Turmeric -1/4 tsp
Tamarind - enough to roll into the size of a small marble.

Salt – 1 ½ tsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 10
Cooking oil – 3 tbsps
For Sambar Masala Paste

Asafoetida – ¼ tspa
Bengal gram dal (chana dal) – 1 tbsp
Black gram dal (urad dal)1 tsp
Coriander seeds -1 tbsp
Red chillies – 8
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp
Dry coconut gratings or
Roasted fresh coconut gratings – 1 tbsp

METHOD:
1. Soak tamarind in a cup of hot water for 15 minutes, and extract the juice.

2. Peel the baby onions and keep aside.

3. Pressure cook tur dal with turmeric powder and 3 cups of water until mushy, and let it cool.
For Sambar Masala Paste
1. Heat ¼ tsp of oil and fry the asafoetida.
2. Add black gram dal, bengal gram dal, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and lastly the red chillies, and roast till crisp and golden in colour.
3. Dry grind all the roasted ingredients.
4. Now add the dry coconut gratings and grind again with some water and keep the paste aside.
To prepare the Sambar
1. Heat the remaining oil and add mustard seeds followed by curry leaves.
2. After the mustard splutters add the peeled baby onions and stir.
3. Cover with a lid and cook on low flame.
4. When the onions are done and look glassy, pour in the tamarind extract.
5. Add salt and cook for for 5minutes on a medium flame.
6. Add the cooked dal and stir well avoiding lumps.
7. Now add the ground sambar masala paste. If the masala is too thick, you can dissolve in ½ cup of water and then stir it in.
8. Let the sambar boil for 2 more minutes until all the ingredients blend together giving out a delicious aroma.
9. Garnish with coriander leaves before serving.
Enjoy baby onion sambar with rice or any other dish of your choice.

My Father-in-Love(Law) is no more with us. He passed away peacefully on 17th of June. He was indeed a father to me and had always treated me as daughter. On my husband's side, they are three brothers. When any one asks about his children, my FIL used to reply he has 3 sons and 3 daughters.

Though he was not keeping well for the past two months, his passing away was the least expected. Till March, he was very active. From April, he developed various problems one after the other, which led to a month of hospitalisation. After a month in the hospital, when he was back home. We hoped, slowly he will get back to his normal routine. I think God just wanted to gave him the chance to spend few days at home before taking him to HIS abode. I was fortunate enough to be his side during the last moments. Even now I am not able to come in terms with his passing away. That is true for all our family members too. And Time is the best healer.

This is the reason, I was away from blogging from some time before and for the past few days. Now all ceremonies are over. Relatives have left. The rest of us at home are slowly getting back to routine.

Sesame Bread

This bread has no different from other breads that I have made previously, except that with lots of sesame. I read an article that described black sesame high in calcium that each 100g of black sesame contains 2000mg of calcium whereas white sesame contains 440mg of calcium. Also described, black sesame contains 18 times more calcium than fresh milk!

After reading it, I decided to add in some sesame into my wholemeal bread to have more nutrition. I followed a wholemeal bread recipe which I believe it can be mixed with other plain bread or milky loaf too!
The first dough I baked was not covered with a lid as I purposely want to shape it like homemade country bread. Therefore, I egg-washed the dough and sprinkled it with lots of sesame seeds.

The bread was beautifully baked in golden brown color with very fragrant flavor. The bread crumb was very soft and its top with sesame provides a crunchy texture.
Then, I decided to make a second sesame loaf as my other half is crazy about it. I baked it with a Pullman tin with lid and added lots of sesame as well.

This time, the dough had turned into a square sandwich loaf. The texture has no different compared to the previous loaf I made.

Again, the fragrant of the sesame had given us another delicious and healthy breakfast!

Recipe:

1st recipe with 10% wholemeal (much softer version)

270g bread flour
30g whole wheat flour
6g sugar
6g salt
3g yeast
240g low fat milk
12g butter

30g white sesame (toasted)

50g black sesame (toased)

2nd recipe with 33% wholemeal (much healthier version)

250g bread flour

80g whole wheat flour

10g oat bran

30g sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
5g yeast

1 egg

150g ice water

15g low fat milk

30g butter
30g white sesame (toasted)
50g black sesame (toased)

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.


2. Gradually add in all the wet ingredients and mix it by a flat beater at low speed until everything has just combined.
   
3. Add butter continue to mix for 1 or 2 minutes.


4. Change to a dough hook continues kneading for about 20 minutes at medium speed.


5. Off the machine and clear the sticky dough at side of the bowl. Continue kneading for few seconds.
   
6. Knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface until the dough smooth but not sticky.


7. Mix sesame into the dough.


8. Shape it into smooth round dough, cover with cling film and let it rest for 20 minutes.


9. Knead the dough and punch out the gas. Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll to form three even 'ball' shapes.


10. Flatten dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough like a Swiss-roll.


11. Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape. Add in some dried fruits on top then roll up the dough tightly.
    
12. Do the same for the other two remaining dough. Place the rolled dough in greased bread tin. Spray with some water around the tin. Place it in the oven with door close, proof for 60 minutes without lid on.


13. Put the lid on when the dough rise near to the top. Take out the tin from the oven and preheat the oven at 190'C.


14. Bake approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown. (I increased the temperature to 210'C for extra 10 minutes until the bread had a golden brown color).


15. Take out the bread to cool down before slicing into pieces. Store leftover bread in airtight container without slicing it for keeping it fresh for the next serving.