Tiruvadirai kali and kozhambu

Tiruvadirai kali and Kozhambu

Yesterday we celebrated Arudhra Darisanam.This festival essentially celebrates the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva.The microcosm derives all its energy from the macrocosm and the best way to celebrate this reverberation is through food.My mil makes kali and kozhmabu as prasad.We later hog this delightful combo of sweet and karam flavours..Now for the recipe.

Tiruvadirai Kozhambu

This Kozhambu calls for a whole lot of vegetables. Its usually in odd numbers.Even chillies are included in the count as a vegetable.So usually 3,5,7,9 etc are the number of vegetables used.We usually make a huge quantity of this and have it with vendiya dosai the next day.

Ingredients:Vegetables,roots and beans.

1.Potato-400 gms

2.colocasia-400gms.

3.sweet potato-1/2 kilo

4.Raw Plantain-2 big

5.pumpkin-400 gms

6.Ash gourd-300 gms

7.Broad Beans-200 gms

8.Hyacinth Bean or field bean-1/2 kilo

9.brinjal-2

10.Fresh pigeon peas-a handful

11.Green chillies-4(depends on your palate)

To soak

Tamarind-a huge ball the size of a wood apple to coat the vegetables with its tanginess.

To be pressure cooked

1.Toor dal or split pigeon peas-2 glasses

(For half a glass of toor dal put in two glasses of water.Add a pinch of turmeric and cook.)

2.Colocasia to be pressure cooked separately.

For the ground paste

Red chillies-5(depends on ur palate)

coconut-1 small grated

Asafoetida-a marble sized

4-tbsp channa dal(split chick pea)

4-tbsp-coriander

Take a little oil,add the asafoetida ball,chana dal,coriander seeds and red chillies.Fry all these ingredients.Keep aside and cool.After it is cooled add grated coconut and grind this mixture into a paste.

To splutter

mustard-1/2tsp

fenugreek-1/2 a tsp

curry leaves-a few

Oil-For the paste and for spluttering

salt-to taste

jaggery-a small lump

turmeric powder-one tsp

Method:

Dice all the vegetables into bite sized pieces.The skin of the sweet potato and potato can be retained. Take a vessel.Add tamarind water,add vegetables and water till the veggies are immersed in water. Add salt,turmeric powder and a few curry leaves.Add the ground paste.You can also add a few spoons of sambar powder to this mixture.let the this mixture cook.Check to see if vegetables are well done.Add toor dal to this mixture.If the mixture is too watery.Add a little bit of rice flour and water in a small container mix well and add to the mixture for a thick consistency.Once this is done.Splutter the mustard,fenugreek and curry leaves.Add to this melange.You can add a small lump of jaggery for a sweet tangy aromatic sambar.

The aromatic melange of veggies and lentil ready to be consumed

This is the side dish for the kali.Will be making another post for the kali which is a sweet dish shortly.Till then enjoy is magical broth.This tastes gorgeous with rice, idlis and dosas.Sending this over to Paisley Passions