Ulli Sambar - Shallots Sambaar/Vengaya Sambar - Shallots in Yellow Lentils gravy tempered with Spices

Sambar is a staple dish of South indian states especially Tamilnadu and Kerala. It is an excellent combination for Idli and Dosa apart from Rice for which its the default combination :)

The uniqueness of Sambar is that it is one of the rare dishes that contains 5 of the 6 tastes that human beings can feel - Sweet, Spicy, Sour, Bitter and Salty. 

The sixth taste is Astringent. For details refer http://www.eattasteheal.com/ETH_6tastes.htm

Ingredients of Ulli (shallots) Sambar:

Shallots (Small onions) - 25-30, peeled

Tomatoes - 2, chopped

Tur Dal - 100 gms 

Tamarind-lemon size

Chilly powder - 1 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder - 1 teaspoon

Sambar Powder - 2 teaspoons

Asafoetida (kayapodi\hing\perumkayam) - 1\4 teaspoon

Curry Leaves - 15 leaves medium sized

Dry Red Chillies - 2-3

Salt to taste

Process - 

Put the tur dal into a cooker, add 2 glasses of water (approximately 300-350 ml) and cook well. 

Clean and soak the tamarind into 50 ml of warm water. Normal water can also be used to soak tamarind but the advantage with warm water is that helps in complete extraction of the tamarind pulp in less time. Keep the soaked tamarind aside.

Cooking the shallots:

Put the peeled and cleaned onions into 3 glasses (approximately 500ml) of water. Add  chilly powder,turmeric powder and salt to taste and cook it in low flame. DONOT cook shallots in a cooker, else it will get over cooked. 

Once the shallots are half cooked, put the chopped tomatoes into it. Once the tomatoes are almost cooked, add the cooked dal into it and mix thoroughly. 

Extract tamarind pulp from the soaked tamarind by squeezing it with your hands. Pour the extracted tamarind pulp into the cooked onion-tomatoes-dal mixture. Add salt to taste. Allow it to boil in low flame. Keep aside.

Tempering:

Ensure the tempering is done only on low flame to avoid the mustard, sambaar powder etc. getting burnt.

Take a small frying pan and pour 2 tablespoons of oil into it. Once the oil is hot, put one teaspoon of mustard. Keep dry red chillies, curry leaves, Sambar powder and  Asafoetida  ready. 

Wait till  the mustard splutters. Immediately after all the mustard splutters, add the broken red chillies into it and mix it with the mustard for it to get fried. 

After that add the curry leaves. Add two tablespoons of sambaar powder and fry it in the pan. Add 1/4 tea spoon of asefoetoda into this and mix the contents. 

Pour the contents of the pan with the onion-tomatoes-dal mix that was kept aside . Mix thoroughly.

Ulli/Vengaya/Shallots sambar is ready.

 It serves 6 members of the family. Can be mixed with rice, Idli, Dosa, Vada, Chapati etc

#sambar, #ullisambar, #keralarecipes, #keraladishes, #vegetarianrecipes, #vegetarian