Sambhar or huli recipe

Sambhar recipe

 Sambhar forms a  part of the staple food in Karnataka along with rice.Anna (rice) and sambhar are so rich with proteins and vitamins for daily intake.

How to make sambhar?
Its so easy to make sambhar. Just be cautious of vegetables that can be added to it. 
The vegetables not used in sambhar - Cauliflower (gobi), bitter gourd (haagalakayi), mushrooms
Certain combinations that spoil the taste - navilu kosu or gedde kosu (Kolrabi or knolknol) with badanekayi(brinjal), mulangi (white raddish) with badanekayi (brinjal). 
Vegetables like brinjal, white raddish, Kolrabi have their unique taste and must not be messed up with other vegetables.
What combinations taste good - 1. beans, carrot, potato and with or without onion 2. ladies finger with or without onion 3. brinjal with or without onion 4. carrot, onion and potato 5. onion and potato 6. kolrabi with carrot and onion 7. cabbage with onion and potato 8. green leafy vegetables like spinach with onion

You can also make sambhar with individual vegetable.

Ingredients:
Toor dal 1/2 cup
chopped vegetables of your choice
salt
water
rasam and sambhar powder
Tamarind about the size of a lemon or 1 medium sized tomato

Procedure:
Boil the vegetables and dal in a pressure cooker so that the dal is soft.
For vegetables like Brinjal or ladies finger, you should not boil with dal. Instead you must shallow fry them in 2 spoons of oil and dal must be pressure cooked and added to the vegetables.
Add salt and bring it to a boil.
Now add 1 spoon of rasam powder and 1 spoon of sambhar powder to it and continue to boil.
Add the squeezed tamarind juice and continue to boil for about 10 minutes.
It is optional to add some coriander leaves and curry leaves.

Then add seasoning and serve. For seasoning details see my rasam recipe.

Rasam recipe

Rasam recipes

There are various types of tili saru or rasam made in Karnataka. I am going to list the four most popular variations of rasam. These are more liked when made in my house.

1. Bele saaru or tili saaru
This is made of lentils and hence called bele saaru. Its called tili saaru as it has more of liquid in it and contains no vegetables.

Ingredients to serve 2 people:
togari bele (toor dal) 1/2 cup
water
Rasam Powder (see my other post on how to make this)
salt to taste
Tamarind about the size of  a grape
kottambari soppu (coriander leaves) 3-5 sticks
karibevina soppu (curry leaves) 1 stick


Procedure:
Soak tamarind in a bowl of water. Squeeze out the juice and keep it ready.
Boil the dal (preferably in a pressure cooker) so it is soft and can be mashed easily.
Now add more water to the dal about two cups and boil it by adding salt for about 5-10min.
Add rasam powder, chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves and continue to boil for another 10 min.
Also add tamarind juice and continue to boil.

You can replace tamarind with one whole chopped tomato while boiling lentil. Note that the taste will be different in both cases.

Add seasoning and serve.

2. Tomato saaru
This is more commonly made near the coastal regions of our state particularly in Shimogga district where they do not use too much lentils.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized tomato.
grated fresh/tender coconut 1 cup
salt

Procedure
Cut the tomato into large chunks and grind it with the grated fresh coconut  into a paste.
Boil this in two cups of water by adding salt and rasam powder.

Do not forget to add seasoning at the end before serving.

Thats it, you have made the rasam.

3.  Hoornada saaru
This is a special type of rasam made during festivals when obbattu or holige or sweet chapathi is made.
One of the most yummiest rasams I have ever tasted. You must be wondering what hoorna is. It is the stuffing in sweet chapathi made of togari bele (toor dal), tengina kayi turi (grated tender coconut) and bella (jaggery).

How to make hoorna?
Boil togari bele (toor dal) with minimum water. Squeeze out the remaining water and add grated tender coconut to it.
Grind this into a paste so the lentil has no more shape and is mashed well.
Take this paste in a pan and add bella (jaggery/gud) to it as per taste (normally it is the same measure as lentil/dal) and heat it. As the jaggery melts the mixture turns into a semi liquid state. Continue stirring so it thickens into a soft dough like texture. Then make balls out of it.

Ingredients:
Hoorna ball about the size of an orange
salt
water

Procedure:
Boil hoorna in water and add rasam powder and salt to it.
Add curry leaves and chopped coriander leaves and continue to boil for about 10-15 minutes.

The rasam is ready. Add seasoning and serve.

4. Tamarind rasam
Tamarind rasam is mostly made in our house when we need to digest whatever we have eaten.

Ingredients:
Tamarind about a medium sized lemon
grated jaggery
salt
water

Procedure:
Soak tamarind in water. Squeeze the juice. Add grated jaggery and water to it and bring it to a boil.
Add salt and rasam powder, cury leaves and coriander leaves and continue to boil for about 15 minutes.

Rasam is ready. Add seasoning and serve it.

oggarane / tadka / seasoning: 
Seasoning must be added to all types of rasam or sambhar at the end of preparation and before serving.

 Ingredients for seasoning:
asafoetida (hing) a pinch
ghee (clarified butter) 1 spoon
mustard seeds

Procedure:
In a separate small pan add ghee and allow it to melt. Then when it is heated add the mustard seeds and allow it to splurt. When the mustard seeds start splurting, you can close it with a plate and shut off the stove. When the splurting stops, add hing and add this to the boiling rasam. The ghee tadka (tuppada oggarane) gives it the best taste.

Serve hot rasam with rice, pappad and pickle to have a blissful day.

Huli pudi or Sambhar powder

Huli pudi or Sambhar powder

 This is the powder used to make huli (as we call at home) or sambhar as referred to in restaurants or more commonly. The sambhar is a combination of lentils, spice mix (sambhar powder) and vegetables. Note that there are certain combination of vegetables which give excellent taste and also certain combinations that spoil the taste of the dish. So be careful when you prepare sambhar. Take a look at my post on sambhar on how to make sambhar.

This is yet again a Karnataka recipe for sambhar powder and can be different from other states in India.

Ingredients for a medium spicy sambhar powder:
byadagi menasinakayi (colour) 30 in number
guntur menasinakayi (spicy) 30 in number
kadale bele (chana dal) 6 spoons (100g)
uddina bele (urad dal) 6 spoons (100g)
dhaniya (coriander seeds) 6 spoons (100g)
grated coconut 12 spoons which is about 2 half dry coconuts grated

Note: should you need more or less spicy powder then increase or decrease the no of guntur menasinakayi (spicy red chillies).

Procedure:
Dry fry the following ingredients and keep them separate after frying -
kadale bele (chana dal)
uddina bele (urad dal)
dhaniya (coriander seeds)
byadagi menasinakayi and guntur menasinakayi

Now, most importantly the order of grinding them into powder -
First grind the red chillies and grated coconut.
Then add dhaniya (coriander seeds) and grind to a coarse powder.
Now add kadale bele (chana dal) and grind it to a coarse powder.
Then add urad dal and grind it to coarse powder.

Remember that sambhar powder is not as fine as rasam powder. It has to be coarse so when you make sambhar it makes it thick.

Now that the powder is ready, make sambhar and taste it. Add more or less red chillies or coconut depending on your family needs.

Menasinapudi or saarina pudi or Rasam Powder

Menasinapudi or saarina pudi or Rasam Powder 

This is the powder used to make rasam or saaru as we call in Kannada. There is a difference between saaru and sambhar (huli also commonly referred as). In saaru there are no vegetables but just the dal (bele) and sometimes not even dal (bele) in other variations of rasam but the powder remains the same.

Let me also tell you that this recipe is a typical Karnataka recipe for rasam. The rasam powder of any other state in India might vary from this recipe. So lets get started with it..

Ingredients:
byadagi menasinakayi (dry red chillies  that give only colour and are not at all spicy) - 15 in number
guntur menasinakayi (dry red chillies that do not give colour but only spice) - 15 in number
dhaniya (dry coriander seeds) - 100g
remember: proportion of dhaniya and chillies (in total) = 8:1
jeerige (jeera) 2 spoon
menthya (methi/fenugreek seeds) 1 spoon
kaalu menasu (pepper corns) 1 spoon
 turmeric - 1tsp
hing - 1 pinch
dry coriander leaves powder 1-2 spoons as per taste

Procedure:
Dry fry the following ingredients separately and keep them separate after frying.
dhaniya
jeerige
menthya
menasu
hing
curry leaves or its powder
Finally while frying menasinakayi (red chillies), put a tsp of oil.

Grind the fried ingredients in the following order
jeerige, menthya and menasu together with hing and curry leaves
menasinakayi
dhaniya
The powder should be almost fine. Then sieve it to to remove ungrounded dhaniya and you can grind it again.

So, the rasam powder is ready to make various kinds of rasam.

Try this once and as per your taste you can vary the quantity of ingredients to suit your needs.