Friday, January 21, 2005

Milagu Kuzhambu

Describing this dish as 'pepper sauce' in English is such as travesty. For one, 'sauce' always conjures up an image of something bottled and ready-to-eat. Whereas milagu kuzhambu is fresh, tangy and fires up the insides like no readymade sauce can. Ever.
My grandmother used to make milagu kuzhambu in an 'uruli' (a traditional cooking pot) and let it soak in the flavours for hours before serving it. This is a calorie-rich and nutrionally-dubious recipe. So if you're cholestrol conscious, go away and nibble on some celery sticks. But for the intrepid, milagu kuzhambu can open up parts you never dreamt of.

Milagu Kuzhambu
(About 30 minutes to cook)
You'll need
Tamarind - the size of a small lemon
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Toor dal - 1 tbsp
Dried red chillies - 3
Pepper corns - 1.5 tsp
Shallot onions - 2
Jaggery - 1 tsp (optional)
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

Here's how to -
1. Soak tamarind in warm water for about 15 minutes
2. Meanwhile, heat a pan, add the oil and when it's hot, add the onions, urad and toor dals, red chillies and the pepper corns. Saute till onions are transparent (for about 5 minutes)
3. When cool enough to handle, drain the above masala and grind to a paste. Save the oil for later
4. In a pan heat the same oil and when hot, add mustard seeds. When they finish popping, add curry leaves and asafoetida
5. To this, add extracted tamarind juice, turmeric, jaggery and bring it to a boil
6. Now add the ground paste, mix well, add salt and bring to a boil. Turn off heat
7. Serve hot with rice and papad

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

..Been looking for this recipe..Thanks a lot !!

Premalatha said...

Someone taught me totally different MK. I should try this one.