Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Swapna sundari....

" Swapna sundari " do not get fooled by the title.... it is food in this context. Off late I have been dreaming of food, great food...!
Dream sequence
Starring: Sautekai(cucumber) sambar and my friends (Rohit and Pradeep). Well I was wondering how come Harish(part of our local boys gang) was missing, the location for this dream was Seattle and currently Harish is visiting India :) .
It is this beautiful day where we friends sit together to enjoy a sumptuous meal, and what do
we have yes Sautekai sambar with hot rice served on a plantain leaf and a spoon full of ghee. Sambar was so enticing that next day I had to treat myself with this tasty sambar.
You see (from right)Pradeep, Sandeep and Rohit.... Harish is missing ....haan.. ya he is in India right.....! (naa he took this pic...and was taken about 6 years ago)

Wait my blog doesn't end here let me tell you how I cooked my sambar the next day....

What you need:
1. Cucumber (Zucchini) 1
2. Grated coconut. 10 gms
3. Tamarind. say 10 gms
4. Jaggery. 10 gms
5. Standard tadka stuff : oil, mustard and cumin seeds.
6. toor dal. 50 gms
7. Any standard sambar powder
8. Chili powder

  • Wash toor dal and cook it in a pressure cooker.
  • Cut Cucumber into small rectangular pieces.
  • Heat oil, put mustard seeds, wait until they make chat...chat sound
  • Now add cumin seeds, curry leaves and cucumber pieces.
  • Add salt to taste and some turmeric powder.
  • fry it till cucumber pieces are cooked
  • Now add your sambar masala, chilli powder (to your taste) let this thing cook for a while so that the masala gets into those cucumber pieces.
  • Ahh by now dal should be nice and cooked, add dal to this mixture.
  • opps did I tell you that you should have soaked tamarind in water right in the beginning, if not its ok do it now.
  • Cut jaggery into small pieces.
  • Now put the extract you get out of soaked tamarind and the cut jaggery in your hot cooking sambar.
  • Now if you have some grated coconut add it ....
  • Let it cook.. boil...! for some time.... and your sambar is ready...!
serve it with white rice and ghee.....

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sandeep,
Had visited Rohit and family two days ago, and spnt some time with junior...
Boy is the same, although boy has son now. :)

But more importantly, I ate masala dosa and curd rice for lunch, had free chai twice in the morning at work, (very well done chai), chaat in the evening during coffee break (yes, our company has chaats in the office cafe) and came home to get kod bale!
Will have to wait a while for the sambar, but I am not missing good food right now!

sandeep said...

Hey...!

Good that you are getting the best of food, best company (as in friends and family) and the best of company(office) food....!

Njoy I will dream about idly vade and you will be in it :)