Vengaya Vathakozhambu

This kozhambu is an absolute favorite :). Till date, i haven't met anyone who has tasted this & has not loved it!! Its quick to make, you can make variations around the kozhambu and tastes the best with aalo fry ...

Vengaya Vathakozhambu

Ingredients
1. Onion - 1 (coarsely chopped)
2. Red chillies - 4-5 broken into halves
3. Curry leaves - 1 sprig
4. Mustard seeds - to temper
5. Sambhar powder - 3-4 tsp
6. Channa dal - 1 tbsp
7. Toor dal - 2 tap
8. Besan/ Chickpea flour - 1/4 cup
9 Tamarind paste - 2 tsp (small lemon sized tamarind soaked in water for 10 min)
10. Turmeric powder - a pinch
11. Salt  - to taste
12. Jaggery ( optional) - 1/2 tsp
13. Oil - 2 tbsp


Preparation Time!!
1. In a wok, add oil ( ideally gingerly oil gives a greater taste for this kozhambu). Once hot, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
2. Once it splutters, add channa dal, toor dal and red chillies. Toss till they turn light brown
3. Add onion and curry leaves and then add sambhar powder. Saute onion well so that the sambhar powder coats it. This should take less than a minute
4. Add the tamarind paste and add 2.5 glasses of water. (What i keep the count as, for kozhambu is 1 tsp paste = 1 glass of water (450 ml)). An additional 1/2 glass as content reduces due to boiling
5. Add turmeric powder, salt and allow to boil
6. Once the raw smell of tamarind goes, add began flour which is mixed in water
7. Stir as as besan liquid is added so that no lumps are formed (Besan liquid basically gives the thickness needed for Kozhambu)
8. Let is build for another 5-7 min & then take of the flame
9. Jaggery is optional, if its too spicy of if you like slight sweet tangy taste, then add it. It enhances the flavor


Pointers
1. Instead of onion, plain vathakozhambu can also be done. In this case, increase the number of red chillies and follow the same steps
2. Another variation of this kozhambu, is to to add Manthakalika instead of onion. Don't roast the Manthakalika a lot as it gives a bitter taste. Just add it, toss it with sambhar powder and continue same process
3. You could replace onion with Appalam/ Papad too! Just add broken pieces of appalam/ padad and it gets fried in the oil and continue the above steps. Appalam pita vathakozhambu is house fav :)
4. The lentil quantity can be increased. Its called the Kozhambu vandi and is best had with curd rice


Hope you love this as much as we do!


Serving -  2-3 people

Preparation time - 30 minutes