Red Radish Sambar

Rajini Fans vs. Kamal Haasan Fans

Dog Lovers vs. Cat Lovers

Steffi Graf vs. Monica Seles

Rasam lovers vs. Sambar lovers

By now you'd have made an obvious connection of what I'm talking about!! According to the research by my "vetti-statistics-edupor-sangam" (club that takes useless statistics), there are only 2 sets of people in the world, who fall either in the left category or in the right! Yes, You can't possibly like Rajini as well as Kamal. Same way, you can't love both Sambar and Rasam!From most of the people I met, venus inhabitants are rasam lovers and the ones from Mars are all thumbs-up for Sambar. Too much of free time leads to such useless ramblings! Sigh!

Sambar is always not my kinda food. But after our marriage, when it became evident that I can never let go Sambar from the daily menu (even if not daily, atleast 2 or 3 times in a week), I surrendered to learning and eating the same. After coming here, those round little red Radish bundles in the fresh-produce section kept tempting me, and when my MIL visited us, we bought one of those bunches and tried. Needless to say, it was soft, flavored and tasted way better than the white radish. Even the leaf, when cooked with dal, was delicious.

So ladies and gentlemen, presenting you, the (second) love of my DH, Sambar!!! *Sniff* *Sniff*

Red Radish Sambar

What we need:
Red Radish - a small bundle or about quarter of a Kilogram

Onion, small - 1, chopped or A few shallots / Small onions - Optional
Sambar powder - 3 tbsp.
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - 1 marble sized ball
Salt - according to taste
Asafoetida (Perungayam) - 2 pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch

For tempering:
Oil/Ghee - 1 tbsp.
Mustard - 1 tsp.
Cumin - 1 tsp. Ya, I mean Jeera. It tastes really good!
Curry leaves - a sprig

How to do:
1. Pressure cook the toor dal with a pinch of turmeric powder, and a tsp. of oil till soft. Mash the dal well and set aside
2. Boil the Radish and onion vegetables with just enough water.
3. Once the vegetables are boiled (takes about 10 min), add the tamarind extract and sambar powder and required salt.
4. Boil for another 5 to 10 minutes or till the raw smell of powder starts leaving.
5. Add the dal at this point, and mix thoroughly. When the first set of bubbles/foam start appearing on the surface, remove and set aside.
6. In a seasoning wok, heat oil/ghee and add mustard. When it starts popping, add jeera, curry leaves, stir well and add it to the sambar.
7. Sprinkle some asafoetida and close with a lid.
8. If you are adding some garnish like curry leaves/coriander, add it at this point.

Notes:
1. Garnishing with coriander leaves gives an excellent flavor to Sambar.
2. Usually Cumin is not added as tempering, but I tried one day adding Cumin and it turned out to be good.
3. The procedure for all types of vegetable sambar (except Arbi/Shama Gadda/Sepa Kizhangu) is the same. So replace any vegetable of your choice and follow the same method.
4. Don't slow cook the red radish, because after a few minutes they start distributing the color and finally sambar will turn red!

Serve hot with rice, ghee and papad!

An Update: In my last post, I had mentioned about this little roadside joint near Naidu hall in Pondy Bazaar, Chennai. Where this joint is: Just a few metres away from Naidu hall on the opposite side of the road, you'll see a small lane. It will practically be invisible due to too many flowers shops and heavy traffic. Take this lane and towards the end you'll see "Brilliant Tutorials" (Ya, the same IIT training center). This Kaiyendhi bhavan sits right there. Hope you enjoy this place as much as I did.

Happy Cooking and happy blogging!