DRIED TURKEYBERRY KUZHAMBU / VATHA KUZHAMBU

Hello Everyone,
This is my first recipe So little excited about uploading my first recipe.
After scratching my head for long time thinking of which recipe to upload first !! finally in peak of confusion I just decided whatever Iam cooking for lunch I will upload that recipe,And that Iam ended up with Vathakuzambu today.
This recipe was said to be Iyengars traditional recipe but Iam not sure as I have not tasted it earlier but anyhow the taste is good and we all liked it so I convinced myself that this must be traditional recipe.

Lets go to recipe.

Ingredients :

Turkeyberry / Sundakai             - 1/2 cup ( appx 25 pcs or just a half hand).
Tamarind                                    -  small gooseberry size.
Jaggery                                       -  a toffee size.
Salt                                             -  as required
Turmeric powder                        -  1/2 tsp.
Gingelly oil                                 -   3 tsp.
Mustard                                       -   1/2 tsp
Urad dal                                       -   1 tsp
Channa dal / kadala parupu         -  1 tsp.
Curry leaves                                 - a sprig.
Pearl onions / chinna vengayam  - 10
Asafoetida                                    -  1/4 tsp.
Chilli powder                               -  1 tsp

To be dry roasted and powdered :

Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam                -  1 tsp
Dry red chillies                                     -  2 (According to your spice requirement)
Pepper                                                   -  1/2 tsp
Rice or Rice powder                              -   1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds or coriander powder    -  1 tsp
Toor dal / Thuvaram parupu                  -   1 tsp
Urad dal                                                 -    1 tsp

NEED CLARIFICATION ABOUT MY MEASUREMENTS? PLS CLICK TO CLARIFY.

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Method :
1) In a dry pan dry roast the roasting ingredients one by one separately and empty it in a plate to cool.First grind fenugreek separately and keep it aside.


Above is our  roasting ingredients. As I added rice powder and Coriander powder instead of seeds so I added it separately.

2) Then grind rest of the roasted stuffs to fine powder.
3) Soak tamarind in hot water for 10 mins and take the juice separately.
4) In a pan add gingelly oil ,when oil gets heated add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters.
5) Add the turkeyberries and fry till the nice aroma comes from it.The berries must be fried well  to remove the bitter taste of it.Then  add fenugreek powder which we ground separately.

6) Now add onions and throw the curry leaves to the pan and sauté till done,then comes our guests channa dal and urad dal ,sauté till everything gets fried.

7) Then add tamarind water + turmeric powder + jaggery + salt and leave it to boil till the raw smell   of tamarind leaves.

8) Now add grounded masala and  cup of water and boil till you reach required consistency.

9) This is the final step in a small pan add 1 tsp of gingelly oil and when the oil gets hot switch off    the stove and add a tsp of chill powder.The chilli powder gets fried in that heat itself ,if you add it with the stove on then it will burn the chilli powder and will change the taste so take care not to burn the chilli powder.
10) Fry the chilli powder and pour it along with the oil to the boiled gravy.

That's all!!! Done..serve the gravy with pappads or potato fry.We had it with vadagam.

Adding fried chilli powder gives a nice lovely colour isn't it!!!

NOTES :
1) The last step looks like unwanted but don't skip it bcoz it will give nice aroma ,appetizing   colour and also a good taste to kuzhambu.
2) If you want the gravy to be more thick then you can add 2 tsp of grounded coconut finally at 9th step and boil once.but surely it will change the actual taste but it will also gives good taste only.   Actual recipe doesn't have coconut so it is purely optional.

Try it and let me know how it turns to you!!!Happy cooking.