Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

Some dishes transport you back to your childhood. One such dish is pruppu urundai kuzhambu. Mom used to make it on week ends for lunch. It is basically lentil balls cooked in tamarind sauce (sambhar without dal). My mom used to steam the lentil balls and add them to the kuzhambu. I found that the balls cooked this was becomes hard. I let the lentil balls cook in the stew. There are two variations of this dish. One is Tam bhram style with no onion and garlic. The other one is Chettinadu style with onion, garlic and fennel seeds. My mom prefers the former variations, so I had to make it that way.

Ingredients:
For lentil balls:
3/4 Cup channa dal
1/4 Cup toor dal
1 red chili
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch asafoetida
3-4 curry leaves
For Kuzhambu:
Lemon size tamarind soaked in 2 cups water and pulp extracted
2 Tablespoons sesame oil or any other
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon channa dal
1/4 teaspoon toor dal
1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
2 dried red chili
3-4 curry leaves
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
salt to taste
2 teaspoons sambhar powder

Method:
1. Soak lentils (dal) and chili in water for 30 minutes or until soft.

2. Drain the water from dal. Grind along with the remaining ingredients under lentil balls, except curry leaves to a coarse mixture. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add chopped curry leaves and mix.

3. Make small balls of the ground lentil mixture. Dust balls with rice flour by rolling them on it. Set aside.

4. Heat oil in  a 3 quart saucepan. Add mustard, channa, toor dal, fenugreek to oil. When mustard seeds pop and dal turn golden brown, add red chili, asafoetida. Add sambhar powder and roast for a minute.

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5. Dilute tamarind pulp with another cup of water. Gently pour into saucepan, stirring constantly. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt. Kuzhambu for this recipe should be thin in consistency, as it would thicken later when lentil balls are cooked.

6. Cook for a few minutes until the tamarind and sambhar powder smell dissipates. Add curry leaves.

7. Gently drop lentil balls one by one, without crowding the saucepan. The balls would go down to the pan. Do not worry, they will float back up when cooked.

8. Leave the balls untouched for a few minutes, so they would not break. Some of them might disintegrate to the kuzhambu, that is alright.

9. After a few minutes, gently turn the lentil balls over. Cook for few more minutes. You can check if the balls are cooked. Just take one in a ladle, break open. You can see if the insides are cooked, the color would have changed.

10. Once the balls are cooked, they would float to the top. Add more water if the sauce is too thick or too sour. Check for salt and add if required. Cook for a few more minutes.

11. Remove from stove. Serve hot with rice and ghee.