Recipe 1 - Sambar

Sambar is the favorite dish of Tamil Nadu. It is a liquidy dish that can be rightly and rightfully called the staple food of the state. It is served in restaurants in this southern state of India regardless of what you order. Even with coffee!! Believe me!

Good sambar is a pleasure to drink/eat with anything. Here's my recipe:

1. Cook toor dal (kandi pappu, lentils) until soft and keep it aside.
2. Microwave tamarind in water for one minute. Gently squeeze the soft tamarind to make tamarind juice.
3. Mix the above made tamarind juice with water and chopped vegetables (carrots, onions, beans, tomatoes, radish, etc. to one's liking) and boil to cook.
4. Add salt to taste + turmeric + green chillies, and cook on low-medium flame.
5. Add cooked dal and stir. Softening the dal before hand will give good consistency.
6. Add grated coconut.
7. Add sambar powder to the boiling solution, and add tadka - mustard, jeera, hing (popu - aavalu, inguva, jeelakarra) to the boil.
8. Top the broth with curry leaves, and coriander for good measure.

!!READY TO EAT OR GULP!! GLUG GLUG..

Notes from my experiences: Sambar is best when the vegetables are cooked properly. To reduce cooking time, vegetables can be pressure-cooked initially. Of course dal can be cooked this way too. Using excess dal will cause the sambar to be too thick and water to float up.

Cooking is fun...

Starting every first post with the title as 'Introduction' is kind of boring. Especially when everybody knows it is the first post. It ought to be an introduction!

I love to cook and this blog site is meant to share some personal experiences and recipes with 'the others'.

Strictly vegetarian please.. because I will not be able to relate to other stuff.

There is one more thing I need to mention. My first teacher was my sister when I initially came to US. So, a lot of credit to her. And credit also goes to my mom for her recipes and to other friends who have given me a new recipe to cook.

-Raghu
(a.k.a. laddu in some circles)