Education Recipe For Better Life: Sambar Sadam / Restaurant Style South Indian Mini Meals

For the final day blogging marathon#61 themed under meals dishes is sambar sadam.This post with step wise picture were lying in my drafts since 3 years,could not find the main pictures in my drive.
Also I wanted to share the restaurant style mini meals and finally made it.
I am a great fan of this mini meals available in most of the South Indian Vegetarian restaurant chains.
The menu is with tomato rice,sambar rice,curd rice,fryums,raita,potato fry,pickle and kesari.
This version of sambar rice is slightly different from bisebelabath and uses sambar powder also some freshly ground spice powder.

Sambar Sadam/Sambar Rice

Basic Information

Preparation time 20 minutes
Cooking time 30 -40 minutes

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Raw rice/pacharisi	1/2 cup
Toor dhal/thuvaram paruppu	1/2 cup
Shallots/chinna vengayam	10
Onion(chopped)	1(medium size)
Tomato(chopped)	1(large size)
Carrot(cubed)	1/2 cup
Beans(chopped into 1 inch)	3/4 cup
Small round eggplant/kathirikkai(cubed)	3/4 cup
Chayote/chowchow(cubed)	1 cup
Drumstick/murungaikkai(1 inch piece)	10-12
Sambar powder	1.5 tbs
Turmeric powder/manjal podi	1/2 tsp
Tamarind/puli	a big gooseberry size
Curry leaves/karivepillai	few leaves
Coriander leaves(chopped)	1-2 tbs
Cashews/mundiri	2 tbs(optional)
Oil	2 tbs
Ghee/nei	1 tbs
Mustard seeds/kadugu	1 tsp
Urad dhal/uluthamparuppu	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds/jeergam	1/2 tsp
Asafoetida/perungayam	a pinch
Dried red chilly/varamilagai	1-2 (broken)

To roast and grind

Ingredient	Quantity
Dried red chilly/varamilagi	3-4
Whole coriander seeds/dhaniya	11/2 tbs
Channa dhal/kadala paruppu	2 tsp
Desiccated coconut	11/2 tbs

Method

Pressure cook the rice and dhal separately in a pressure cooker 3-4 whistles in a medium flame.Soak the tamarind in a cup of water and extract the juice and keep it aside .
Heat few drops of oil in a pan and add the red chilly,coriander seeds and channa dhal.Fry it for couple of minutes then add desiccated coconut.Fry it till the coconut turned golden brown.Put off the flame and powder it once it becomes cool down,set it aside.

Heat a pan with 2 tsp of oil and saute the shallots and chopped onion,till translucent,then add in the chopped tomato and cook it for couple of minutes.Now add in all the chopped veggies and mix it well.Saute it for 2-3 minutes.

Now add in the sambar powder,turmeric powder,salt and give it a mix.To this add the cooked dhal along with 2-3 cups of water.Let it cook till the veggies become tender.

Once the veggies turned tender and raw smell goes off add in the tamarind water and let it cook for one boil.At this stage add in the ground spice powder and let it simmer it for 2-3 minutes.Now take a cup of sambar and keep it aside for later use if the rice become thick after cooling.

Now add the cooked rice to the sambar and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.Stir it in between to avoid sticking in the bottom.Meanwhile in a separate pan heat the remaining oil and ghee,crackle the mustard seeds,urad dhla,cumin seeds.Add in the broken red chilly and asafoetida.Fry the cashews,and curry leaves.Add it to the rice mixture and mix it gently and put off the flame.

Serve it hot with potato fry and pappad

After cooling the rice may get thicken,so add the reserved sambar and mix it well.
Here I used both shallots and onion,it can be made with shallots or onions.
When the rice is hot it may be watery but after cooling it would thicken.
Here I used the frozen drumstick,that why I cooked it separately in the MW and add it when the sambar was boiling.
Ghee is so important to give a nice taste so don't skip it.