Hotel Sambar

Ingredients:

Toor dal (pressure cooked) - 1 cup

Tamarind water - 2 cups orTomato (puree) - 2

Purple shallots - about 6 to 10

Any vegetable. Here i have used brinjal/eggplant.

Curry leaves

Asafoetida

Corriander

For hotel sambar masala paste :

2 tsp chana dal

2 tsp whole coriander seeds

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp methi seeds

2 dried red chillies (or to taste)

3 tbsp freshly grated coconut

[Dry roast these and keep it aside.]

5 or 6 purple shallots

1 medium sized tomato

[add few drops of oil and roast these ingredients above and add them to gether into a mixer]

Preparation:

1. Mix the cooked toor dal with some salt, turmeric, sambar powder or chillie powder . You can either add fresh vegetable at this point or can stir fry it along with some other ingredients and add it later.

2. Now add the ground sambar masala paste to this. Bring it to a boil on medium flame. [Let the mixture boil gently for a while. It should not be too watery nor too thick.]

3.Heat the oil in a pan and season it with mustard seeds.Add shallots or regular onion and curry leaves and any vegetable; stir fry for two minutes.And add them to the sambar.

4. At this point you can add either tamarind water or tomato puree to the sambar for added flavour. But its purely optional. Also donot forget to add asafoetida . Let it simmer for a while & set it aside.

5. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve hot over plain rice, with any vegetable dish.

Pls follow the slides after reading the description above for easy understanding. Thanks.