Name: Shallot Sambhar
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon turmeric; 2 tablespoons raw sesame oil or vegetable oil; 2 tablespoons Sambhar Powder (or store-bought); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 heaping tablespoon tamarind pulp; 10 to 12 fresh or frozen curry leaves; 1 cup hot water; ½ pound small Asian shallots, trimmed and left whole (see headnote); Generous 1 cup finely diced tomatoes; ½ cup coriander leaves; 1 cup toovar dal, washed and picked over; 3 to 4 green cayenne chiles, finely chopped; 6 cups water

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mangoes & Curry Leaves

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Published 2005

About

Unlike Sambhar with Drumsticks, this sambhar is flavored in the more usual way, with a sambhar powder that’s added toward the end of the cooking period, just as garam masala may be added to a northern dal, such as Udaipur Urad Dal. This particular dish is a very typical Tamil sambhar, recognizable to anyone who has traveled through southern India. It smells great when it’s cooking, and the taste trans