In a kadai put one teaspoon oil and fry the Karamani till it turns light brown. Put it in a pressure cooker and add 2 cups of water and pressure cook for three whistles. Cool it and drain the excess water.
Squeeze out the tamarind and extract the juice. Add more water and again take out the remaining juice. The tamarind juice should be of 3 cups. Add sambar powder and turmeric powder to the tamarind juice. Add cooked karamani also. Mix well and bring to boil.
Grind the coconut to a fine paste. Add to the boiling kuzhambu. Stir well. Allow to boil in a low flame for few more minutes. Season it with mustard, curry leaves and chopped onion.
Note: You can also make the above Kuzhambu using Mochai kottai or Whole gram (Kondai kadalai) instead of Karamani.
It is a honour for me to have my site as homepage. Thank you. Yes. I used to prepare Kuzhambu vadam for seasoning. However, since it takes lot of time and continuous drying in the sun etc., I am buying it from shops which are equally good. Anyway, I will give the recipe separately.
do we get kuzhambu vadaam in shops now? amazing. yeah, would love to know your version of the same recipe. We use soaked karamani,ulundhu, kaanja molagaai and perungaayam make small irregular balls and sun dry them. I even made it here in the microwave. came out well. Please post ur style.
Sambar Onion – One kg Garlic – 2 whole Mustard seeds – 1 cup Fenugreek seeds – ½ cup Black gram dhal – 1 and half cup Jeeragam – 1 cup Turmeric Powder – 2 teaspoons Crystal salt (Kal Uppu) – a handful Castor oil – 1 to 1-1/2 cup
Method:
Peel and chop the onions and garlic finely. Put it in a morter (Ural) and pound it just to crush them.
Soak half cup Black Gram dhal (Urad dhal) and two teaspoon fenugreek seeds in water for about one hour and grind it to a coarse paste. (This acts as a binding agent).
Put this paste In a big bowl and add all the ingredients (except caster oil) together with the pound onions and garlic. Mix thoroughly and make it into small lemon sized balls. Put it in a tray and dry them under the hot sun, one whole day.
In the evening, break the balls, add half of the castor oil, mix well and shape them into balls once again.
Next day morning, place them on the tray and dry it again in the hot sun for the whole day.
Repeat the above procedure with the other half portion of the castor oil.
These balls must be dried under the hot sun for 4 or 5 days or until they are well dried.
PS: Some people, who do not take onion or garlic, add grated ash gourd to the above mixture instead of onion and garlic.
Thuvar dhal and bengal gram dhal also added to this.
omg! this is a very new style of making kuzhambu vadams. We seldom take onion garlic in our food. Hence I think i'd go for the ashgourd method suggested by you. It is a detailed recipe. You must post it seperately for the benefit of the others. Thank you very much for sharing it quickly with me. Ananya
Yes. You can soak it overnight and pressure cook. However, if you want to make this kuzhambu immediately, we can fry the gram and cook it. If you fry the gram (whether you soak it after frying or cook it immediately), it will be more tasty.
I liked this version of khuzhambu as it did not involve garlic and i would like to add few additives to this. As the karamani, tamarind extract, turmeric powder are boiling, a paste made of coconut ,curry leaves, sambar powder, fried gram, ginger, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, asfoetida, added to the karamani brings out nice flavour.
wondering if you are familiar with Kuzhambu vadaam which we use in this sambar. Your site is my homepage now.
Hi Ananya Mahadevan,
It is a honour for me to have my site as homepage. Thank you. Yes. I used to prepare Kuzhambu vadam for seasoning. However, since it takes lot of time and continuous drying in the sun etc., I am buying it from shops which are equally good. Anyway, I will give the recipe separately.
do we get kuzhambu vadaam in shops now? amazing. yeah, would love to know your version of the same recipe. We use soaked karamani,ulundhu, kaanja molagaai and perungaayam make small irregular balls and sun dry them. I even made it here in the microwave. came out well. Please post ur style.
Hi Ananya,
I used to prepare Vadagam as follows:
Ingredients:
Sambar Onion – One kg
Garlic – 2 whole
Mustard seeds – 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds – ½ cup
Black gram dhal – 1 and half cup
Jeeragam – 1 cup
Turmeric Powder – 2 teaspoons
Crystal salt (Kal Uppu) – a handful
Castor oil – 1 to 1-1/2 cup
Method:
Peel and chop the onions and garlic finely. Put it in a morter (Ural) and pound it just to crush them.
Soak half cup Black Gram dhal (Urad dhal) and two teaspoon fenugreek seeds in water for about one hour and grind it to a coarse paste. (This acts as a binding agent).
Put this paste In a big bowl and add all the ingredients (except caster oil) together with the pound onions and garlic. Mix thoroughly and make it into small lemon sized balls. Put it in a tray and dry them under the hot sun, one whole day.
In the evening, break the balls, add half of the castor oil, mix well and shape them into balls once again.
Next day morning, place them on the tray and dry it again in the hot sun for the whole day.
Repeat the above procedure with the other half portion of the castor oil.
These balls must be dried under the hot sun for 4 or 5 days or until they are well dried.
PS: Some people, who do not take onion or garlic, add grated ash gourd to the above mixture instead of onion and garlic.
Thuvar dhal and bengal gram dhal also added to this.
omg!
this is a very new style of making kuzhambu vadams. We seldom take onion garlic in our food. Hence I think i'd go for the ashgourd method suggested by you. It is a detailed recipe. You must post it seperately for the benefit of the others. Thank you very much for sharing it quickly with me.
Ananya
Hi kamala,
A quick question, is it ok if I soak karamani overnight and pressure cook for the recipe ? Thanks
Arthy
Hi Arthy,
Yes. You can soak it overnight and pressure cook. However, if you want to make this kuzhambu immediately, we can fry the gram and cook it. If you fry the gram (whether you soak it after frying or cook it immediately), it will be more tasty.
Hi kamala! You have a wonderful site with many easy recipes….congrats!
i tried ur karamani kuzhambu and came out really well…….thank u 🙂
Latha Dinesh,
Nice to hear that this kuzhambu came out well. Thank you for your kind feedback.
I liked this version of khuzhambu as it did not involve garlic and i would like to add few additives to this. As the karamani, tamarind extract, turmeric powder are boiling, a paste made of coconut ,curry leaves, sambar powder, fried gram, ginger, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, asfoetida, added to the karamani brings out nice flavour.
Plz. try this. I hope you will like it.
I like your recipes very much.
Thank you very much for sharing your version of this kuzhambu. Definitely, I will try and post the recipe too.