My 61st recipe, "Poondu Kuzhambu", a special South Indian Spicy gravy. In this age of fast foods, folks have completely forgotten the teachings of our knowledgeable ancestors. Our ancestors always advocated the theory of food as medicine. Don't look in disbelief. Whatever our ancestors have told us is true. Each and every food we eat has a specific medicinal quality. If taken in the right proportions, then we can always stay healthy and away from doctors.

This Poondu Kuzhambu, with an overdose of garlic, falls into such a category. If you have been suffering from aliments like indigestion and gastric disorders, then this is specially for you. There is no better medicine than garlic to cure such disorders. Also, the pepper and shallots are known to help you fight cold and flu. So it makes prefect sense to add this Poondu kuzhambu to your diet atleast once a month and keep yourself hale and hearty.

Poondu Kuzhambu

Poondu (Garlic) Gravy

Revathi Palani

Poondu Kuzhambu is an extremely healthy South Indian gravy made with a tamarind based broth and loaded with lots of garlic.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Total Time 45

Course Gravy

Cuisine Indian

Servings 6

Ingredients

Tamarind - Goose berry size
1 Tomato
15 Shallot
15 cloves Garlic
2 medium Potato (Optional)
5 Curry leaves
Coriander leaves - For garnishing
¼ tsp Turmeric
1 ½ Tbsp Sambar powder
¼ tsp Asafoetida
2 tsp Salt (adjust per taste)
1 tsp Jaggery / Sugar (optional)

To dry roast and grind

1 Tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tsp Chana dal
1 tsp Toor dal
¼ tsp Fenugreek seeds
1 ½ tsp Black pepper
2 Dry red Chilli
¼ tsp Jeera

To temper

4 Tbsp Sesame oil
¼ tsp Mustard
½ tsp Broken urad dal
¼ tsp Fenugreek seeds
½ tsp Jeera

Instructions

First, Soak the tamarind along with a tsp of salt in a cup of warm water for about 15 minutes. Extract the tamarind puree and make it to measure 3 Cups by adding water. Add the tomato to the tamarind extract and crush them with your hand nicely. Thereby the tomatoes get mixed well with the tamarind extract.
Heat a pan dry roast all the ingredients under "To Dry roast and grind". Make sure not to burn them. Let them cool for a minute and grind to a coarse powder and keep aside.
Now heat a kadai with oil, add the mustard and once it splutter add all the other ingredients under "To temper" in the given order. As soon as the jeera starts changing color, add the curry leaves, shallots, garlic and saute until the shallots changes to golden brown.
Now add the potatoes, give a quick stir, follow it by turmeric, sambar powder, asafoetida, salt and saute them in medium flame until the oil gets separated.
Now add the prepared tamarind tomato puree to the kadai and cook them in low-medium flame.
Once the potato is ¾ done, add the ground masala powder and stir well without any lumps. Keep cooking until the potatoes are fully done. By now the oil would get separated and float on top of the kuzhambu and also the raw smell of tamarind would be gone. Turn off the flame, add the jaggery and mix well to get dissolved in kuzhambu. Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with cooked rice topping off with ghee.

Notes | FAQ

- While dry roasting, you should roast the coriander seeds seperately, jeera separately and all other ingredients separately. This will prevent jeera and coriander seeds from getting burnt, as they get roasted sooner than others.

- Do adjust the dry red chilli and pepper quantity according to your spiciness level. My quantity will give you a spicy gravy.

- Adding potatoes is totally optional. You can omit it or even add brinjal and drumstick.

- Adding jaggery is optional, but will give a slight sweetness to the kuzhambu which will be extraordinary.

Submitted this recipe to Remmy's Kitchen First blog anniversary celebration and giveaway.