Milagu Kuzhambu (Subbus Kitchen)

I can't think of any other kuzhambu other than Milagu kuzhmbu during the raining day!. Its a spicy-tangy one. White rice with a tea spoon of ghee / Gingelly oil, Paruppu thugayal, jeera rasam and a fried appalam is a perfect meal on the winter days. I usually make it in thick consistency, so that i can store it in fridge and use upto 2 weeks. Its a perfect dish for the travel too.

Milagu Kuzhambu
Preparation time 10 mins
Cooking Time 25 mins
Servings 4-6
Ingredients :

Tamarind 1 big lemon size
Jaggery 1 teaspoon
Salt for taste
Cooking Oil 1 tablespoon

For Grinding :

Red chilli 6
Black peppercorns 1 1/2 teaspoon
Channa dhal 2 teaspoon
Urud dhal 2 teaspoon
Coriander Seeds 2 teaspoon
Hing A pinch
Curry Leaves 10-15 leaves
For Seasoning :

Cooking Oil 1 tablespoon
Mustard Seeds 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves few
Hing a pinch
Method

Soak Tamarind in one cup of water and extract the juice and set aside.

Heat the pan and add 1/2 teaspoon of oil and fry the red chillis first. When the colour of the red chilli changed to light brown, add peppercorns, urud dal, channa dal, coriander seeds and hing and fry on medium heat. Add the curry leaves at the final stage and fry once and take them into a mixer.

Add little water (may be 1/2 cup first) and grind it to a fine paste. If required add more water while grinding. But make sure that you don't add too much water and make the ground paste too watery. Heat the pan and add 1 table spoon of Oil. Once the oil get heat, add the mustard seeds. On sputtering add the curry leaves & a pinch of hing.

Add the Tamarind extract juice along with salt and allow it to boil for 5 minutes to so that the raw smell of the tamarind goes off. Then ground paste and stir well and keep the flame low and allow the kuzhambu to boil in low flame for atleast 10 minutes.

When the kuzhambu comes to a thick consistency, remove from flame. I would prefer to have it as thick, as i can store it in fridge and consume upto 2 weeks.

Serve this with white rice and a spoon of Gingelly oil with Appalam.

Milagu Kuzhambu

Note: To make milagu kuzhambu travel friendly as a paste, add the tamarind to the grinding ingredients and grind it to a thick paste by adding 1 cup of water. Then cook the tamarind-spice paste in low flame and allow the quantity to further reduce to half of its quantity. This simple way, makes the kuzhambu a thick paste and hence it has a long shelf life.