Vaztha Kuzhambu/Puli Kuzhambu

Vaztha Kuzhambu as the Tam Brahms call it or Puzhi Kuzhambu as my side of the family calls is a very easy to make and uses very few ingredients. In fact my mom would make it when she was almost out of vegetables and was left with one or two brinjals/drumstick/arbi etc.

There are so many different ways to make it. I prefer the one with lesser ingredients and the one without tomatoes, and coconut+ chana dal paste.

Coming to the Recipe:

Ingredients:
Your choice of vegetables- Few Bringal/Drumsticks/Arbi/Lady’s finger/Pearl onion/Capsicum/ Vazthals (dried vegetables like sundakai (Turkey berry) /mana thakalli (black nightshade)- How I wish I could these vazthals here- Sigh!!)
Garlic- 2-3 pods sliced vertically
Tamarind pulp – Soak lemon sized tamarind inn water and make a pulp out of it (or 2-3 teaspoons of readymade tamarind paste)
Sambar powder- 2 to 2.5 teaspoons (Adjust to taste)
Rice powder to thicken the gravy (Optional)
Salt


Temper With:
Sesame Oil ( This recipe calls for a little more oil than usual)
Fenugreek seeds- 1 teaspoon (Definitely use sesame oil and fenugreek seeds for the authentic taste)Few whole peppercorns
Urad Dal
Mustard seeds
Heeng
Red Chillies-2/3
Curry Leaves

For today’s recipe I used lady’s finger and pearl onions.



Add a teaspoon of oil and add cut lady’s finger and saute them till the stickiness is gone and it is almost cooked. Do this in a very low flame.

To a pan, add all the ingredients for tempering, and then add pearl onions and cooked lady’s finger. Saute them for a few minutes and add turmeric and sambar powder. Add the turmeric pulp and few cups of water. Puzhi kulambu is usually thick, so don’t make it too watery. Reduce the flame and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Adjust sambar powder/tanginess level. If needed, make a paste with a few teaspoons of rice powder and add it to the kulambu to thicken it. You will see a gleam of oil when done. Trust me, I am usually very conscious of the amount of oil I use. But there are certain dishes that you have to add the right amount of oil to get it right.



Enjoy it with hot rice.



P.S: For authentic Tam Brahm recipes, I find these videos really helpful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxuPyTU3ZOs
It is really touching to see Maama and Maami put in so much effort to make these videos for their son in Canada.