Avare Hidikbele Sambar

I had mentioned about the Avare Hidikbele Sambar in my post on avare akki roti. This is a recipe I have made from what I tasted at my Kanadiga friends homes. Each one some how always made this dish for us when we visited them since its a speciality here in Blr till I could even predict the menu koshimbari, payasam, rice with tomato rasam, this sambar and curd rice.

The name Avare Hidikbele Sambar comes from the fact that the avare kaalu/seeds are soaked in hot water overnight and then deskinned in the morning.

Here is my variation:

Ingredients
1/2 fresh avarekai seeds
2 onions chopped
1/2 cup grated dry coconut
lime sized ball of tamarind
2 inch piece of jaggery
2 green chillies
1 teaspoon Sambar masala powder
4 cups water
salt to taste
2 teaspoons oil
handful chopped cilantro

Firstly soak the fresh avarekai seeds in water enought to cover it overnight. In the morning when the skins have loosened deskin the seeds by pinching them off. Remember good things don't taste good without the slogging. How food can get even lazy bums to work! The peeled dal is called Hidikbele.



Now to prepare the masala. Begin by heating the oil and frying the onions till translucent. Add the grated dry coconut and fry a bit. Now in go the chillies and sambar powder. Leave it to cool.

Meanwhile soak the tamarind and jaggery in boiling hot water and let it stand. We will come back later to extract the pulp once the masala is ground.

Put all the fried masala that has cooled by now and salt into a mixer and grind to a paste.

Then in a pressure cooker mix the masala with the peeled avare dal add all the water till covered well. Cook for 3 whistles or about 20 mins.

While the cooker is working extract the tamarind pulp and keep ready.

Open the cooker add the tamarind and jaggery pulp mix lightly so as not to crush the dal. Boil just once to blend it well top up with chopped cilantro. The Avare Hidikbele Sambar is ready to eat. This sambar can be enjoyed with the untraditional combination of a soft fresh homemade bread as you see in the picture like I did or lacy appams.

The bread you see is the Mumbai pao I had made. I had forgotten to add salt in the dough but since I ate it with this sambar it just absorbed the gravy and tasted superb.