THAKKALI KULAMBU/ THAKKALI KUZHAMBU RECIPE

              Thakkali kulambu/ thakkali kuzhambu – I drool even when I say that. I like this a lot but never got chance or had a recipe to try. When I was going through the recipe book mom gave me, this suddenly fell in my eyes. I have scanned this book several times with my eyes for recipes to try, but somehow this recipe has been ignored by me. So at last I tried this and loved it to the core. I had this two times with hot rice the day I made it. Its so yummy and rich with coconut milk in it. Usually the tomato kuzhambu recipe will be with ground coconut and fennel, this one was totally different. And I am sure I would make this often here after. I just followed the recipe as such in the book as I was making it for the first time.

 

Ingredients (serves 3)

Tomato	4
Small onion(shallots)	12 -14
Green Chillies	10
Sambar powder	2 & 1/2 tsp
Coconut	from 1/2 of a coconut
Salt	as needed

 

To temper

Oil	2-3 tblsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Curry leaves	A sprig

Method

Boil enough water in a vessel and add the tomatoes to keep immersed for 20 seconds to half a minute. Take it out and you should be able to peel off the skin like just we do for potatoes. Grate coconut and grind it with 1/4 cup water and strain/ squeeze to get first milk using a broad metal strainer. Again add 1/4 cup luke warm water to the coconut remain and grind again to extract second milk. Keep both extracted milk separately. Mash the peeled tomatoes well with your hands. Peel the shallots and slice them lengthwise. Heat a kadai/pan with oil and splutter mustard. Add curry leaves,green chillies and onion. Fry until golden spot appears over the onion. Add the second extracted thin coconut milk, 1 & 1/4 cup water, the mashed tomatoes, sambar powder. Boil for 5-6 minutes in medium flame or until desired thick consistency is reached. Lastly add the first extracted coconut milk,salt and boil until oil separates and floats on top.

                   
                      Thakkali kuzhambu ready! Who wants tangy, yummy thakkali kuzhambu ?

Notes

Use red ripe and tangy tomatoes for best results. (Naatu thakkali) If you feel the tomato is less in tanginess, you can add a tblsp of thick tamarind extract in this. Dont think 10 chillies are too much for this, it will be needed to balance the tanginess. You can replace sambar powder with 1 tsp red chilli powder and 1 & 1/2 tsp of dhaniya powder. If you want it on more spicier side, add more chilli or chilli powder.

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