This recipe was shared by my UnderGrad classmate Ruby Kala. Her mommy sends this food in her lunch box. We had 10 minutes break for Lunch during that time. So its like we all hog our mini munch and head back to class. We hardly had time to even visit canteen! So…I never got a chance to as her the recipe. Since she said…its Milagu Kuzhambu, it was very catchy. So I prepared my own style of Kuzhambu today and tossed some hand pounded Fresh peppercorns. Hope this is how they prepared it too!

Ingredients:

Whole Black Peppercorns 1 fistful
Cricket ball size tamarind or 1 spoon of thick tamarind paste
Red onion 1 large finely chopped
Garlic 1 large peeled and semi crushed
Tomato 1 large chopped
Jaggery or brown sugar 1 spoon
Salt
Turmeric powder 1/2 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Rice powder 1 spoon
Sesame oil 1 cup
Mustard seeds 1 spoon
Cumin seeds 1 spoon
Fenugreek seeds 1/2 spoon
Chana dal 1/2 spoon
Urad dal 1/2 spoon
Asafoetida 1/2 spoon
Dry red chilies 3-5
Curry leaves

Method:

1. Hand pound the pepper coursely. Set aside. If you don’t have mortar and pestle….grate pepper in a blender. Set aside.

2. In a deep pan, heat few spoons of oil. Add garlic, fry till its raw smell goes off. Further add onions, fry till they turn to golden brown color. Now add tomatoes, fry them till they loose their water content.

3. Add salt, turmeric, chili powder, jaggery and rice powder. Let it blend together.

4. Later add tamarind paste and 2 cups of water. Cover and cook over medium flame.

5. Once the gravy consolidates…add pounded pepper to it. Allow it to boil once.

6. In a separate pan, heat oil. Add mustard, cumin, asafoetida, fenugreek, chana dal, urad dal, dry red chilies and curry leaves. Let them pop and splutter well. Run this seasoning over the gravy.

Serve this with plain steamed rice. Run a spoon full of ghee over it…..just before serving.