Traditional south Indian kuzhambu – A blend of black pepper corns with other spices and ingredients.
Pepper has lots of medicinal values, its helps us when we have cold and cough. It helps in getting rid of congestion, and also helps in digestion. Curry leaves is also rich in iron. So, this curry is very healthy and tasty. After all the festival snacks and sweets, wanted some healthy and comfort food from home. Easy pepper kuzhambu, traditional spicy and flavorful kuzhambu with just whole pepper corns. It is very good for cold and is comforting to have during winter days. This just took 20 minutes for me to make. It’s good to eat with rice or idli or dosa. I had a bad cold last week, and I got bored having pepper rasam or soup. So, that is when I wanted to try this after a long tiem as it had pepper. Really, it helped me a lot to treat me from cold. I felt lots better. You will feel itt when you start having two spoons. You would feel the nose blocked to release. Great? Right!?
It has a consistency of chutney but when u mix it with rice it taste perfect. Sometimes you get bored of the usual kuzhambu, rasam and sambhar, and then you need to try this! Freshly ground pepper will enhance the flavor the any dishes. My mom used to make this for me. Those days I do not love this much. But now when I made this, I really loved it. Even when it was all finished, I took some rice and added it to the pan, tossed it and had it! Beautiful!
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
- Small onions (shallots) – 10
- Tomato - ¼ cup (chopped)
- Garlic cloves - 5
- Asafetida (hing)_ - 2 pinches
- Turmeric powder – 1 /2 tsp
- Jaggery, powdered – ½ tsp
- Salt – to taste
- Sesame oil – 3 tbsp
- Tamarind – 1 small lemon size
To roast & Grind: - Black Whole Pepper Corns (milagu) – 1 tbsp
- Garlic cloves – 5
- Urad dal – 1 tsp
- Coriander seeds – 3 tsp
- Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
- Channa dal – 1tsp
- Whole dry red chillies – 4
- Curry leaves - 5
- Soak tamarind in 1 cup of water
- Heat a pan and add black pepper corn, dry red chillies, urad dal, coriander seeds, channa dal, cumin seeds and sauté over very low flame to a golden brown color.
- Turn off the stove and add curry leaves and mix well. Let it cool completely and transfer the contents to a blender jar and blend it smooth paste.
- Heat the same pan with the remaining oil. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter and add asafetida.
- Add onions, curry leaves, garlic and Keep sautéing them for two minutes. Then add tomato and turmeric powder and and saute for 2 minutes. Transfer the ground paste and salt. Sauté them for a minute and now add the tamarind water plus extra water, the gravy should be on thicker side, so don’t add more water. Allow to boil.
- Once it starts boiling and the raw small leaves, add powdered jaggery and mix well. Garnish with some chopped coriander and switch off the flame.
2. If you would want it more thicker version, let it boil for few more minutes.
Serve this with rice and papads, carrot stir fry
Or
With idli, dosai , paniyaram
