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Sunday, June 8, 2008

Poondu Vengaya kuzhambu Or Karakuzhambu Or Vathal Kuzhambu(Onion Garlic Gravy)


I know when we hear the name karakuzhambu itself it will be very tempting for many. All at my home are also no exception. In chettinad it is called as Vellaipoondu Vengaya kuzhambu. This for sure will be made at least once in 10 days in all homes. I for sure will make this once a week. It will go excellent with idly also. For packed lunch also it will be lovely. Though the recipe seems to be simple the taste of the gravy depends on the patience with which you cook. But by experience one will learn to make a good kuzhambu.
Ingredients
Garlic-20 to 30 pods
Pearl onion (small onion)-20
Tomato-1
Curry leaves-little
Coriander powder-2 teaspoon
Sambar powder (kuzhambu milagai thool)-2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder-1/2 teaspoon
Tamarind-gooseberry size
Gingelly oil-1 table spoon
For seasoning
Mustard seed-1 teaspoon
Fennel seed-1 teaspoon
Fenugreek seed-1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaf-little
Procedure
Soak the tamarind with the salt needed in three cups of water. Add the coriander powder,sambar powder and turmeric powder to this water itself. Cut the onions and garlic into length wise pieces. If the garlic is not very big, no need to cut it. Cut the tomatoes also into small pieces. Many don’t use tomatoes for this kuzhambu. To reduce the use of tamarind, I use tomatoes. Keep the kadai in the stove. Season the gravy with the items given in ‘to season’ in one to 1 ½ table spoon of gingerly oil or cooking oil. Add the onions, garlic and tomatoes and sauté nicely. Now add the tamarind dissolved water .Wait for the gravy to boil nicely for 3 minutes. Now reduce the flame to minimum and allow the gravy to cook till it becomes thick. I usually wait till the oil separates. For the new ones they can switch off the stove when it becomes 1/3 rd in quantity. In between you can check for the taste and add chili powder or salt if needed. (While sautéing if you add some vathal like sundakkai or manathakkali this kuzhambu can be called vathal kuzhambu)

25 comments:

FH said...

Looks yummy Solai, I made it once from other blog, loved it!:))

Cham said...

Love this Poondu vengaya kozhambu a lot :) Make the same way, i wonder how my family got this chettinadu touch!

Suganya said...

Hi...
This is my fav. Loved ur recipe. Wanted to try this. YUM!... Great pics....

Illatharasi said...

சூப்பர்!!! பார்த்தவுடனே பசிக்கிது;)

kamala said...

All your dishes are authentic..I too make the same way.

Revathi said...

aachi - just looking at the vathakozhambu vaaai ooorrruudhu. i love this kozhambu with urulai puttu. super recipe aachi !

kanchana said...

hi solai i am great fan of chettinadu recipes so please continue ur work without break. Poondu kuzhambu is great.

Solai Chidambaram said...

Thank you Cham,Revathi and Illatharasi for your continous encouragements.Thank you sukanya,asha,Kamala and kanchana for your comments on my blog.Just because of this happened to see the blogs of asha and sukanya.wonderful.

Kalai said...

Beautiful kuzhambu, Solai! We make it very similarly, too. :)

Poornima said...

lovely recipe.I tried it out yesterday.thanks so much

Unknown said...

Hello aachi, Thank u for your wonderful site. My mom is away and i needed help esp with the karakuzhambu it came out amazing... You r truly a wonderful person to share it with everyone. Thanks again!

Unknown said...

Hi Solai, I was looking for this Chettinad Poondu Kuzhambu everywhere on the net and found this one. It's sooooo delicious that my husband and myself emptied the whole pot in one shot. Oh wow what a lunch we had today!! He likes spicy food and I love Chettinad recipes. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe and this is definitely a great treat for our taste buds, especially when we can't find an authentic Indian restaurant here in the US.

Unknown said...

Hello Aachi, I tired the kolambu recently. I am 9 months pregnant now and liked the tamarind and garlic taste so much. My husband totally fell in love with it, he licked the plate clean!! He wants me to make the same kolambu next time and add fish peices at the end, I am sure that will make a yummy meen kolambu too!! Thanks for the recipe...

Karu said...

here is my version solai; this is also great. liked your recipe - will try sometime.

poondu puli kozhambu
* red chillies, black pepper, dhania, jeera, toor dal, rice
* toast, grind, fry poondu, add water, add taramarind, add powder, boil!

Minti said...

Hello Solai,

I made this yesterday - and the gravy was very good! Somehow I didn't love the whole garlic as much as I thought I would. But it was still a lot of fun to try it out.

Your collection of recipes is tantalizing. I plan to try out as many as I can. Next up is the veggie pirattal recipe.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Bored of my usual cooking, I was randomly looking for recipe s of a different cooking style and I chanced upon your wonderful blog. I just tried out this kozhambu and your kootu curry recipe and it was simply divine! I am a huge fan of your culture and cusine and feel lucky that I can try my hand at chettinad dishes thanks to your simple and well explained recipes. I was so much reminded of a friends mom who made many of these dishes for me...but that was a long time ago! Thank you for bringing back some of my lifes most cherished memories with your recipes!

Unknown said...

Hi Aunty

I am new to cooking, just surfing the internet and managing to cook food for my hubby. All your receipes are clearly explained. I did muttai kuzhambu yesterday, the dish came out very well. My husband was very happy tasting the food. Thanks for the detailed procedure. I am gonna try pundu kozhambu tomorrow. Please keep updating your blog with new dishes. Thanks once again.

Unknown said...

Aunty,

I have tried out most of ur recipes. I tried Poondu kulambu today and it turned awesome..thanks aunty...Continue this great job..

Nala Maharaja said...

Dear achi, my mom used to add vadagam(made of small onion and some dhal, perungayam) fried to pulikulambu in older days. Now she completely forgot how to make that vadagam. Do you have any idea

Solai Chidambaram said...

In chettinad cookery we dont use vadagam for seasoning which is done by many other tamilians.So no idea.But in tamilnadu we get it in shops and I rarely use that.It will give nice flavour to pulikuzhambu.

Raji said...

Hi,

I am a regular follower of your site for all chettinad Veggie goodies. They are all so good. I love Chettinad Kara Kuzhambu. Can you please post the recipe for this.

Latha said...

Latha: I tried this dish. It came out very well. Thank you.

Skl said...

hello aunty,
we tried this recipe,came out excellent,so tasty,went very well with edli,we finished everything just over a meal,so so so delicious,thanks a ton,skl

Smitha said...

Very very yum got a lot of compliments from hubby....thanks for this recipe