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Vatha Kuzhambu

Vatha Kuzhambu

Traditional and a staple recipe of South India. A tamarind based gravy. Super spicy and tangy.  Served as a main course with rice.

Course Main Dish
Cuisine Indian, Tamil Nadu
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 3 persons
Author Nisha

Ingredients

  • Gooseberry sized Tamarind soaked in a cup of water (1)
  • 3-4 cups of Water
  • 3 tablespoon sesame Oil
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 2-3 dry red chillies
  • ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
  • Few Curry leaves
  • ½ cup chopped Onions  2
  • 2 tablespoon heaped Sambhar Powder
  • ½ tablespoon rice flour
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Soak the tamarind in warm water for about 10 minutes. (3) Extract the juice from the pulp by adding about 3 cups of water.
  2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter add red chillies, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.
  3. Add the onions (or veggies) and sambhar powder. Sauté them for a couple of minutes. Make sure not to burn the sambhar powder.

  4. Then add the extracted tamarind concentrate,  and allow it to boil for about 15-20 minutes; until the raw smell of the tamarind is gone.

  5. The tamarind concentrate would have reduced almost to half the quantity. Add ½ tablespoon of Rice flour (4)  and another cup of water and boil it for another 2-3 minutes and turn off the flame.

Recipe Notes

  1. Measuring the exact amount of tamarind is intricate. It depends on the quality of the tamarind. This has a significant effect on the taste of the final dish. Aged tamarind like wine, tastes better. It is less acidic (sour) and its slightly sweet making it a good choice for the dishes. Sometimes you can differentiate the old one and the new one by colour, the older one being darker. Yet most of the time you can get the exact amount by trial and error. When you buy tamarind pulp, buy it in bulk so that you know how much to use. This would avoid the confusion of getting the measurement right every time you get a new pack of tamarind pulp.
  2. Vengaya Vatha kuzhambu is more common in the Indian household. Wow! the very name of it makes me drool. :) But also you can use veggies like ladies finger, yellow pumpkin and drumsticks. Sometimes sundakkai vathal (dried turkey berry), manathakali vathal (black nightshade or wonder berry) is also used. Fried papad can also be used.
  3. Soaking the tamarind pulp in warm water loosens the pulp and helps in extracting the juice easily. Extract a thick concentrate. This helps to cook and lose the raw flavour of tamarind faster. You can add water in the end and dilute the gravy if it is too thick.
  4. Rice flour is added to thicken the gravy.
  5. If you feel the gravy is very tangy, you can add kari powder or chilli powder. 
  6. Add a little jaggery if the gravy is too spicy. 
  7. Do not skip sesame oil. That's what gives this dish an added taste.