Even the thought of going to Indian restaurant here hits my nerve very badly. The first thing, they won’t serve enough with the main course for each and every side they will charge money. But in India going to some of the restaurants is pure joy, and you get tasty food which a family can enjoy in a budget. There also you have to watch out for bad restaurant. I tried this Kara kuzhambu for Sunday lunch.
Last week, I got a new Facebook friend who told she likes my blog and love to see some additional recipes. She wanted a Saravana Bhavan hotel style Kara Kuzhambu, so in order to come up with a recipe for this dish, I wanted to try this Kara kuzhambu for Sunday lunch.
I searched the internet with help of Google; as usual it has lot recipes. However I found that in the all recipes one thing is common and that involves adding coconut and fennel seeds. I love coconut based curries. But most of the recipes that I found used only 2 teaspoon –tablespoon of coconut. I think my taste bud won’t agree to that quantity, we Keralites, love to add more coconut. Amma would start with one fresh coconut and would use ¾th of it to make a curry and rest she makes stirfry.
I trust Mullai’s Spiceindiaonline as my go to blog for trying all these kinds of curries. Her recipe is almost perfect recipe; only thing sometime I reduce is the spice amount as kids can’t eat if it is too spicy. This one too I reduced little heat. This is uniqueness of this recipe is that first we need to fry the veggies with green chili and garlic and seasoned with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Then it is spiced up with spices and then cooked once again with tamarind pulp and salt. When it is finally done add ground coconut paste with fennel and finally simmer it for few more minutes.
It is delicious and goes well with rice or any dosa (crepe or pancake). Beauty of this dish is that you can use any vegetables of your choice and also you can adjust the amount of coconut. If you are lover like mine add what I add, or if you are okay coconut lover then add less.
Here comes the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 potato chopped into cubes
- 1 carrot chopped into cubes
- 1 cucumber chopped into cubes
- ¼ onion Chopped into cubes
- ¼th of capsicum chopped into cubes
- 1 green chili
- 1 garlic clove
- Lemon sized ball of tamarind
- 3 cup water
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon sambhar powder
- ⅛ teaspoon asafetodia
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¾ cup grated coconut
- ½ teaspoon Fennel seeds
- ½ cup
- 1 teaspoon oil (use coconut or olive oil)
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
Instructions
- In a microwave safe bowl add ½ cup of water and lemon sized tamarind and microwave high for 15 seconds. Extract the juice and set aside.
- In small skillet heat 1 teaspoon oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and asafeotida and when mustard seeds starts to pop add chopped vegetables ( around 3cups), garlic clove and green chili and fry for 5-6 minutes. Then add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, sambhar podi and salt and fry for 2-3 minutes. Then add ½ cup water and cook for 6 minutes or vegetables until done. To this add extracted tamarind juice with ½ cup water and boil for another 5 minutes
- Add grated coconut with fennel seeds and grind into a fine paste with 1cup water. Check water if you need more adjust accordingly
- Then add the ground coconut paste along with vegetables and simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Enjoy with warm rice or dosa.
Notes
Always add tamarind juice only after cooking the veggies. Increase spices if you want spicier. Reduce the amount of coconut to ½ cup if you don’t want too much coconut. This recipe is adapted from Spice India Online.
Copyright ©2013 Zesty South Indian Kitchen by Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy) All Rights Reserved
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This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
maha says
very healthy n yummy dish vhc well goes vth hot rice n rotis...neat clik.
Hema says
Kara kuzhambu looks fantastic..
elisabeth@foodandthrift says
Hi Swathi, I could totally become a vegetarian after following all your amazing, and delicious recipes! Curry, and coconut paste, combined with all the delicious fresh veggies? How can one not be totally be immersed in these amazing creations you constantly, and not want to convert to just being a 'vegetarian'?...I know, I would!
mjskit says
Probably one of the tastiest vegetable recipes I've seen in a long time! Great selection of vegetables bursting with flavor!
Swathi says
Thanks Mj.
Sangeetha says
yummy kara kuzhambu with loads of veggies...
Gayathri says
Very delicious and flavorful kulambu with tempting clicks....
Choc Chip Uru says
A deliciously healthy curry my friend, and who doesn't love coconut? 😀
Cheers
CCU
P.S I seem to have lost around 1000 subscribers on my blog and I don't know how, so if you were subscribed, could you resubscribe please? it would really help me out!
Shobana Vijay says
With coconut gravy texture looks good and tempting too
Mullai Madavan says
Swathi,
Lovely blog with great traditional and innovative recipes. Thanks a bunch for mentioning my blog and wishing you the very best for all success.
Swathi says
Thanks Mullai, I love your blog , adore the recipes.
Sanoli Ghosh says
Healthy and delicious Veg curry.
Nilu A says
I love Chettinad food... Kara Kuzhambu looks good.. Will definitely try this Swathi 🙂
Suja Manoj says
Aromatic and tasty curry,adipoli
bhawna says
love this coconut based restaurant style curry..
Vicky says
Gosh this looks awesome! Beautiful photos as well 🙂
divya says
Drooling here.. Yummy it looks..
Ash-foodfashionparty says
I like any kind of south Indian curry. I really like this version.
Manjula bharth says
very very aromatic and delicious looking kozhambu 🙂
Priya Anadakumar says
Super kara kuzhambu, very delicious. I love it, u have made it very nicely....
Sonaramji says
beautiful presentation. wonderful photos. clear narration. good.
Kaveri says
Very flavorful and delicious looking kuzhambu
Mayuri Patel says
I would never have thought of adding cucumber to a cooked vegetable dish. Sounds delicious.
Arthy shama says
I was thinking of making some karakulabu tomorrow, thanks that you posted this recipe on time 🙂
Ezcookbook says
love this restaurant style kara kulambu...
Rafeeda says
i'm drooling here... perfect with a bowl of matta rice... choru pokunna spead ariyilla... i'm bookmarking to try this for sure!
veena says
looks so tasty... love the loads of vegetable
Babitha costa says
love all variety of kara kuzhambu
Meena Kumar says
Kara kuzhambu ! I can almost get the aroma of the curry here. Kothipichuu...:)
Going to Indian restaurants here is so boring we never get south Indian meals and on top of that my daughter ends up eating only curd rice for buffet 🙁
Swathi says
Yes Meena, ithu kollam, because of the coconut paste. I love it. My she knows curd rice is only thing little tasty.