sambar

It had been a little over a month since I moved from home for college. So you could say I was feeling a little homesick and I was craving home food. Sambar is a staple at my house because you eat it with almost any South Indian breakfast dish or just white rice along with a vegetable side. Therefore, I tried to make sambar at home because my mom insisted I take the pressure cooker and a ziplock full of sambar powder all the way from India and I had to put it both to use. It was a Sunday so I had plenty of time incase I messed it up. While it did take long, I succeeded and made good enough sambar to satiate the craving. I ate with with rice carrot and beans and with dosa too.

First things first, to make something as complicated as sambar, I had to have my mom on call. So I cut all the vegetables and put it to a boil (in way too much water which I didn’t realise at the time) and called her. She told me, “do what I already told you I’m not going to wait while the vegetables boil, call me back later”. It made sense after she pointed it out so meanwhile, I prepped the dhal for the cooker. I carefully measured the water because I had no idea how much it needed. It was time for trial and error. I let it pressure cook for two whistles and let it cool. (I called my mom now and she was on her way to work - great timing!) Everything was going as planned until I tried to mash the dhal because it wasn’t soft enough for me to mash. It was too late to reboil it so I added it to the sambar and realised I didn’t have enough dhal. My mom then asked me, “how small is your hand”. Offended but kept moving on, so I turned off the simmer on the almost ready sambar and pressure cooked another hand full of dhal. I let it for an extra whistle and I was able to mash this one well. I added it to the sambar which I boiled again and gave it a nice mix. The uncooked dhal was floating in it which was alright. Nevertheless, it tasted good so I was satisfied.