This is another typical tambram recipe which is probably made in every tambram household at some point or the other. I love this recipe and always used to ask my mum to make it. It is said this is good when you have an upset stomach, as this recipe will clear your stomach.
Both BB & GG also love this recipe and it is usually made plain with no vegetables and is really useful when there’s nothing to cook at home. This time around, I added some vegetables and it was super delicious!
Milagu Kozambu
Ingredients:
- 2 onions, chopped into big pieces
- 10 ladies fingers, cut into 2 inch pieces
- 4-5 pieces of drumstick, cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1 tsp Peppercorns
- 5 Red Chillies
- 1 tsp Urad Dal
- 2 tsps Chana Dal
- ½ tsp Cumin Seeds
- 2 tsps Coriander Seeds
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- Tamarind piece as big as a piece of lime (make sure you remove all fibre from the tamarind as well as any seeds which may be there)
- Salt to taste
- A handful of curry leaves
- 1/8 tsp of Asafoetida
- 2 tsps Oil
Method:
- In a bowl, put the tamarind and pour boiling water over it to release the water and flavour and keep aside for 30 minutes. When cool, mash it well to remove the juice and keep aside. There’s no need to remove the flesh for this recipe.
- Heat oil in a kadhai and when warm, fry the peppercorns, red chillies, urad dal, chana dal, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.
- When the dals turn red, add the curry leaves and fry till the curry leaves are crisp.
- At this point, add the asafoetida and let it cool down.
- When cool, grind to a smooth paste with the tamarind and a little water into a smooth paste.
- Heat oil and fry the mustard seeds. Now add the onions and fry them so it starts becoming translucent. Then add the drumstick and ladies finger and let them fry for a couple of minutes.
- Mix the blended paste with enough water to make 1.5 cups of the paste and add this to the vegetables cooking and let it cook.
- Add salt to taste as well as some jaggery if you find it spicy and let it cook till the vegetables are fully cooked and the mixture becomes thick and reduces.
- Check for seasoning and switch off the gas.
This kozambu will keep for about 2 days outside and about a week in the fridge. Eat with hot rice and some papad. So soul satisfying on a cold or rainy day!
India, 1943: In a regimental hill station, the ladies of Pankot struggle to preserve the genteel façade of British society amid the debris of a vanishing empire and World War II. A retired missionary, Barbara Batchelor, bears witness to the connections between many human dramas; the love between Daphne Manner and Hari Kumar; the desperate grief an old teacher feels for an India she cannot rescue; and the cruelty of Captain Ronald Merrick.
When brain surgeon Thomas Eapen decides to cut short a visit to his mother’s home in India in 1979, he sets into motion a series of events that will forever haunt him and his wife, Kamala; their intellectually precocious son, Akhil; and their watchful daughter, Amina.
Memories and Such 