Tamarind pulp

This is one special handy-dandy item I always gotto have in my freezer. In our household, pulusulu/vegetable stews are cooked pretty often. When growing up, I thought that my mother made pulusu every other day; she really did not – my dislike for those dishes probably made me feel that way. Well, she might have made them once or twice a week. After I got married and my in-laws came to visit and my mother-in-law took over the chef hat, she beat my mother at serving pulusulu. I began wondering if I got married into “Pulusuvari” family .  When you eat something so often, sooner or later you would begin to like it. It happened to me – I started to develop a liking for pulusulu. Mildly sweet and widely sour, loaded with vegetables and the best part is, just a spoonful of oil to temper a potful of stew. Their visit ended but the pulusu tradition continues in our house. And the main ingredient in there, T A M A R I N D!

For some reason, I always hated squeezing juice out of tamarind. Also, good tamarind is hard to find at the local Indian grocery. I always bring it from India during our visits. So, it is very precious to me. Over the years I learnt to minimize the wastage and eliminate the squeezing part as much as I could. Here is the formula – soak, pick, grind, freeze.

Once in six months or so, I soak a big pack of tamarind in a big stainless steel vessel over night. I pick out seeds and strands out of the soaked mush. Then I blend it in a food processor in batches. Might require addition of water when grinding. After a while it grinds into a silky smooth paste. We do not mind an occasional (which is very, very rare) skin in our sambar or pulusu. I freeze in small containers if possible. If it is not possible or would not work in my freezer space at times, no worries. I freeze in one big container. As and when needed, I put it out in the refrigerator for a few hours to soften. Later, I scoop out just as much I would need and put the big one back in the freezer. I usually take enough, in a clean bottle, to last me a week.

Curry powder named ‘Sambaru kaaram’ (కూర కారం, సాంబారు కారం)

In Krishna, Guntur and parts of West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, a special curry powder is used in most dishes instead of the plain red hot chilli powder. This is a special blend of super hot, dried red chillies, roasted lentils, methi seeds, aromatic curry leaves and tons of garlic pounded with cumin. Plain chilli powder adds the needed heat to the dish and a mild zap to the palate. But, this curry powder lifts up the flavors in the curry. Sometimes one would even take an extra helping to savour the flavor of this spice blend, more than for the vegetable in the curry itself.  ‘Sambar kaaram’ is really a mis-nomer, because this is not used in sambar. Sambar has it’s own powder in which, garlic is definitely out. This curry powder also serves as idli-kaarappodi in many house holds. When recovering from any illness, when nothing seems appetizing and nothing tastes good, steaming rice with a spoonful of this podi and ghee wakes up all the dormant senses.

The authentic method of preparation is pretty elaborate. Sambaru Kaaram is prepared in summer, when the new crop of chillies is out. Each household makes enough to last for the whole year. Chillies are spread out in the sun, lentils, coriander & fenugreek seeds are roasted, branches of curry leaves (yes, practically branches) are washed and layed to dry on cot made of ropes called nulaka mancham(నులక మంచం), heads of garlic are peeled non-stop in bamboo trays called chETa (చేట). All of them are finally pounded in a certain order, in big stone mortar half buried in the ground. Yes, that’s a whole day’s work of all the women of that household. My parents left country side even before I was born, in search of livelihood. My in-laws’ side of the family is pretty big and their siblings still live out there. They have mostly been our kind and loving suppliers of goodies like pickles and podis. Once in a while I do run out and try to make my own with the closest possible substitutes. Here is my tried and tested recipe. Also quick! Quantity would last for 10 months, for two people.

Recipe:
200gm Lakshmi brand red chilli powder
2cups (rice cooker cups) coriander seeds
1/2 cup urad dal
1/2 cup channa dal
1/4 cup fenugreek/methi seeds
3 big pods of garlic
1/3 cup cumin seeds
2/3 cup vegetable oil (can you believe that in good old days they used castor oil!)
Salt to taste (may be 3/4 cup)

Dry roast coriander seeds, methi seeds, urad dal, channa dal and a few curry leaves. Grind them separately and mix them together in a big bowl. Peel and crush all the garlic-could use low setting in your mixie or just use the pulser switch. When you are half way done crushing garlic, add cumin to it. So by the time garlic is done, cumin would be somewhat beaten up but not ground. Mix this paste with the above powdered batch, chilli powder, salt and oil. Don’t worry if it looks a little wet on the first day. It takes a while for the moisture in garlic + oil to be absorbed by other ingredients.

Stays red for a year or even longer, if refrigerated.