You’re correct in the assumption that of the 12 days I spent in India, more than 8 were at restaurants. I visited 4 cities in 12 days, and each one had its own specialty, Hyderabadi Biryani, Bombay pav bhaji and gujarati food. I probably spent the most time eating at home in Chennai. I had to ask my sister in law Meena, to make this dish for me and of course share it on Roz Ka Khana. Its called Ambat (Sour) Bhaaji (vegetable dish). Its made from sour greens like amaranth or puli keerai as we say in Tamil. Can also be made from spinach leaves. The sourness to the dish comes from adding the tamarind.
Ambat Bhaji is a Tanjore Marathi inspired dish and is sort of a hybrid between a sambar (lentil and vegetables soup) and a koottu (vegetables in gravy).
Ingredients:
Spinach – 1 bunch. You may also use amaranth.
Tamarind – lemon sized ball
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Asafetida – a pinch
Toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) – 1 cup boiled and mashed
Methi seeds (fenugreek) – 1 tsp
Dry red chilies – 4-6
Chopped Cilantro – for garnish
Method:
1. Wash and chop the spinach. You can chop the spinach and steam in a heavy bottomed vessel with a little bit of water. This helps retain the green color better. You can also microwave the fresh spinach. Alternatively, you may use frozen spinach.
2. While the spinach cooks, soak the tamarind in a little warm water, and squeeze it to extract tamarind paste. Alteratively, you may use about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of tamarind paste. Add water to this paste (about 1 cup) and take this tamarind water in the heavy bottom vessel (kadai)
3. Add the spinach, salt and asafetida to the tamarind water. Let this mixture boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes away.
4. Now add the boiled and mashed toor dal. Boil for another 5 to 10 minutes till everything is well blended.
5. Now dry roast the methi seeds and the red chilies, grind to a fine powder. Add this powder to the dal mixture and boil one more time for another 2-3 minutes. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with white or brown rice.
In the above picture, we mixed the mashed dal with the ground powder and then added the mixture to the tamarind water. You may do this as well, but I think adding the powder at the end and then boiling provides an added taste.
Update May 2015:
I was fortunate to get an updated version of this recipe from the expert herself, Padma Aunty who happens to be my sil’s mother-in-law and an extremely talented and an amazing cook. You can tell from her rendition of the recipe (in Tamil) that she is one of those meticulous cooks who not only enjoys cooking but is extremely resourceful in the way she uses her ingredients while cooking. And evidently a patient and equally meticulous teacher:)
For those who don’t understand the language she gets into the nuances of “decant the water after cooking the dal and use it for rasam. Mash the dal uniformly to get a smooth paste – the secret to the right consistency of ambat bhaji”, and so on. I have tried to update the exact tanscript of this recipe on this page soon, but in the meantime enjoy the recipe verbatim from the expert:)
(Translation of the recipe in English)
1. First soak the tamarind. Soak it in cold water to remove any impurities at first, then add some warm water and set it aside for about 15 minutes. You can now squeeze the pulp and strain to get tamarind pulp of smooth consistency.
2. Wash the spinach leaves in cold water. You may add a pinch of salt while washing to remove any pests or bugs in the leaves. You may also wash the leaves in some warm water. Wash it at least 1-2 times and set aside.
3. Heat a heavy bottomed vessel or kadai, add 1 tsp of oil, then add the washed spinach leaves. Add a pinch of salt and about 1/2 tsp turmeric, stir, sprinkle some water and close the vessel. If the spinach is fresh it will get cooked very fast, in about 10-15 minutes. If a day or two old, it could take longer.
4. Now keep the wilted and cooked spinach aside. Rinse out the vessel and use this same vessel for making the bhaaji.
5. Heat 1 tsp oil in the vessel, add some mustard seeds, red chilies and curry leaves (measurements above). Once the seeds splutter, add the tamarind pulp, salt and let it boil.
6. Now take the boiled spinach, and at first decant the water the spinach was cooked in and add this water to the tamarind water boiling in the vessel. This step ensures that the spinach left is a solid pulp.
7. Mash the spinach by hand or with a potato masher/ladle (recommended to mash by hand to get a better consistency).
8. Add this mashed spinach to the tamarind mixture. Let this boil once.
9. In the meantime, boil the toor dal to a near mashed consistency. You may decant the dal water and use it for other recipes (like rasam for example). Mash the dal with a ladle to get a uniform mass. The dal should not be half mashed and half not as this will impact the “look and feel” of the bhaaji:)
10. Now add the mashed dal to the tamarind spinach mixture, mix well to get the desired consistency.
11. Now heat a small vessel, dry roast 1 tsp methi (fenugreek) seeds, 2-3 dry arbol red chilies, and a pinch asafetida till the methi turns light brown. Grind this to a fine powder.
12. Sprinkle this powder on the ambat bhaaji, mix and boil for 1 more minute and switch off the heat. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro leaves.
Enjoy with steaming hot rice:)