Chettinad Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

Chettinad cuisine is very famous for their spicy cooking and the spices used in their daily cooking. Any dish cooked with spices makes the dish very flavourful and delicious.I love chettinad cuisine very much.I always want to make their paruppu urundai kuzhambu aka toordal dumplings cooked in spiced tamarind gravy. Recently i prepared this kuzhambu for our lunch since i had a couple of friends came home for lunch. I prepared few vegetarian dishes for them and served rice with this flavourful paruppu urundai kuzhambu along with papads and brinjal fry.

I crossed this kuzhambu in a TV show, where the anchor of the show goes directly to local people's place and the food will be cooked in front of them by the home maker. This kuzhambu was shared by an aachi of Chettinad cuisine and immediately i tried at home. The special masala paste used in this gravy makes the difference and this kuzhambu served with rice makes a fantastic pair. We enjoyed thoroughly this Chettinad style of urundai kuzhambu especially i got a bunch of appreciation from my guests of the day.Usually i'll for steam cooking the dal balls before adding them in gravy, but this time i tried cooking dal balls directly in the gravy. Dal balls absorbs the spiciness and aroma of the gravy while cooking and they tastes just simply out of the world.Try this gravy, am sure you will definitely do them often.This post goes also for the CC Challenge of the month. Sending to my event CWS-Toordal guest hosted by Madhavi of Madhu's Indian Recipes.

For dal balls:
1cup Toordal
3nos Dry red chillies
1tsp Fennel seeds
Salt
1/4cup Thinly chopped shallots
5nos Garlic cloves (sliced thinly)
Few curry leaves
2tbsp Grated coconut

For Gravy:
2nos Onion (chopped thinly)
2nos Tomatoes (chopped)
5nos Garlic cloves
1tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Fennel seeds
Few curry leaves
Salt

To grind:
1tsp Poppyseeds
2tbsp Roasted gram/pottukadalai
1/4cup Grated coconut
1/2tsp Peppercorns
1no Clove
1small piece Cinnamon stick
1tsp Fennel seeds
1tsp Cumin seeds

1tbsp Coriander seeds
5nos Dry red chillies

For making urundais:
Soak the toordal for alteast 3hours, drain the water and take the dal with red chillies,fennel seeds and salt, grind as bit coarse paste.

Add the onions,garlic,grated coconut,curry leaves,mix well and make small balls out of them.

Now you can steam cook them or else deep fry them.

But i dropped them directly while cooking the gravy.

For making gravy:
Grind all the ingredients given under the list to grind as fine paste and keep aside.

Heat enough oil,let splutter the mustard seeds and fennel seeds.

Add in the curry leaves and fry.

Now add the onions,garlic,stir fry for few minutes, add the tomatoes and cook until they turns mushy.

Now add the grounded paste and cook in simmer until the oil gets separates.

Add 2-3cups of water, bring it to boil.

Put the flame in simmer and add the dal balls to the cooking gravy.

Dont disturb the dal balls, cover the vessel with the lid and cook in simmer for atleast 10minutes or until the dal balls gets cooked.

If the gravy is thick, you can add water as per need.

Serve immediately with rice.