Suraikai Koottu/ Bottle gourd koottu

In south India we use toor and moong dal a lot. I think almost we use every day in our cooking specially for koottus, dal's and sambars.One more important ingredient in this kootu is bottle gourd. Bottle gourd is very good for health,it makes your body cool and reduces weight because it has lot of water content.I like to serve this with rice and pappad,also with chapathis.

Ingredients :

• Bottle gourd - 1 medium size (chopped)
• Toor dal - 1/2 cup
• Moong dal - 1/2 cup
• Onion - 1/2 medium size (chopped)
• Tomato - 1/2 (chopped)
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - 1 strand
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• salt

For Grinding :

• Coconut - 1/4 cup (grated)
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Green chillies - 3 to 4

Method :

1. Peel and chop the bottle gourd into cubes.Wash the moon dal and toor dal together.
2. Add onions, tomatoes, turmeric powder with the dal and cook it with some water.
3. When the dal was half cooked add the bottle gourd pieces and let it cook till soft. Let this keep aside.
4. Mean while grind the coconut, cumin seeds and green chillies to a smooth paste with little water.
5. Heat oil in a pan add mustard seeds let it splutter then add urad dal, asafoetida, curry leaves. Then add the cooked dal and bottle gourd mix, then add the grinded paste,required salt and make to boil for few minutes and switch off the flame.
6. Suraikai koottu is now ready to serve !!!  Serve hot with rice or chapathi .

Sambar (Hotel Style)

Ingredients : 

• Toor dal - 1/2 cup
• Red Pumpkin (poosanikai)  - 1/4 (finely chopped)
• Onion - 1 (chopped)
• Tomato - 1 (chopped)
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Tamarind - small round size 
• Asofoetida - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - 2 strands
• Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup (finely chopped)
• Jaggery - 1/4 tsp
• Salt - for taste
• Ghee - 2 tsp 
• Oil - 2 tsp 

For Dry Roast : 

• Red chillies - 6
• Channa dal (kadalai parupu) - 1 tsp
• Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method :

1. Pressure cook the toordal and pumpkin  along with 2 cups of water and turmeric powder for about 6-7 whistles (it should be finely smashed).
2. Heat the pan add all ingredients given in 'for dry roast' section, fry without adding oil until turns brown color (until nice aroma comes out). After it cools grind it to fine powder and keep aside.
3. Heat 2 tsp of oil and 1 tsp of ghee in a pan add mustard seeds, urad dal, and curry leaves. Now add onions fry until turns light brown and add little salt. Then add tomatoes and fry for some time.
4. Now add tamarind juice, 1/4 cup water and asofoetida make to boil. In this time add few curry leaves and coriander leaves. 
5. Add dry roast powder (before adding make the powder to liquid by adding some water to avoid the formation of lumps). Then add the cooked dal (smash it nicely using whisk or any spatula) and water,  make to boil for some time. Now add the required salt for sambar.
6. Now add jaggery and mix well. At last add some curry leaves, coriander leaves and 1 tsp of ghee and switch off the flame. 
7. Hotel style sambar is now ready to serve hot. This sambar goes very well with Idly, Dosai, Pongal, Urad dal Vadai, Plain rice and other tiffin items.

Tips : 

• You can also add vegatables like carrot, beans, drumstick etc.. of  your choice.You need to add the vegatables after adding the tamarind juice and cook until all the vegetables are fully cooked, then proceed with step 5.