Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu

Hello friends! As you all know, we have monthly event called SNC meaning south vs north challenges. Each month a challenger from each zone challenges other team to try out the region's authentic dish and the brainchild of this event is Divya Pramil from you too can cook. For details click on Divya's site if you want to join.This month challenge is by Priya Suresh from Priya's Versatile recipes and its traditional Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu. 

Looking at the recipe my first thought was that it resembles vada curry we made earlier but going through recipe thoroughly I realised its bit different. I and family really enjoyed this dish and though its supposed to be spicy I had to cut down a bit as we do not eat too spicy food.



Ingredients for pakoda:

• 1/2 cup chana dal/Bengal gram dal
• 2-3 dry red chillies
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• salt to taste
• oil for frying

Method for pakodas:

Soak chana dal for 2-3hours and grind it  to coarse paste with dry red chillies, salt and  fennel seeds. Heat oil and take small paste and deep fry in oil like pakodas. Fry all the pakodas till golden brown. Remove on paper to drain off excess oil.

Ingredients for gravy:

• 2 onions
• 2 tomatoes
• 6-8 garlic pods
• 2-3 green chillies
• 1tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 2tbsp oil
• coriander leaves for garnishing

For seasoning:

• 1inch Cinnamon stick
• 2 Cloves
• 2 Green cardamoms
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1tsp Fennel seeds
• Few curry leaves

To grind:

• 1tsp Poppy seeds
• 4tbsp Grated coconut
• 6 Cashew nuts
• 1tbsp Roasted chana dal

Method:

To make paste, grind the ingredients given in the grind list with required amount of water. Heat oil in pan and fry the ingredients mentioned under seasoning.  Chop onions and tomatoes and add it to the pan. Add garlic and green chillies and saute the vegetables.  Add the paste we made before to this gravy. Mix well and cook for two mins. Add some more water and add salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Mix well and reduce the heat. Let the vegetables cook and gravy should remain bit thinner.  Once gravy is cooked add the pakodas and gently mix and switch off the gas.

Pakodas tend to soak the gravy so make sure to put them in the end. I added them just a little before serving. 

Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves. We enjoyed this with chapati though this can be served with rice too.

Thanks priya for the yummy dish and I would love to make this again.

Posted in: Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu,pakoda curry,snc event,South Indian Recipes