Paruppu urundai kuzhambu is nothing but steamed dal dumplings are cooked in tamarind gravy. Unlike Sambar, we are not adding cooked dal to the gravy. Steamed dal dumplings are added to a vatha kuzhambu style gravy. Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu, my mom makes during our childhood days, but I never used to eat it. But slowly I started loving it after I got married. The main tip I got from my mom for making urundai kuzhambu is, we should not add water while grinding the dal mixture. The mixture should be made into a tight ball and steamed well. Adding more of toor dal and less of chana dal gives soft paruppu urundais. Paruppu urundai is a protein-rich South Indian gravy. You can also check out Paruppu urundai rasam, Bonda mor kuzhambu, Karuveppilai kuzhambu, Poondu kuzhambu
Wash and soak the dals together for 45 minutes.Drain the water completely and grind it into a slightly coarse paste by adding red chili, salt and asafoetida to this.Peel the skin of the shallots and finely chop them and mix it to the ground dal mix.Adding onions is optional but it gives softness and nice taste to the paruppu urundai.You can even add ½ tsp of fennel seeds to this.
Grease your hands and make small tight balls.If the balls are loose, the urundais will break after steaming.Grease the idli plate and arrange the urundais on it and steam it for 12 to 15 minutes on medium flame.Insert a tooth pick to check out whether it is done.
In a pan, add sesame oil and add the mustard seeds.When it splutters add the tamarind extract and add the turmeric powder, salt, sambar powder, curry leaves and asafoetida.When it starts boiling simmer the flame and add the steamed paruppu urundais carefully to the boiling gravy one by one.Do not stir the gravy after adding the urundais.Let this boil till it reaches a kulambu (gravy) consistency.
It should be slightly thicker than the sambar.Serve with hot rice. Normally we mix the gravy with hot rice and keep he urundais as accompaniment.We had with avarakkai (broad beans) curry and Vazhakkai chips.
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