Paruppu Urundai - M

Paruppu Urundai on Mobile Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu is a very special and delicious kuzhambu variety. The tasty dal balls in a tangy gravy is a wonderful dish for a plain rice. It is a famous SouthIndian traditional kuzhzmbu variety.

Moment to Enjoy:

Make a lemon size ball from tamarind. A bit later you can shread into small pieces for soaking. For soaking use 200 ml warm water first. Then add another 100 ml and then another 100 ml squeezing the tamarind periodically. I am not elaborating this method, as almost all the housewives do this way. 

Pour 200 ml of water in a kadai and heat under simmer. Add one volume of shredded Jaggery. When the Jaggery gets dissolved in the solution, decant and separate the concentrate from impurities. Clean the Kadai, ladle and put back the Jaggery concentrate.

After soaking, it is time for grinding in a mixi. Use the dry grinder to do the grinding without water. The red chillies are to be dry and 4 good lengths are enough for this. Use can be a little bit generous in adding Asafoetida.  

First add a small quantity of soaked dahl and the red chillies for the first grind so that the red chillies are shredded properly. This is a safer method.

Add sufficient quantity of Asafoetida to the mix. Course grinding is enough. Do not run the mixi for more than 5 to 10 seconds. Take out the paste and keep it aside.

Add the balance soaked dahl to the mixi. Separate the ground paste and add it to the previous one. Mix properly using fingers and with just sufficient salt enough for this mixture. Do not knead the paste.

Make a  ball of the Dahl paste and admire the consistency of the paste. You should now be proud of your effort. Now divide this equally into 7 small balls.

Roll the balls with a rotary motion without exerting any pressure and you will enjoy doing this. If there are cracks, do them over.

Now it is the turn for tamarind juice. Decant the juice using a fine filter and store it separately in a small stainless steel bowl. By now both the dahl and the tamarind juice are ready for cooking. 

For making the Kozhambu Part.
For Saute 

Pour 2 table spoon of cooking oil in a kadai keeping the gas in a simmer. When hot, add mustard powder and when it stops cracking , add a teaspoon of Udad and Chena dahl together with curry leaves. You can an add Asafoetida and salt in the end. Add the tamarind extract and heat till you get a good consistency for sliding the lentil balls.

Now it is time for the lentil balls to be slipped into the cooked Kozhambu. Keep a small amount of rice flour in the plate and roll the lentil balls one by one so that each one can have a thin coating of the rice flour. This will prevent the balls from sticking to each other.

When the Kozhambu is cooked properly, keep it under simmer. A very low heat will not give rise to bubbles. You can use the broad stainless steel hand shaped ladle for gently sliding each ball into the Kozhambu. Take one lentil ball inside the ladle and slowly slip it into the Kozhambu. A few seconds later, the ball will float. Now is time for slipping one more ball and do this slowly till all the balls are slipped. It is a pleasure doing this with ladle.  

This is the moment of truth and hard work. The balls will float. Keep them floating for a good 15 to minutes and the soaked lentils will have an excellent taste. You will be surprised to note the lentils form a geometric pattern of their  own without touching each other, as you can see. 

This is the moment for the Cooks' pride.

Ingredients Paruppu Urundai Urundai Chena dahl 1/4 cup Tuvar Dahl 1/4 cup Red Dried Chillie 4 Nos Rice Flour 2 teaspoon Asafoetida to taste Salt to taste

Kozambu
Tamarind	size of lemon
Water	400 ml
Sambar Powder	2 teaspoon
Curry leaves	10 to 12
Cooking oil	2 table spoon
Asafoetida	to taste
Salt	to taste

Sautering
Cooking oil	2 teaspoon
Udad Dahl Round	10 to 15 nos
Chena Dahl	10 t0 15 nos
Curry leaves	10 to 12
Asafoetida	to taste
Salt	to taste

I am sure that you are enjoying this method. Do not do anything in a hurry without a good preparation time. I normally soak the dahl and Tamarind before taking bath to give sufficient time for soaking. Goes very well as a side dish with rice / chapati / Poori and the likes. Do not use any untested ingredients for the Urundai , as they may split the lentil balls.

Digital Images taken as the cooking progressed.  

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Rangarajan Ramaswamy Bangalore 01.08.2013