A must have recipe for every mom who wants to prepare this handy ready to make vatha kuzhambu by just boiling contents , adding salt, and removing to enjoy a home made taste of vatha kuzhambu a popular signature dish from Tamil Nadu .

While original process is not diffciult and time consuming , having a ready to make pack is very helpful for the person on the go and elderly couples, seniors who live alone and cannot cook elaborate meals , dorm kids who want to taste moms dishes and for the college grad who lives alone but longs for the authentic mom made dishes .

Most of us carry a variety of podis, pastes, thokkus for our travel trips abroad , for long road trips, overnight or week end stays in home steads, with small limited kitchen facilities, for the business traveller who lives in hotels but wants to taste home made dishes .

Many such recipes , instant mixes, ready to cook and paste and thokkus are found in my website , having tried tested them many times over during our frequent travels, all the products are tasted and vouched for .

Ingredients

Dry roast the following given below till aromatic without burning .

• 1 cup coriander seeds., dry roast till aromatic but not browned .

• Dry roast 1 cup approx 30 to 40 nos .red chilies , use both varieties, Guntur and Byadagi , dry roast till they turn crisp .keep aside..save few roasted red chilies for tempering .

• 1/2 cup chana dal.

• 1/2 cup toor dal

• 2 tsp pepper, dry roast till they pop .

• 2 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds , dry roast till they pop .

• 5 tbsp , sundried manathakkali ( black night shade , ) to be dry roasted , keep seperately or use sundakkai vathal .

• 2 tsp mustard seeds , keep this aside for tempering .

• Dry roast washed dried curry leaves, till they turn crisp . keep aside to be added to the pre mix later .

• Dry roast some rock salt , add to premix or add to vattah kuzhambu at the time of preparation .

• 1 cup tightly packed tamrind bits ( about 2 big lemon size ) after removing fibres and seeds, roast and let it become slightly crisp without scorching .

• Cool all ingredients and grind to a fine powder , except manathakkali, mustard seeds , some chana dal for tempering , and some curry leaves .

• You may have to grind in batches as grinding red chilies and tamrind takes time , so grind tamrind with little dal, continue till you have ground all in one batch, repeat one or two more times, depends on your mixer ability also ,

• Finally grind all together, sieve well , twice to remove any particles, bits and fibres etc . we need a fine smooth powder to premare vatha kuxhambu.

• The coarse powder after sieving can be used to flavour dry curries /poriyals .

• If you have access to commercial mill nearby, it will be better to grind in the mill . how ever for small quantities, a blender /mixie is good enough .

• After grinding powder , sieve it well , set aside the coarse powder after sieving , keep it aside for using in dry curies .

• Add the tempering of manathakkali, chana dal, mustard seeds , curry leaves , add few broken red chillies .

• Mix all , use as needed.

• Store in an airtight container for use .
  

How to use the premix for Vatha kuzhambu .

Take a kadai , add about 4 tbsp of sesame oil , heat it , add 4 tbsp of the premix powder to oil , sautee well , add shallots if you want to make onion vatha kuzhambu , add 2 cups boiling water, mix well use a ladle to break small lumps of the powder , adjust salt later , allow this mixture to boil for about 10 minutes on a medium flame till the consisteny thickens .

the vatha kuzhambu is ready when it reduces and looks thick and aromatic .

Instant vatha kuzhambu is ready . If you wish you can add oil roatsed manathakali or sundakkai as a crunchy topping .

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