There is a saying in Kannada “ Tambali antha ootavilla kambalianth hodikeyilla ” -Â meaning, there is no meal like the one with tambali and there is no cover (wrap up) like blanket or rug.
Rice is the main constituent of any meal for people in the south Indian region. Hence a curry is an essential thing to go with rice. As coconut is available freely, people started using it to make different types of tamblis which are easy to cook and very tasty. Tambli and chutney are the two varieties of the same preparation. Tambli is not cooked or heated. In Kannada, tampu (cold) + huli (gravy) = tambli . As the name suggests, it is a cold recipe. There are usually 45 -50 types of tamblis .
BonDi is the flower of banana as seen in the picture below. Many people know that different parts of banana tree are used in the cooking – like stem ( bale dinDu ), leaves, flowers( bonDi or bale mooti ) and bananas itself.
Ingredients: 1 cup grated fresh/frozen coconut 2 – 3 green chillies 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract Salt 1 tea spn cumin seeds 2-3 peppers 1 banana flower
Method: Take the banana flower and remove the outer coverings one by one, till it is free from all the flowers surrounding it. Put the banana flower on burning red charcoal (I normally put it in fireplace).
Once it is baked, usually it takes 5 minutes, then take it off. Try to peel off the blackened portion and keep aside the white portion.
Take all other ingredients in a mixer and grind to a smooth paste. Add the baked banana flower to it and continue grinding for some more time. Add some water to make it like gravy. Serve it with hot rice or chapatis. It is simply out of the world when consumed with rice and urad papads.
Massaru – Maseda (mashed) saru (a thin soup kind of gravy) is very popular among the ragi mudde loving Kannadiga people. I had read/heard about this so much, I wanted to give it a try. I am not sure if this is the traditional way of making massaru , because I have never tasted this before. This recipe is from a Kannada book. But I can say I absolutely loved it.
I am sending this to Srivalli’s curry mela .
Ingredients: 2 cups greens (any kind can be used. I used fenugreek) 1/2 cup any kind of lentils (I used toor dal ) (optional) 1 tea spn chana dal 1 tea spn urad dal 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 1/2 cup onion 1 tea spn chopped garlic 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract 4 green chillies 3-4 curry leaves Oil Salt
Method: Cook toor dal and greens in pressure cooker. Heat a little oil and fry chana dal , urad dal , coconut, onion, garlic for about 5-6mins. Grind it with dal and green mixture and green chilies. Cook with tamarind and salt. Heat little oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves. Add the seasoning to the gravy. Serve with ragi mudde . I serve it with rice also.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 25mins
