Kolmbo is Konkani Sambar. Kolmbo was one of my favorite sambars from my childhood. When I posted my Aayi’s recipe of this, few of my readers said they make it without coconut. So I was searching for the other method to prepare this dish.
Few days back, one of my readers requested for Rajma Kolmbo . I was a bit surprised at this request as I didn’t know that anybody can make a sambar with kidney beans. I was using these beans only for the popular North Indian dish “ Rajma “. I ignored this request for a long time, but then I was always thinking about this. Finally I decided to ask this question in a yahoo group for Konkani recipes. The next day I got a mail from Manjula saying, her mother-in-law prepares the Kolmbo with Navy beans and I can follow the same recipe with Kidney beans.
Well, I had found answers to three things here, the first is, her Kolmbo recipe didn’t involve coconut. Second, it was a Konkani dish with Kidney beans (my husband never eats Kidney beans, but I was sure he would eat any kind of Kolmbo ). Third, I got the answer for recipe request.
As I thought, my husband loved it. See Manjula’s recipe of Kolmbo .
In the above picture, you cannot see any kidney beans, because they all were sleeping in the bottom of the bowl :D. I realised this when I saw this picture just before posting.
Ingredients: 1 cup red kidney beans ( rajma ) 2 tea spn urad daal 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 1/8 tea spn fenugreek( methi ) seeds 4-5 peppers A pinch of turmeric powder A pinch of asafoetida 4-5 red chilies 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 4-5 curry leaves 4-5 strands of coriander leaves 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract (or small 2-3 small pieces of tamarind) Oil Salt
Method: Soak kidney beans overnight.Cook them with a pinch of turmeric in cooker. (They take long time to cook compared to daal ). Heat a little oil and fry urad daal , coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, pepper in that order (take care not to burn anything). Add asafoetida and red chilies and switch off heat. Grind these to a smooth paste along with tamarind and 1-2 tbl spns of cooked kidney beans (beans are ground to give thickness to sambar ). Add the paste and salt to remaining kidney beans. Cook till the sambar becomes thick to required consistency. Garnish with coriander leaves. Heat 1 tea spn of oil and fry mustard. When they start popping, add curry leaves. Add this seasoning to sambar . Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time: 30 mins (including time to cook kidney beans)
After the persistence of the previous ‘Watermelon’ theme for so many months, it was time for a change. Aayi’s Recipes has a new look and feel now. The redesign is an effort to improve neatness and reduce clutter. At the same time improve usability.
Still there is lots to do and fix a few missing elements from the earlier theme. That will be done in a phased manner.
