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Dec 20, 2012

Sundakkai Kara Kuzhambu.. my mil style

Sundakkai known as Turkey Berry(wiki) Solanum_torvum is a very rich source of fibre and rich. Its goodness and medicinal benefits are way too many to mention. Google it and voila!!! you can learn too much about these babies. I love these cute little brinjal-like fruits. My mil always always insisted me to add this to our diets on a frequent basis but i never gave it a second thought until she made it for us some day and we all fell in love with it. My God it was just lip-smacking. Ignorant was I about its goodness and taste but now it is so enticing that I have a plant growing up in my very own garden. Every time there is a bunch of these little-fellas ready, I am ready too to get them working in my kitchen to serve a goodness-filled lunch :)

My kids love it too and they specially love it when I ask them to get some "sundakkai's" from the garden. Guess the next step .... well yes - they are out in the garden with 2 dining table chairs pulled out with lots of effort - specially with Nikhil helping Aadit to get his chair too(little fella right... needs his big brother's help). Climbing up on the chairs and carefully filling my bowl with these is a fun job that they just love to do. Nowadays its even lovely - they look at the flowers and ask me 'When will the next set be ready for plucking mamma'. Now that makes me smile. Whenever they are out in our tiny garden, they make sure to check the fruits out. Nice little helpers here ;)

My mil taught me this recipe and I have made sure to follow it perfect every time to make it the same like her and yes I have always been able to do it with this one. Well this is simple and yummy so there we go...






Serves...  4 ppl 
Serve option... Hot rice

This is what u'll need....

Sundakkai(green) - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 big
Tomato - 1 big
Garlic - 3 big cloves
Tamarind - lemon size
Curry leaves for tadka
Coconut - 1/4 of a half shell
Sambar powder - 2 tbspn
Fenugreek - 1 tspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Gingelly oil - 4-5 tbspn
Salt to taste

Here is the stir....
  • Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds to them. Soak tamarind in warm water and keep it aside. When the mustard seeds crackle add curry leaves and thinly sliced garlic to it
  • Thinly slice onions(3/4 onion) short and add it with the garlic. Fry this till the onion start getting soft and catch up a little of the beautiful golden color

  • Now its the time to pick you mortar and pestle to do the job. Add little sundakkais to the mortar at a time and squish each of them a little to crack them open. This will help bring out the wonderful flavor that is hidden inside and also bring out the small seeds in them. Repeat the same with the rest of the sundakkai's too


  • Toss the sundakkai's into the oil and fry it till they start cooking a little in the oil. You should be able to smell the wonderful flavor of sundakkai's by now
  • Roughly chop tomato, onion(1/4) and coconut into small pieces. Put them in the mixer along with sambar powder and salt and grind it to make a paste



  • Scoop in the grinded mixture into the pan. Squish and mash the tamarind in water to make a pulpy puree. Pour this into the pan. Add little water if needed



  • Give it a good stir and let it simmer for a while. This will take a while but believe me it is worth it. Let it cook on low flame till the raw flavors are off the pan and oil starts oozing out to the corners. Now you know that it is ready to be served. Switch off the heat and transfer it to a serving bowl. Serve hot with rice and vadagan... hmmm awesome

Note:
  • Adjust sambar powder and tamarind amount to suit your taste
  • If you feel that your kids cannot take it coz the sundakkai's are very spicy/hot, then you can try giving the sundakkai's a short rinse in water just before adding it to the pan
  • Cook on low flame to bring out the flavor

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