MORE KUZHAMBU/ SPICED BUTTERMILK CURRY

         More kuzhambu is a South Indian gravy variety famous in Kerala and parts of Tamil Nadu. It can be compared to the Punjabi kadhi of the Northern subcontinent. The dish was traditionally made when butter were made at home by churning curd for hours. The remnant buttermilk was spiced up to make more-kuzhambu.

        One need not be a pro in cooking to make a mouthwatering more kuzhambu for lunch. Its really a comfort food during summer. It tastes awesome either way, plain or when made with veggies like chayote, bottle gourd or okra. There are a lot of varieties of the more kuzhambu and it varies from region to region. The main difference being the thickening agent added to the gravy, a few thickening agents known to me are
a) rice flour
b) gram flour (besan)
c) soaked and grounded rice
d) soaked and grounded lentils.
       Here the thickening agent is the soaked lentils (toor dal and chana dal).

MORE KUZHAMBU RECIPE

Cuisine - South Indian

Category - Gravy

Preparation time - 15 minutes

Cooking time - 10 minutes

Yields - 2 cups, serves 4

INGREDIENTS
Sour buttermilk - 2 cups (if you don't have buttermilk, mix 1/2 cup of thick sour curd with 1&1/2 cup of water
FOR GRINDING
Toor dal (thuvaram paruppu) + Chana dal (kadala paruppu) - 1.25 teaspoon (soaked for 10 minutes)
Coconut (chopped) - 1/4 cup (heaped)
Green chilly - 3 nos
Ginger (roughly chopped) - 1 teaspoon
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Salt - as required
TO TEMPER
Oil (preferably coconut oil) - 1/2 tablespoon
Mustard - 3/4 teaspoon
Dry red chilly - 1 no
Fenugreek seeds - a tiny pinch
Curry leaves (torn to pieces) - 1 sprig
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon

METHOD
1. In a mixer grinder, add the chopped coconut, green chilly, ginger and the soaked dal mixture (toor dal + chana dal mixture) and grind it to a fine paste. No need to add water for grinding, just add buttermilk while grinding. Then add in the pepper and cumin seeds and give a couple of whips. They should be just coarsely grounded. The partially grounded pepper and cumin lend an awesome flavour.
2. Reserve a cup of butter milk and add the rest to the ground paste and mix well. Season with salt.
3. Heat oil in a sauce pan and crackle the mustard seeds. When they have popped, add dry red chilly, fenugreek seeds and torn curry leaves. Let them sizzle. Add asafoetida at last.
4. Pour in the ground paste mixture. Give it a single boil and switch off. Add in the reserved buttermilk and mix it well. Mouthwatering more kuzhambu is ready!!

TIPS
1. If adding chayote squash (chow chow) or calabash (a.k.a., bottle gourd, long melon and sorakkai), cube the veggies and boil them in water with salt. Add it in step 4 with the ground paste.
2. If adding okra (or lady's finger), cut them into one inch sized pieces and saute them in a teaspoon of oil till brown spots appear. Add it in step 4 along with the ground paste.
3. Just warm the leftovers else they may curdle.
4. Always switch off the gravy when it is about to boil. Too much heat leads to curdling.
5. Add more buttermilk if necessary, for the right consistency.