CAULIFLOWER SAMBAR, pg 13
I made quite a mess of this recipe, but despite my user errors I ended with a mild but tasty dish. This sambar (most sambars?) has three components: the vegetables and their liquid, the paste, and the tadka. I prepared this while chatting constantly with a visitor, so between that and my general lack of familiarity with the cooking method the result was a mildly spiced thin soup.
My first mistake was attempting to cook way too much cauliflower (for future meals, I thought), which meant I used too much water to cover it to simmer. This resulted, of course, in spices and seasonings being too mild in the diluted liquid, though I did try to compensate with a little extra.
I struggled quite a bit with the paste element. Spices are toasted in oil, then ground up with some fresh coconut and water. I could not get the black peppercorns to grind well. First I used the Vitamix, then I transferred to a mortar and pestle, and it just wasn’t happening. Rather than a cohesive paste I had a sad mash of chunky spices and coconut in a bit of liquid.
My amount of cooking liquid was so absurd that the rice powder, presumably intended to add body, had no effect on my now-soup. The tempered final spices did their best to amp up flavor, but really I just need to make this sambar all over again and give it the proper attention.
Lots of lime or lemon juice plus a heaving dusting of the book’s peanut powder made this fairly delicious in the end; the acid brought the spices forward again and the peanut powder provided necessary heat. My guest loved it because the flavors were novel to her, but they were also barely there.
A question for cooks more fluent in Indian home cooking: how does one best grind up spices that have been toasted in oil? I expect a bit of chunkiness, like with coriander or cumin, but peppercorns were left nearly whole and were unpleasant in the final dish. If I do this again I will probably dry-toast and use a spice grinder, but I’m open to suggestions.
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