Vengaya Vetta Kozhambu / Spicy onion gravy

This is an easy to make dish. Full of flavours....spicy, tangy, sweet as well as yummy.......Very very easy to make and normally made of few selected vegetables unlike sambar which normally uses most of the vegetables.....well i will be posting all the different vethal koyumbu iam familiar with one by one. Today iam posting Vengaya Vethal koyumbu. Vethal in tamil means evaporation.... this dish is named so.. coz the tamarind paste is cooked on gas for a long time.. until it reduces to half of its previous quantity. This is normally made with small red onions, but i have tried it with the big onions. When making this recipe with small onions just replace them with the big... no other changes have been made to the traditional recipe. Enjoy!

Okay now the recipe

You need :

Tamarind - a ball of small sized lemon or tamarind concentrate

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Curry Leaves - few

Gingely oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Methi seeds(fenugreek) - 1/4 tsp

Thuvar dhal - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida powder (hing) - a small pinch

Onions - 1 medium - cut lengthwise

Peanuts - roasted and husked.

oil

To roast and powder:

Coriander seeds - 3 tbsp

black pepper seeds - 1/2 tsp

cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

channa dhal (kadalai paruppu) - 1 1/2 tsp

6 dry red chillies (or according to taste )

Roast all this with out oil and powder coarsely

Method :

Soak the tamarind in hot water. Squeeze and extract the juice. The juice should be about 400 ml. and should be a bit thick.
Heat some oil in a thick bottomed vessel or in a non stick pan.
Add mustard seeds. Let it flutter and then add methi seeds and thuvar dhal. Add the cut onions and saute for 2 mins in slow fire. When the onions are pinkish in colour add the roasted peanuts and mix well.

Add the ground masala powder and fry for a minute. see that the masala roasts well. Add the tamarind juice, salt and turmeric powder. Also add the asafoetida (hing) and allow to boil.
The kozhambu should nicely thicken - approximately to half of its original amount (around 200 ml) - normally a teaspoon of kozhambu should be enough for a small bowl of rice.
Add curry leaves. This stays for a long time, so can be stored in fridge in an air tight container.

Serve hot with steaming rice and papad. This can also be used as side for dosa and uthapam.