Mullangi Poondu Kuzhambhu/Radish & Garlic Kuzhambhu

A simple gravy to go with steaming hot rice. Normally it is Dal tadka and subzi in our home. Coz, i pack either roti or any mixed rice for my hubby and me don't eat rice or roti. So, it is only during weekend's i get to make sambhar, rasam, a traditional Tamil Nadu style full meals.
Last 20 days were crazy, Kuttu had practise everyday 3 hrs for a cultural program in his Arts Institute. We literally are going by his timings. Even on weekends he had practice, so this month i still haven't done my monthly provision shopping,sigghh!! With this crazy schedule, I m just relying what i have in my pantry. This Kuzhambhu was made the same way, i ran out of Sambhar powder, though i have all the ingredients to make it, i m not finding time to make it. So, i made a roast n grind masala, which amma makes in such situations and made this tangy kara kuzhambhu. I paired it with simple potato curry and rice.

Ingredients

1 Medium radish

1 medium tomato

1 Pod of garlic (10-12 cloves of garlic)

a small marble sized tamarind

To Roast n Grind

2 tablespoon chana dal

2 tablespoon coriander seeds

2 nos pearl onions(chinna vengayam)

1 teaspoon peppercorns

5-6 red chilies

2 tablespoon freshly grated coconut

Tempering

2 tablespoon gingely oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

¼ teaspoon ajwain/omam

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

2 pinches of asafoetida/hing

a handful of curry leaves

Method

Wash,peel and cut the radish into roundels. If the radish is huge, i normally cut it vertically into two and cut each half into roundels, so each cut piece looks like a semi circle.
Soak tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes and extract water around 3 cups. Chop tomatoes, peel the garlic and chop each garlic into two and keep things ready.
In a Kadai/pan, add 2 drops of oil and roast the ingredients given under roast n grind except coconut and onion. Once done, let it cool for 10 minutes, then take the roasted ingredients along with small onion and freshly grated coconut in a small jar of your mixer and add ¼ cup of water and grind it to a smooth paste.
In the same kadai, heat oil given under tempering, splutter mustard seeds, add fenugreek, turmeric powder, hing, ajwain and curry leaves. Saute for a minute or two. Add chopped tomatoes, garlic and chopped radish to this and saute for 3- 4 minutes.

Next add the ground masala and saute for 2 minutes, finally add tamarind extract to this along with a cup of water and mix well. When the mixture starts to boil, add salt.
Let this simmer in a medium flame, until the rawness of tamarind disappears, and gravy thickens well. Takes around 20 minutes.