Sambar Masala

This recipe is a dry spice mixture that is primarily used for making Sambar - a quintessential South Indian soupy dish that is served with almost all South Indian snacks and meals. I have given the amount of dried red chillis as a range. Use 100 gram if your chillis are the large milder variety, and you are used to spicy food. If the dried chillis are very strong, or you are not used to spicy food, use proportionally less.

There are countless minor variations on the recipe for this masala, but this is the version we use at home.

Ingredients:

• 2 table spoons Toor dal
• 2 table spoons Chana dal
• 2 table spoons Urad dal
• 1/2 tea spoon Fenugreek seeds (Methi)
• 1 tea spoon Black pepper corns
• 1 tea spoon Cumin seeds> (Jeera)
• 1/4 tea spoon Turmeric (Haldi)
• 5 table spoons Corriander seeds
• 25 - 100 gm (1 - 4 ounces) Dried red chillis

Procedure:

Toor dal is sold oily or dry. Both can be used, but wash the oily dal in frequent changes of water just before use. Heat a dry frying pan (Skillet) and dry fry each of the ingredients separately. The dals should be fried until they become a little orange brown. The cumin seeds are done when they turn a shade darker and give off a delightful aroma. Do put the extractor fan on full when you roast the red chillis or you will bring tears to the eyes of everyone in the vicinity!

Grind the roasted ingredients until it becomes a reasonably fine powder. Open your grinder lid carefully -- this masala contains a fair amount of chilli. Kept in a tightly sealed container, the sambar masala will remain good for several months.