Category: Healthy Cooking, Lunch, Traditional
Cuisine: Tamilnadu
Yields: 5 Servings Difficulty: Medium Prep Time: 20 Mins Cook Time: 25 Mins Total Time: 45 Mins
The Cold weather around brings in a lot of uninvited guests – cough, cold, strep throat. Also, we look on for hot, spicy stuff to treat our tastebuds. Milagu Kuzhambu is one such version of spicy, traditional remedy for the winter weather troubles.
The combination of fresh spice powder, combined with tamarind juice and garlic pods and finishing off with a dash of sesame oil will definitely linger your numb taste buds. This milagu kuzhambu can stay fresh for a week if handled properly. I usually pair this spicy milagu kulambu with any kootu made from green vegetables like Surakkai Kootu, Pumpkin Kootu.
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
- Tempering Ingredients
- Roast and Grind
Instructions
- Soak the tamarind in hot water and leave aside. Heat a pan and drizzle a tsp of oil to it. Roast the ingredients in the “To roast and grind” column to golden brown color. Grind them to a fine paste with little water and set them aside.
- Peel off the skin from garlic and small onions and set aside. Heat the pan and add sesame oil to it. Once they shimmer, add mustard seeds along with a spring of curry leaf and allow it to splutter.
- Now add the peeled garlic and small onions to it and saute until they are golden brown. Add the grounded pepper paste to it. Fry until the raw smell of it goes off. This would take at least 2 – 3 mins.
- Extract thick tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind and add to the cooked pepper paste. Add turmeric powder and required salt to taste.
- Allow 5 – 7 mins for it to boil and thicken. Now add a piece of jaggery and let it roll boil another 2 mins to thicken. Switch off the stove when you see a layer of sesame oil that oozes off from the kulambu. Serve them with hot rice, ghee, and any mild kootu/poriyal.
Notes
- I added one small red chili for this kulambu. You can avoid it completely and increase the measure of peppercorns.
- The addition of Sesame oil and jaggery is to common flash the heat of peppercorns. Also, the addition of jaggery, add a mild sweetness to the kulambu.