Tiffon Sambar by Selvi

Tiffon Sambar powder
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Kadalai paruppu - 1 cup
dry coriander seeds - 1 cup
Methi seeds - 1/4 cup
Dry red chilly - 25
In a pan put 2 tblsp of oil , in the slow fire fry the red chilly nicely. remove it and keep in a plate. Then in the same pan fry rest of the ingredients one by one nicely , remove it and let it comes to room temperature. Then grind coarsely in the mixier and store it in a air tight container to retain the freshness of the powder.

Preparation of pasiparru/toor dhal sambar for tiffon items:
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Pasiparuppu / Toor dhal - 1 cup soak in water for an hour so that it can be cooked very easily in the pressure cooker.
While cooking the dhal, just add a drop of castor oil and 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder, this helps to cook the dhal very soft and it will not come out of the cooker.No need of frying the dhal. Just soak it for half an hour and then cook it in the cooker for a whistle . my mom will tell maligai poo pola malarinthu errukanum. then only it will be nice. if we cook like a paste then it doesnt taste nice.
In a kadai put 1 tblsp of oil then add kaduku, urad dhal, one red chilly, hing . once the kaduku pops up add sambar onions 10 to 15 (slit lengthwise), curry leaves- a few, one green chilly (slit lengthwise) fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
Now add the vegetables carrot - 1 medium size (finely chopped),brinjals -2 (finely chopped), fry for 4 minutes. Then add tomato - 1 big size (chopped coarsely), fry for 2 minutes. Now add the dhal water to this cover and cook for 5 minutes. Once the vegetables are cooked add the tamarind extract from gooseberry size of tamarind. Let it boil for a while, then add the required salt, turmeric powder. once it comes to boil, now add the cooked dhal, sambar powder 2 tsp. Check for the taste, if u need more of sambar powder then u can add another 1/2 tsp. Allow it to boil for 5 minutes, add some fresh coriander leaves, then the sambar is ready. This goes with pongal,idli,dosa, idiyappam, vada, uppuma , wheat dosa, ragi dosa, kambu dosa etc.

For rava dosa we used to make toor dhal sambar, for that slight variation is there. when we cook toor dhal, just add 1/2 cup of chopped yellow pumkin without skin. Then follow the above procedure, finally we have add 1tsp of jaggery. Then we get perfect hotel sambar taste.

Optional: If we like garlic smell, then we add 2 garlic cloves crushed , when we r doing tadka for sambar.

Also if we dont have carrot and brinjal, we can use finely chopped potatoes.