Paruppu Urundai Kolambu - Chettinad Style

    This one will be the special dish I always make for my vegetarian guests. And it reminds me of my college days every single time I make this, since this is the only dish I like from my college mess menu. It tastes delicious when you eat it with Keerai(greens) kootu and appalam.
     I usually make some extra urundai batter and will refrigerate it 2-3 days for making masala vadai for my husbandman's evening snack(which happens rarely;).

Cooking Time : 30 Min
Serving Size : 3-4 people

Ingredients :

For Grinding 1

Channa Dal - 3/4th of a cup
Toor Da1 - 1/4th of a cup
Fennel Seeds/Sombu - 1 tbsp
Red chilly - 4 (reduce or increase  based on your spice level)
Hing/ Perungayam - 1tsp

For Grinding 2

Coconut - 2 tbsp
Fennel Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coucous - 1/2 tsp

Other 

Chopped Onion - 1 cup
Chopped Green Chillies - 1tsp
Shredded coconut - 1/3 cup
Chopped Garlic - 2 tbsp
Chopped Coriander - 2 tbsp
Tomato - 1 medium sized
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander Powder - 2 tbsp
Bay Leaf - 1
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Star Anise - 1
Cloves - 4
Cardamom- 2
Curry leaves - 1 string

Steps : 

1. Soak Channa and Toor dal for 30 minutes. In a blender, add all the ingredients under 'For Grinding 1' section and  blend it coarsely.  Tip - Make sure you blend the dals coarsely. Transfer the ground mix to a bowl,  and then add 1/2 a cup of chopped onion, 1 tsp of chopped green chillies, 1/3 cup of shredder coconut, 2 tbsp of garlic and 2 tbsp of chopped coriander. Add salt and mix everything well (remember we are going to add salt to the curry as well). Make balls out of it (keep aside 2 balls before steaming for curry) and steam it in a idly pan for 8-10 minutes. Keep it aside and let it cool.

2. In a kadai, heat oil then add bay leaf, cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise, cardamom, cloves and a string of curry leaves. Once the spices started to pop up, add remaining 1/2 a cup of chopped onions, add turmeric and cook until it becomes translucent.

3.Add tomatoes and cook until it turns mushy.

4.Add 1 tbsp chilly powder and 2 tbsp coriander powder, mix everything well. Add 2 balls that we kept before steaming to 1 cup of water and1 tbsp of tamarind paste, mix everything and pour it to the onion tomato masala. Let the mixture boil for 10 minutes.

3. Grind the ingredients under 'For Grinding 2' into a fine paste. Add it to the boiling curry, let it boil for another 5 minutes and now check the taste for salt and spiciness - adjust accordingly. Now its time to add the steamed urundai(balls) and boil it for another 5 minutes.

4. Garnish with cilantro and keep it in low flame for 10 minutes until oil separates on the sides.

Enjoy with Rice!