Simple homestyle tamarind based gravy made with Lotus Roots!
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Total Time45 minutesmins
Course: accompaniment, lunch
Cuisine: Indian, south indian, tamil nadu
Keyword: kamal kakdi curry, lotus root kuzhambu, lotus stem curry
Servings: 4
Author: Mullai Madavan
Equipment
Sauce pan or Kadai
Ingredients
10sliceLotus root
1cupOnionfinely chopped
1/2cupTomatochopped
3clovesGarliccrushed
1eachGreen chilislit
1/4tspTurmeric powder
1tspRed chili powder
1tbspCoriander powder
1/4tspSugar or Jaggery
1/2tspMustard
1/2tspCumin
6leavesCurry leaves
1/4cupTamarind extractor thick store bought pulp 1tsp
1/4tspAsafoetida
1½tspSaltor to taste
2tbspOilpreferably gingelly oil
1cupWater
2tspCoriander leaveschopped, for garnish
1cupVeggie or Seafood of choiceoptional, *** Read notes
Instructions
Prep work
Cooking Lotus Roots: In order to steam them you need to either boil or pressure cook. Boiling over stove top in a pot of water could take 20 to 25 minutes over medium flame. Pressure cooking takes 2 whistles to make them tender. I've chosen to boil along with the kuzhambu ingredients to blend the flavor.
Additional veggies or seafood - Lotus roots are quite bland in taste, adding few veggies along with it can enhance the flavor. Veggies like drumstick, yam, potato, brinjal will work for vegetarians. Non vegetarians can add a few shrimp / prawns / fresh anchovies to make it extra special. This is purely optional, you can still enjoy a decent tasting gravy with just the lotus roots.
For Curry
Heat oil in a sauce pan, splutter mustard, cumin and curry leaves.
Sprinkle asafoetida powder and add chopped onions, green chili and crushed fresh garlic.
Fry for 5 minutes over medium flame or until translucent.
Now add chopped tomatoes, along with lotus root cuts. ( Optional: At this stage, add any one veggie of choice, if desired )
Saute for couple of minutes in the onion tomato mixture.
Now add water and turmeric powder. Bring this to a boil, then cover and cook over low flame for next 20 minutes or until the roots turn tender. ( A knife inserted should pass through the root easily and come off the other side, indicates its cooked through )
Once it cooks, add red chili powder, coriander power, sugar, tamarind extract and salt. (Any soft veggie or seafood can added at this stage)
Cook this gravy base for 5 to 6 minutes and simmer for 10 or until the oil separates on top.
Garnish with coriander and curry leaves. Turn it off!
Serve lotus root kuzhambu topped over piping hot rice!
Notes
You can also substitute red chili powder and coriander powder with 2 tablespoons of Kuzhmabu Milagai thool.
Fresh Lotus roots are hard to find here in the USA, I have used frozen lotus roots picked from local Indian Stores.
Additional veggies or seafood - Lotus roots are quite bland in taste, adding few veggies along with it can enhance the flavor. Veggies like drumstick, yam, potato, brinjal will work for vegetarians. Veggies like drumstick , yam or potato can go along with the lotus root as they also take long time to cook. While soft veggies like brinjal can go in after cooking the lotus roots. Non vegetarians can add a few shrimp / prawns / fresh anchovies to make it extra special. This is purely optional, you can still enjoy a decent tasting gravy with just the lotus roots.