Poondu Kuzhambu ( Garlic Gravy )

         Poondu (garlic) kuzhambu is a very traditional dish in South Indian cooking. To make it perfectly, you need to have the right amount of sourness, spice level and salt or as known in my language 'uppu, puli, kaaram'.  My daughter loves the garlic in this gravy, she would ask me, whether I could add a 100 of them to the dish. It goes very well with plain white rice and a dal and vegetable curry (kootu) and pappads, a nice spicy gravy for those cold winter or rainy days..

Need To Have 

• Garlic - 2 big whole bulbs peeled
• Small Onions Or Shallots - 6 or 7 chopped
• Green Chillies - 2 slit
• Tomato - 1 big chopped
• Tamarind - 1 lemon sized
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 15
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon

Roast And Powder

• Black Pepper - 1 teaspoon
• Dried Red Chilli - 1
• Black Mustard Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
• Coriander Seeds - 1 teaspoon

Method
          Roast and powder the ingredients given and extract juice from the tamarind (adding hot water to it) and keep. Heat oil ( I used sesame oil), add the mustard and fenugreek seeds, once the spluttering stops, add the chopped shallots, garlic, green chillies and curry leaves, saute till the garlic turns slightly golden. Next, add the tomato, saute till mushy, then add the ground powder, turmeric powder, salt and the tamarind extract, boil it uncovered till the raw smell of tamarind goes away and the gravy becomes thick. Garnish with curry leaves and serve warm with rice, it goes well with idlis and dosas too.

Sending it to Sumee's Culinary Bites for the Bon Vivant event,
                to Vegetarian Food And Me for I'm The Star event,
                to Sara's Corner for the Women's Day Celebration event,
                to Shama's Easy2cook Recipes for Sara's Cooking With Love - Granddad Series event,
                to Foodelicious for the Only South Indian event,
                to Food Corner for the Midweek Fiesta event and
                to Srav's Cooking Concepts for the Vegan Diet - Only Plant Based event.

Note
The red chillies I have were very spicy, use more or less, depending on the spice level.
The sesame oil is the one available at Indian stores, not the one from Chinese stores, this is for my non Indian readers.