Me tamarind…You Jaggery….

I had read somewhere that adding jaggery to the sambar was a ploy invented by the kannadigas to get back at tamilians!!

It could be true also since anyone who likes the traditional Tamil sambar would never imagine putting jaggery in it!…
I still remember when my close relative did that to a sambar which I had made when she came to visit us!….I was livid!….

In fact if you want to find out if a particular person is tamilian or kannadiga just taste their sambar!!… If it’s sweet then kannadiga it is!!!

The same goes for tamarind. Yeah I know kannadigas also put tamarind in their sambar but that’s rare and if they do they change the nomenclature to Huli!!…
It tastes like your traditional tamil sambar but it’s not called sambar!..it could be loosely related to the kara kozhambu which a Tamil meal would have. This is a distant cousin of sambar but no dal and very spicy!!..not as spicy as the gun powder which you get in andhra hotels though!!!…
Now coming back to sambar…..I have never put jaggery in sambar since it’s just not done!!…..
In our house we make Kannada sambar when my in laws come and when my parents come it’s time to take the tamil sambar out!…. The nuances of mixed marriage you see!!… My wife is a true blue kannadiga while we were palakkad tamilians who are a special breed of tamilians!….we belong to Kerala but are not malayalis!!….we do not belong to tamil nadu though we can speak like a proper tamalian (with proper practice of course!!) Any day!!…..
Over the years typical Kannada rice or chitranna was my wife and kids standard forte though as a palakkad tamilian I stuck to tamarind rice!!…

Another dish which is the pride of kannadiga is the bisi bele bath!….ask any tamilian he would say that it’s just sambar rice with garam masala but for a kannadiga it is Prasada!!….

Over the years I had become an expert in cooking both lemon rice and bisi bele bath!!…. Though I never ate the former I use to relish the later……

One fine day we called my dads friends for dinner and since they were also almost kannadigas now I decided to make bisi bele bath!!…… since both had Tamil and malayalam roots I decided to take a risk and add a larger dose of tamarind to the concoction….all the vegetables like cauliflower capsicum potato onion tomato and beans and that very aromatic powder and I knew I had a winner in my hands!!!!…..
All set and since we were hungry we decided to have a taste!!… The moment we opened the cooker the aroma filled the room and all of us were eager to bite into the dish!!….Minu was the first to get the first bite though and she couldn’t hide the fact that all’s not well…..I usually believe only my palate to find out if my cooking was good or not and so I tasted it myself to realize that my over tamarind mixing had back fired!!….
The bath was so sour that even a pregnant lady who generally like sour things would not eat more than some bites….. In the damage control phase then I made the dish little more Watery and added more salt and powder but it was just too sour!!….. Losing all hope I was wondering what to do when Minu suggested me to put some jaggery into the dish!!…..it was blasphemous for me at the time but I was desperate!…. Since it was a lot I had to reluctantantly go with the flow so to speak and put two huge chunk of jaggery in the dish….. We waited for five minutes for the jaggery melt and gel with the rice dal vegetables and finally the tamarind….. once again Minu took a bite and even this time she couldn’t hide her emotion (one of the many reasons why I like her off course!!) But this time it was a good emotion!!…I did the litmus test myself and I would certainly tell that it was one of the tastiest bisi bele bath which I had ever tasted in my life!!!….

It was after that day when the jaggery finally found a place on my cooking shelf when making Bisi bele bath and Also sometimes when I used to make rasam….. So do I put jaggery in sambar now??…. Baby steps friends…… For now tamarind that’s me and jaggery that Minu make an awesome combination!!!!….
Wishing her a very happy birthday!!…. Now time for some Huli!!