Chettināttu Sambhār or Pachadi – what’s in a name?

Dec 7

Go to Chettināttu Palagāratthu Sambhar Recipe

I have been rather remiss in not posting the recipe for Sambhār earlier as it is one of the earliest recipes that wannabe cooks are made to master. If you ask a Tamilian to make Sambhār, more than likely, you will be asked what Sambhār you would like – there are more than a dozen varieties, all of them made with a base of tuvaram paruppu (toor dal / split yellow pigeon peas) and equally tasty, but some more popular than others. The recipe we post this week is Palagāratthu Sambhār – a traditional accompaniment at breakfasts in Nagarathar (Chettiar) homes, one that does not use sambhār podi or masala of any sort, and is most likely not known outside of the community.

Ayah didn’t make this particular sambhār very often, preferring the richness of the various lunchtime sambhārs that she served with rice. However, this made it to the table for breakfast on special occasions like Diwali and Pongal, as traditional an accompaniment to idli as you could get, possibly as a perfect foil for the heavy meal that was served. To be honest, the darling daughters weren’t too fond of this dish as young children and it was only as I grew up, ventured overseas and yearned for the comforts of home that I grew to appreciate its simplicity. What I do remember as a child though was each of us fishing out our favourite vegetables from the sambhār – Aiyah fought us for the chunky potatoes (of course!) while Ayah hunted down the drumsticks and eggplants.

The array of sambhārs and pachadis that are a part of Chettiar cuisine are rather mind boggling, and adding to the confusion is that these things are called different names in different parts of the region – who would’ve thought, considering the whole area, consisting of 70 odd villages, is no bigger than 1600 square kilometers (600 square miles)! Take for instance the humble palagāratthu sambhār, with its chunky vegetables simmered with tuvaram paruppu – in some parts of Chettinad, this is known as pachadi, which to some is chopped up potatoes and eggplant cooked with pāsi paruppu (moong dal / split green gram dal), which to some is kichadi, which to some is rava (semolina / sooji) upma cooked with vegetables (as opposed to the rice and moong dal khichdi that is popular in regions outside of South India). Confused? So was I, as a young bride who soon came to realise that even the barely 30 kilometers that separated my in-laws’ village from my parents’ represented nuances in customs and food that could be highly confusing resulting in rather amusing consequences. The pachadi I made was definitely not the one my in-laws were expecting at my first Diwali with them!

So, on that rather confusing note, here is the recipe for the Chettināttu Palagāratthu Sambhār, also known as Pachadi...

Chettināttu Palagāratthu Sambhār Recipe

Ingredients:

½ cup split pigeon peas (tuvaram paruppu / toor dal)
½ tsp turmeric powder
2-3 cups water
1 medium sized onion, diced
1 medium sized tomato, diced (same quantity as onion)
2-3 fresh green / red chilli (increase depending on required spice levels)
2 baby eggplants (chinna kathirikkai), quartered lengthwise or ¼ big eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium sized potato, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 drumstick, cut into 1 inch pieces
3-4 sprigs of coriander, broken up roughly
Salt to taste (~1.5 tsp)

Tempering:

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai / kadugu)
1 teaspoon split urad dal (ulundam paruppu)
¼ teaspoon Asafoetida powder (hing / perungayam)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera / jeeragam)
1 dried red chilli, broken in halves
10 Curry leaves

Method:

1. Wash the dal and boil with the turmeric powder and 2 cups of water until very soft as it needs to be mashed. If cooking in the pressure cooker, cook for 5 whistles, if in a pot, take out some dal and press to see if the centre is cooked through.

½ cup split pigeon peas (tuvaram paruppu / toor dal)
½ tsp turmeric powder
2-3 cups water

2. While the dal is cooking, cut the vegetables.

1 medium sized onion, diced
1 medium sized tomato, diced (same quantity as onion)
2-3 fresh green / red chilli (increase depending on required spice levels)
2 baby eggplants (chinna kathirikkai), quartered lengthwise or ¼ big eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium sized potato, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 drumstick, cut into 1 inch pieces

3. Once the dal is cooked, drain most of the water and reserve it to cook the vegetables in.

4. Mash the dal, with a little bit of the water.

5. Take a pot or a saucepan and add the reserved dal water to it. Reserve a few pieces of the onion for tempering. Add the rest of the onions, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes and drumstick to the dal water. The water should be about ½ inch above the vegetables, so add more water if needed.

6. Add the salt and cook covered until the vegetables are 3/4th cooked – should take about 5-8 minutes.

Salt to taste (~1.5 tsp)

7. Add the mashed dal to the vegetables, and mix in. Boil for a few more minutes until the sambhār becomes thick.

8. If too thick, you can add more water. Also taste and add more salt, if needed.

9. Take another small pan and heat the oil for tempering. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal. Once the mustard seeds start popping, add the cumin seeds, dried chillies and asafoetida. Once the cumin seeds and chillies become slightly bron, add the reserved onions and curry leaves. Be careful when doing this as it will splatter. Stir for a few seconds and turn off the flame.