Grandma’s Vellapoodu Kuzhambu, as the name suggests, is a dish from my late grandmother’s kitchen. It is more of like a family recipe, in the sense, passed on to my mom and then to me. Now I am sharing this with you.
Vellapoodu kuzhambu is a popular dish in south India and is primarily made of pepper, curry leaves and lots of garlic cloves. It is one of my favorite dishes among vegetarian recipes. It has been a mainstay in my mom’s cooking since my childhood.
The first time I made my grandma’s vellapoodu kuzhambu, it did not resemble to the one made by my mom but my perseverance paid off. So, when I say the recipe has been tried and tested, it literally means that 🙂
As I had mentioned in my puli kuzambhu recipe, the main ingredient for my grandma’s vellapoodu kuzhambu is using whole garlic cloves; not the diced ones. This gives the unique taste found in my grandma’s recipe.
So here is the wonderful recipe of my grandma’s vellapoodu kuzhambu and let me know how well did it go in your kitchen 🙂
- Gingelly oil – 1 tbsp
- Cumin seed – 1 tbsp
- Red chilli – 1
- Black Pepper – 1 tsp
- Mustard seed – 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
- Raw Rice – 1 tbsp (soaked in water for 1 hour)
- Garlic cloves – 15 nos
- Raw rice water (kalani thanni) – 1 cup
- Curry leaves – a sprig
- Salt – as required
- Heat a pan with half a tsp of gingelly oil. Add cumin seeds, black peeper, red chilli and half a tsp of mustard seeds and stir fry till they start to splutter. Allow it to cool and grind it with a tsp of turmeric powder, soaked rice and a garlic clove with little raw rice water and make into paste.
- Heat the same pan with remaining oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When mustard seeds start to splutter, add in the remaining garlic cloves and sauté for a minute or until the cloves changes color.
- Now add ground masala along with raw rice water and salt and give it a stir. Bring it to boil or wait until the gravy thickens and garlic cloves are well cooked.
- Serve this gravy on side with hot rice and scrambled egg.
Adding this water is mainly because it thickens the gravy.
