Vella Khozhambhu

I have made patti's vella-khozambhu after a long long time. The recipe is very similar to
making vartha-khozambhu, but we add a little jaggery and chillies to it. This gives it a nice sweet/spicy flavor.





Ingredients:

1. Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon
   
2. Fenugreek - 1/2 teaspoon
   
3. Red dal - 1/2 teaspoon
   
4. Red chillis - 2 in number
5. Sambar powder - 2 1/2 tea spoons
6. Jaggery - 1 1/2 tea spoons
   
7. Tamarind paste - 1 teaspoon
8. Veggies -- preferrably spicy, or sweet. Good choices for making vella khozambhu are Okra, Red-pumpkin, and Green bell peppers
   

Procedure:

1. In a vessel, add a few teaspoons of oil and do the Tadka (mustard, fenugreek, red-dal and chillies)
2. Add cut vegetables, and fry it with the sambar powder for a few minutes
3. Add 3 cups of tamarind water (water + tamarind paste), with Jaggery. Allow the concoction to boil.
4. Once the amount of water reduces to 2.5 cups, add a little rice-flour paste to the mixture. This helps the ingredients to bind well with each other.

Comments:
Vella-khozambhu should have a well-balanced flavor of spiciness and sweetness. To achieve this, we should balance the amount of chillies and jaggery added to the preparation. If we are using non-spicy vegetables (like Okra or red-pumpkin) we can add a few green-chillies to increase the spiciness. Similarly, when using sweet vegetables (like red-pumpkin) we should reduce the amount of jaggery used.