SINDHI CURRY / TOMATO CURRY

Sindhi Curry is one of the most famous Sindhi dishes. Think Sindhi and our curry comes into your mind. People all over India who are non sindhis and who have sindhi friends just love it and loved to be invited for lunch if curry is made. Its quite easy to make tho there are a few “must do rules” if you want the authentic taste. There are also many different ingredients, but i will teach you the authentic one. Our curry has a tangy sweetish taste, but this can be adapted to ones palate. I like it not too sweet and very spicy. For that you can increase the quantity of red chilli powder and green chillies used for your recipe.

We also have tomato curry which is made in the same way except that instead of water, pureed boiled tomatoes are added-

The method is exactly the same, as you can see from the picture, tomato curry is bright red in colour. So, lets start with our ingredients which i will list in order to make cooking easy,. please keep all ingredients at hand before starting. Pre chop the vegetables you want to use such as ( cubed potatoes, carrot slices, full okra ( lady fingers/ bhinid), cluster beans, french beans, lotus stem rounds, cubed yam, corn on the cob, and drum sticks, now some people also add cauliflower, brocolli, and other vegetables. I dont. By the way the pic of the curry is courtesy Shradha Chattani.

FOR 4-6 people

5 tablespoons of cooking oil ( sunflower, corn , or light olive oil)

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds ( important ingredient, cannot be omitted if you want the authenticy of the curry)

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida ( hing), this is very important ingredient

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

3 tablespoons gram flour ( besan )

10 fresh or dried curry leaves

2 litres of water and salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder

Few chopped green chillies, 1 inch grated ginger

6 tablespoons of tamarind pulp ( freshly squeezed or store bought, if store bought try to buy one which is not so dark)

2-3 tablespoons of palm sugar , or normal sugar or to taste

Vegetables of your choice, add the ones that take longer time to cook and then gradually add the other ones.

Chopped Coriander leaves

METHOD FOR SINDHI CURRY

Heat the oil in a big pot and when heated add the fenugreek seeds and let them pop, then add the asafoetida and let it cook for 5 seconds and then the cumin seeds and let them pop. Soon after add the gram flour and now cook this gram flour on low flame stirring all the time till it changed its colour to a pale brown ( DO NOT BROWN IT) . If you burn it you will need to start all over again, ( this is the most important step in the curry). Once its pale brown add the chopped ginger, green chillies and cook for 2 seconds. Remove from heat and add the water ( i say remove from heat so that there is no spluttering, if you dont remove it from heat, the water will splash and you might burn yourself ). Once you add the water, you can add the turmeric, red chilli powder , curry leaves and boil this for about 15 minutes. You will soon see how the gram flour has blended with the water . This shows you are on the right track. Now add the vegetables of your choice according to their cooking time. Add the tamarind pulp, the sugar and taste it. It should taste tangy and a bit sweetish. You can add less or more of tamarind pulp or sugar to taste. You can also make it thinner by adding more water, This recipe can be adapted to ones taste.

Boil this curry till the vegetables are done. To finish it garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.

NOW FOR THE TOMATO CURRY

Follow the same recipe but instead of plain water just boil 6 red tomatoes in 2 litres of water and some ginger and green chillies. Blend it into a puree and add this to the above recipe instead of plain water. I find the tomato curry so delicious that I dont add any veggies to it sometimes and just have it like a soup.

NITU DIDI TIP

The tomato curry is rich in Vitamin C and very nourishing . By reducing the amount of oil used, it can be used for a calorie controlled diet-.

FOR JAINS: just omit the ginger

AND FINALLY

here is the curry i made, dalgona style!