An Attempt at Sambar

Last night, my significant other and I decided to have an Indian themed dinner. This arose from my desire to make sambar. My partner, being the supportive guy that he is, was all for it, even offering to make Tiki Masala and rice to go along with it.

I learned a lot from making this dish, including the fact that food processors are AWESOME. I got a fancy-schmancy one from Breville and holy cats, is that thing wicked. The second thing I learned is that fresh coconut is a pain to handle. I clearly need to watch some YouTube videos on how to manage those suckers properly. Third thing I learned? We are apparently experiencing a butternut squash shortage in my area (which is random. We ALWAYS have butternut squash). This is still totally delicious if acorn squash is used instead. Fourth, I kinda wish I had put in more salt. Having never made this… I was unsure. Fifthly, when the man in your life says he’ll contribute to the meal and he is just watching you slave over the oven and you’re wondering when the hell he is going to start cooking his part, just know he may have outsmarted the whole cooking process. After I proclaimed the sambar to be done, he microwaved some premade dinners from Costco that may have been better than the sambar. NOT FAIR.

Back to the sambar, this dish does have some heat to it, but its sneaky heat. You’ll be eating this thinking, “Hey, this has a nice kick!” This will cause you to gobble it up. Within moments of halting eating however, you will feel a burning sensation begin in your mouth. This will slowly spread into your esophagus and down your digestive tract making you believe your whole body is on fire. Consequently, you’ll feel obligated to eat ice cream. Don’t question that. You will eat ice cream. Just saying.

For your reference, I used the recipe from Meghna’s.
Coconut Pumpkin Sambar