Curry Leaves Stew

In this instructable I will explain how to make the tasty Curry Leaves Stew. This nutritious stew is gluten free and can be served with Idli, Dosai, Rice or Flat Bread

• Large bunch of Curry leaves. Here I have harvested the curry leaves from our kitchen garden. If you buy from market make sure you will get 2 to 3 handful of leaves after removing the stems
• 2 teaspoons of husked Blackgram lentils (They are also known as white lentils)
• 2 teaspoons of split Bengal gram
• 2 teaspoons of split Red gram (Tuvar Dal)
• A lemon sized piece of Tamarind
• 1 teaspoon of Black pepper corns
• 2 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds (we will use 1 teaspoon for tempering)
• 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds (we will use 1 teaspoon for tempering)
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 tomato
• 8 to 10 Garlic cloves
• 5 to 6 dried Red chillies
• Salt to taste. Here I have used Black salt
• Oil for cooking

• Remove stems and separate the curry leaves. You should have minimum 2 handfuls of the leaves to make the stew
• Rinse the leaves in running water to remove any insects or soil particles
• Drain out water and keep aside

• Keep a frying pan over medium heat and add the curry leaves to it
• Do not add any oil, just dry-fry till the moisture content evaporates from the leaves and they become dry
• Remove from pan and spread the leaves in a plate to cool

• Chop onion and tomato into small pieces and keep aside
• Shuck garlic and chop into small pieces
• Soak the lemon sized piece of tamarind in a cup of warm water for about ten minutes
• After ten minutes squeeze with your fingers, filter out the tamarind juice and keep aside

• Now we need to dry-fry White gram, Bengal gram, Red gram, Black peeper corns, 1 teaspoon of Cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds separately. you can use the same pan in which curry leaves are dry-fried. All these ingredients are required to be dry-fried separately to prevent over-burning.
• Keep 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds for tempering
• Break the dried red chillies into pieces and dry-fry in the same pan
• You can transfer all these dry-fried ingredients together in a same metal bowl for cooling

• When all dry-fried ingredients including the curry leaves have been cooled down, transfer every thing together in a mixer grinder jar and grind to a fine powder
• The spice powder may be little hot after grinding, so remove from grinder jar and spread in a metal plate and allow to cool to room temperature

• Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat
• When the oil is heated, add 1 teaspoon each of cumin seed and fenugreek seed we kept aside and a bunch of curry leaves to oil
• When the cumin seeds start to crack, add chopped onions and garlic cloves
• Saute till onions are fried to a golden brown

• Add chopped tomatoes to the pan and saute till oil oozes out from sides
• Pour the tamarind juice to the pan and add salt to taste
• Mix all ingredients together, close the lid and keep over medium flame till the mix starts to boil

• Once the mix in the pan starts to boil, add powdered ingredients and mix well
• You can add a cup of water to the pan if the mix seems to be very thick
• Stir continuously to prevent the stew from sticking to the bottom of the pan

• After a few minutes you will find all water content from the stew evaporated and oil bubbles up on top
• Now put off the flame and transfer the contents to a serving bowl

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Idli, Dosai, Rice or Flat bread