Sundal recipes for Navaratri

Assuming that ten ladies are invited for Navaratri kolu we need half kilogram kadalai paruppu or bengal gram. Soak for 30 minutes.  If you have sufficient time soak for 45 minutes.  Unlike this sundal  other sundal varieties require 12 hours soaking. So this can qualify as a quick sundal recipe too.  

The soaked bengal gram can be cooked separately in a vessel after adding water for cooking or in a pressure cooker. ( in a pressure cooker allow just two whistles ).

In a vessel take two  table spoons of cooking oil, add one teaspoon mustard seeds, a pinch of asafoetida (perungayam in Tamil ) for flavour, two red chillies of medium size and curry leaves.  Now add the cooked bengal gram after removing excess water.  Add salt to taste.  Cook for a few minutes till moisture is removed.  Adding grated coconut enhances the taste and flavour.
Few decades back sundal was distributed to guests in pottalam as we call it.  Now we can distribute it through ziploc plastic bags ! When we were young, we friends went to most houses in the street  to see the Navaratri kolu but it was actually for the sundal pottalam.  When we came out of a house we would open the pottalam immediately to see what sundal variety was inside!

Assuming that ten ladies are invited for Navaratri kolu we need 250 gram of mochai or Indian bean. Soak for 12 hours. Usually we soak it over night.  Cook it in a pressure cook after adding a pinch of turmeric powder.  Stop cooking after three whistles.

Now the steps are same as in the case of the previous sundal .  In a vessel take two  table spoons of oil, add a teaspoon mustard seeds, a pinch of asafoetida   Add half teaspoon red chilli powder.  Of course we can adjust depending upon how hot it turns out to be.  Now add the cooked bengal gram after removing excess water.  Add salt to taste and grated coconut.  Cook for  two minutes .

3. Red karamani sundal 
The third sundal variety for Navaratri season is red karamani sundal.  The steps for making this sundal are as given in mochai sundal variety. However we can add half teaspoon coriander powder to get a different flavour.



Similarly, we can have pattani sundal, peanuts (verkadalai ) and rajma sundal
Kondakadali sundal - the same procedure as described for the other varieties above.
 For peanuts sundal we can add a pinch of turmeric powder ( it is optional ) but the taste changes considerably.