Hotel Sambar / Tiffin Sambar

Any one would be delighted to hear the recipe cooked with restaurant style at home. I am sure of that kind. This is a tamilnadu style Hotel Sambar more like Saravana Bhavan Sambar. I love this with idili, dosa, pongal and other tiffin items. The ground Masala added at the end gives the extra taste.
Hotel Style Sambar

Hotel Sambar / Tiffin Sambar
Author: Sashi
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • Toor dhal – 1/2 cup
  • Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
  • Oil – 3 tsp
  • Mustard – 1/2 tsp
  • Onion – 1/2 ( Medium )
  • Green Chili – 4 nos
  • Curry Leaves – 1 strand
  • Tomato – 1 no
  • Tamarind – 1/4 lemon size
  • Sugar – 1 1/4 tsp
  • TO GRIND :
  • Red Chili – 6 nos
  • Channa dhal – 1 tsp
  • Fenugreek – 1 tsp
  • Coriander Seed – 3 tsp
  • Poppy Seed – 1/2 tsp
  • Cumin Seed – 1/2 tsp
  • Raw Rice – 1 tsp
  • Grated Coconut – 1 tbsp
Instructions
PREP:
  1. In a small pan, add little oil, fry the Raw rice in “To Grind section ” for 1 minute.
  2. Fry the coconut separately for 2 minutes.
  3. Fry the remaining items in the “To Grind ” for 2 minutes.
  4. Allow it to cool down. Grind all these together to a fine powder.
  5. Pressure cook toor dhal with turmeric, oil, 3 cups of water for 2 whistles and mash it after it cools down. Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of water and extract the juice. Chop Onion, Tomato. Split open green chili.
COOKING:
  1. In another pan heat oil and mustard. When the mustard starts spluttering add big onion, green chili, Curry Leaves, tomato and fry till the tomato is cooked.
  2. Add tamarind juice, salt , cooked toor dhal mix and allow it to boil for 3 – 5 minutes untill the raw tamarind smell leaves. Stir often to avoid burning the bottom.
  3. Add Ground powder – 2 tsp, Sugar and mix well. Taste the dhal, if required add some more ground powder. Do NOT add all the ground powder as it would turn the recipe overwhelming with spices. Add little by little until your taste buds feels right.
Notes
This is a good combination for Idili, Paneeyaram, dosa and Ven pongal. Recipe from my Mother-in-law.

 

18 responses to “Hotel Sambar / Tiffin Sambar”

  1. Mary Avatar
    Mary

    Got to this recipe through CFG on FB. Tried it and came out just the way I wanted :) Thank you!

  2. surekhamadhu Avatar
    surekhamadhu

    Suburb….

  3. Arun Avatar
    Arun

    Wow.. it came very well, very good receipe

  4. Mina Avatar

    This is osame very nice recipe nice samber test

    1. Sashi Avatar
      Sashi

      Thanks Mina

  5. Chandri Avatar
    Chandri

    I tried this and it tastes awesome! Just tastes like hotel sambar. Thanks for this wonderful recipe. :)

  6. Swathi Avatar
    Swathi

    Tried it and liked it a lot .. Now cooking it every now and then.. Exactly tastes as hotel sambar… I add potatoes since we all love it .. Thanks a lottttt fr sharing the recipe Sashi.. U rock \m/

  7. salil Avatar
    salil

    myself a chef. I lyk ur recipe 2 mch. The dish was vry delicious. Good job shashi.

  8. Muthu Avatar
    Muthu

    It was awesome!!!I Prepared Today.

    I Just made few modifications!!Since this saambhar goes with Idly and other tiffan items.

    We made it More liquid + added Radish (Which is cooked seperatly) +

    1/2 tbsp of sambhar thool + in addition to that!!!

    It was really awesome!!! As a batchelor!! we never expected this output!!!

    Superb!!!

    1. Sashi Avatar
      Sashi

      Very Happy to note that, thanks for the tips Muthu!!

  9. Sharon Avatar
    Sharon

    Hey Sashi..
    I tried this recipe today n it was awesome.. my parents loved it n of course i loved it too.. it was exactly like hotel sambhar.. thanks alot for sharing it with us.. :)

    1. Sashi Avatar
      Sashi

      Thanks for ur kind words Sharon!!

  10. Sashi Avatar
    Sashi

    Thanks Tamil!!

  11. tamil Avatar
    tamil

    Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful recepie without any secret.
    I tried and got a lot of appreciations from my family.
    Thanks once again.

  12. srijith Avatar
    srijith

    your tip and the secrect was fabulous made the sambar and had a wonderful mouthwatering time, thanks a heap sashi.

  13. Tiffin Sambar « Chef Hema

    […] to try hotel style tiffin sambar for a long time..got the recipe from Sashi’s tasty bites…came out very well..guess the special taste is due to the freshly ground spices…unlike […]

  14. viki's kitchen Avatar
    viki’s kitchen

    Any dish named after hotel inspires me. Ur hotel sambar tempts meto make sambar again, though we had it yesterday also:) So nice a recipe.

    1. Sashi Avatar
      Sashi

      Thanks Viki. :)

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