Categories: Vegetables, Vegetarian, Indian 
      Yield: 4 servings 
  
           Lemon-size tamarind; 
           -soaked in 1 cup water 
           Pearl onions/shallots;peeled 
      2    Dried red chilli pods 
  1 1/2 ts Sambar powder 
  1 1/2 ts Rice flour; mixed with a 
           -little water for thickening 
           Salt; to taste 
           Mustard (seasoning) 
           Chana dal (seasoning) 
           Curry leaves (seasoning) 
      1 pn Hing 
      2 tb Oil 
  
  Warm oil. Season with mustard , chana dal and curry powder. Saut‚ peeled 
  onions till translucent. Add squeezed out extract of tamarind. Throw the 
  sambar powder, salt and hing in. Let simmer till onions are cooked. Add 
  dissolved rice flour water for thickening. Stir and wait till it simmers 
  again a couple of minutes. Remove. 
   
  Variations: 
   
  Tomatoes with chick peas makes a delicious vatha kozhambu. Add some slit 
  green chillies if you would like to spike it up. Other suggestions are 
  diced sweet potato, diced butternut squash, daikon (Chinese radish), 
  drumsticks (available fresh in Indian stores or canned, pre-cooked) all on 
  their own. 
   
    U15297@uicvm.bitnet (Shyamala Parameswaran)