Keerai Kuzhambu

Ingredients
Keerai - Arai keerai 1 big bunch ( 3 cups of leaves alone)
Small onion - 10
Tomato - 1
Green chilly - 1 big size
Garlic pods - 5
Oil -  1 tblsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urud dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Red chilly - 2
Thoor dal  - 4 tblsp
Tamarind - 1 small red chilly size

Preparation
1. Soak thoor dal, turmeric powder, onion, tomato, garlic and green chilli in 1 cup of water for 30 min. Pressure cook for 3 whistle.
2. Clean and take leaves alone from arai keerai and wash thoroughly for 3 times. Cook with 1 cup of water.
3. Take keerai alone and reserve the boiled water.
4. Blend keerai, tamarind and dal mix using "Paruppu chatti and Mattu". Now add salt and reserved keerai water and mix well.
5. Heat oil in pan and temper with mustard, urud dal, red chilly and curry leaves. Add to keerai and mix well.
6. Serve hot with steamed rice!

Note
1. Dont over cook keerai. It might give slight bitter taste.
2. You can use any kind of spinach. Take leaves alone. Dont use old stems. If steams are tender and fresh ones then chop them and use along with leaves.
3. Instead of paruppu chatti you can blend in mixi. But the traditional method gives nice texture and taste for keerai kuzhambu which you can never achieve using a machine!
4. For arai keerai kuzhambu alone, you can skip tamarind and add raw mangoes. Pressure cook along with dal and blend. You can use 1/2 cup to 1 cup chopped mango depending upon its sour taste.