MMC Ingredient 2 Pearl Onion - Verdict

Here's "M"s verdict on pearl onion sambar... He sure is one strict judge with a very sensitive palate :-)
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Hello everyone,

You are reading the Me Myself and Chef Challenge review number 2.

The ingredient as you know already is Pearl onions. Just like the last review, I will start this review with my experience identifying and buying the necessary ingredients. Then talk about making the recipe and then end it with the final opinion on this dish.

The Shopping Experience:

Well, on identifying and buying the ingredients, there wasn’t anything specific that I have to buy except for the onions and a few spices. And as most of the spices and other ingredients are common ones used in Indian food, I didn’t have much of a problem in identifying them as well.

The Cooking Experience:

Regarding the cooking, I would say it was a bit tedious. It took me pretty much the entire hour to make this dish. As I have never tried boiling the lentils and onions together, I thought I will try that option. And surprisingly, the end result was the lentils were well cooked but the onions though cooked were still in whole pieces, which of course was fine with me. I toned down the amount of coriander seeds. I also used only half of cinnamon and cloves amount mentioned as I am not a big fan of both of them in Sambhar.

The Verdict:

And finally my overall opinion of the dish, I liked it. As Rajee took the traditional route this time, and made a dish of which I have tasted some form or other earlier, I didn’t expect me not to like the dish. Regarding the taste of this dish, I would give it a 6 out of 8. The onions tasted good in the sambhar. Though I used less amounts of cinnamon and cloves, they still overpowered all other ingredients in the sambhar. But as Rajee said those are the ingredients which actually make this dish different from other varieties, I am not going to complain here. Regarding ease of cooking, well not as easy as making the fennel carrot soup ! I would say 5 out of 6. Regarding health aspects of the dish, just like the last dish, there is pretty much nothing about this dish that is unhealthy. Hence 4 off 4. Regarding uniqueness factor, technically the uniqueness factor on method of cooking/eating is nothing new, however, Rajee gave us a fantastic sentimental story behind this dish, and hence whole 2 points for that.

So its 6 + 5 + 4 + 2 = 17/20.

Conclusion:

Thanks for reading this review so far. Will meet you all at Rajee’s blog next time with Review 3. Thank you.