Potato curry with black cumin seed

Potato curry with black cumin seed - Preparation time 10 to 15 mins
I used to make this dry curry when i prepare variety rice. This is a simple and easy potato curry. One day i bought black jeera/ onion seed/ karum jeeragam this looks like black sesame seed . I tried it with potato and red chili powder it came out well so i used to prepare that curry. Last week i tried the same curry with crushed pepper (instead of red chili) as i suffered from cold and want to take something simple also spicy.
It was good and tasty along with a hot tomato rasam and fried papad. The food was filling, spicy  and also light.

Ingredients:-
Potato - 2 (medium sized) remove the skin and chop to small cubes.
Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
Crushed pepper - 1 tsp (adjust according to your taste)
Salt - as required
Water - to sprinkle and cook potato
Onion seed/ karun jeeragam/ black cumin - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation method:-
In a kadai add oil, black cumin seed. When it is roasted add the chopped potato and sortae well in the oil so all the potatoes are coated with oil.
Now add turmeric powder, salt and sprinkle little water. Cover the kadai with lid and cook in slow flame. Every few mins remove the lid and stir the potato so it won't stick in the kadai. If required you can add oil.
When the potato got cooked add the pepper powder and mix well. Cover and cook for few mins so the potato absorbs the taste and flavour of the pepper.
Hardly this will take 10 to 15 mins to cook this dish.

Chow chow and carrot sambhar for rice (Vegetable Dhal gravy for rice)

Chow chow and carrot sambhar for rice - Preparation time 20 mins.

Sambhar, kootu, rasam and poriyal will be the regular dishes we used to cook for our lunch either one of the gravies with some vegetable curry and curd for our every day meal. Sambhar will have a unique taste and if cooked with right ingredients and proportion it will be yummy with main dish like white rice, idli, dosa, chapathi, puri etc. It contains the taste of slight tangy, sweet, spicy, salt in each and every bite/spoon of rice.
During summer the same spicy sambhar will be cooked in slow flame to make it to a solid consistency of the sambhar which we used to call as sunda kuzhambhu which is the best partner for rice soaked in water along with small onion, curry leaves, salt and curd (Thanni sadham). This will taste a step above than the sambhar. 
Now let use see how to make the sambhar for rice. Mom used to make and give me the sambhar powder which is the main ingredient for sambhar. I will update the making of sambhar powder after asking her. Below is the way how my mom used to make sambhar and serve. I follow the same because mom is first teacher and the best as always :-)

Ingredients:-
Sambhar powder - 1and 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 string leaves chopped
Coriander leaves - 2 string leaves and stem chopped
Tamarind - small ball of 1 inch diameter soaked in little water (or goose berry size . i prefer tamarind slightly sweet else we have use 1/4 tsp of sugar )
Boiled milk - 1 laddle
Cooked toor dhal - 1 cup
Chow chow & carrot - chopped to slightly thick slices 1 cup
Water - 2 cup 
Mustard seed - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seed  - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Red chili - 1 (broke to pieces and remove the seeds)
small onion - 6 (Chopped to thin strings)

Preparation method:-
Pressure cook one and half ladle of toor dhal with a tsp of mung dhal and required amount of water (1 cup) for 3 to 4 whistle. Mix this with the milk and keep aside.

After mashing the tamarind well and extracting the juice filter the tamarind water to vessel in which sambhar is going to be made.
To the tamarind extract add salt, turmeric, sambhar powder and mix. Check the spice and salt, adjust according to your taste. Boil the mixture.

In a pan add the chopped vegetable with 1 tsp sesame oil. Fry till raw smell goes off and slightly the color will change.

Add 1 cup water to the vegetable and leave to cook the vegetable till it becomes soft. Now transfer cooked vegetable to boiling sambhar mixture. 

Let the vegetables boil for 5 mins to absorb the taste of sambhar. Add boiled toor dhal with little water and milk mixture to boiling sambhar.

In a tawa add sesame oil, mustard to splutter, fenugreek seed along with red chili, half of the chopped curry leaves and coriander leaves, chopped onion. Fry till the onion is cooked or you can add the full onions while frying and cooking the vegetables as i did.

Finally add the asfoetida to the garnishing and transfer this to boiling sambhar. Add the remaining curry leaves and coriander leaves. Let this boil for 2 seconds.

Check the consistency of the sambhar if too thick add little boiling water and transfer to the serving bowl. Taste and see whethet the salt is correct and adjust.
Tasty and traditional sambhar is ready to eat. I used to cook sambhar, rasam and vegetables in mud utensil so the taste of sambhar will be excellent and more tasty.
Happy and healthy cooking. I am cooking the gravies like kootu, sambhar, rasam using mud utensil in gas stove over 10 years. I feel cooking is fast and the gravy is hot for little more time.
If you cook dhal, vegetable and gravy for sambhar in parallel it will take even less time.
Also please don't pressure cook the vegetables as you cook dhal because the vegetable will be over cooked. Cook the vegetables as i didn't you will really the credit for the tasty sambhar. Vegetable to be cooked according to the hardness. 
Cooking is an art which is to be completed with passion and patience. Required time should be given to get a tasty dish.