South Indian Sambar (a kind of soup)

What you need:

Now get to work:

1. Step 1: Cook Toor dal in about 1 cup water and set aside (the dal should be cooked until real soft)
2. Step 2: Dissolve 1/4 teaspoon tamarind paste (recommend "Tamcon") in 2.5 cups of water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil. Add 1 heapful teaspoon of Sambar powder, curry leaves, salt, capsicum, and heeng. Boil for about 8-10 minutes until you get the aroma of sambar powder cooking. Add crushed tomatoes; cook for a minute.
3. Step 3: Make a paste out of the cooked toor dal (from Step 1) by adding some water and mashing with a spoon. Add this paste to the boiling sambar. Stir till sambar comes to a boil. IMPORTANT: make sure the dal does not get stuck to the bottom of the sauce pan by stirring the pan fairly often. Boil for 2-3 minutes. "Sambar" is almost ready...
4. Step 4: In a little saucepan, heat up 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil; add mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds to the hot oil, and cover with a lid; the mustard seeds will pop; as soon as you hear the mustard seeds to pop in a rhythm remove the saucepan from the stove. IMPORTANT: make sure they don't char! This "seasoning" step is critical!
5. Step 5: Add the seasoning from Step 4 to the boiling sambar (Step 3). Mix it a little and remove the sambar from the stove.

Bon appetit!