Pudina podi

My parents and grandparents were not in the habit of having breakfast in the true sense. A second dose of filter coffee around 8 A.M. would help them go until their 10 o'clock lunch time. It was not a practice to make breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. This was a practice for adults and the children were fed rice before school, pack a tiffin box with rice for the noon and ate rice in the night too.
Mostly all the cooking was done in the morning in quantities to suffice for the dinner too, but rice. Rice would be cooked just before dinner for the night, but the sambhar, rasam and other accompaniments would have to make do. Most times there is a shortfall of these and the stock of various podis come handy. It is very likely that there will be a good sized jar with paruppu podi is available in the pantry. Thengai podi does not store for long so it shall be consumed quickly. When in season, mint and coriander are available in abundance, we make thokku, thogaiyal and podis.

Mint is one of those herbs that has high antioxidant properties and has health benefits ranging from oral health, skin care, digestion to prevention of cancer. It is widely used in many cuisines. Mint is used in ice creams, chocolates and in beverages. It is common to find chutney with pudina in many households in India. Typically, we make thogaiyal, chutney and pudina podi with lentils in my home.
This podi stays fresh and flavourful for weeks together at room temperature and since it is dry does not require refrigeration. Give it a try with hot steamed rice and a generous spoon of gingelly oil or ghee.

Pudina Podi
Makes 200 ml in volume

Ingredients:
3 cups packed mint leaves (stalks removed)
1/4 cup urad dhal
1 tablespoon channa dhal
8-10 dry red chillis (adjusted according to heat an d taste)
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (optional)
2 teaspoons oil to roast the ingredients
Salt as required (I use crystal sea salt and measured 1 &1/4 tablespoons)

Method:
Wash the mint well and pat them dry before separating the leaves from the stalks.
Dry the leaves between two layers of cloth until moisture has dried. Measure the leaves. From a very large bunch of mint, I got 3 cups of leaves.
Heat the oil in a heavy and large pan.
Add the chillis and roast for a couple of minutes.
Add to this the channa dhal and continue to roast.
When the chillis are slightly brittle, add the urad dhal, salt and asafoetida. Roast until both the dhals are golden brown and crunchy.
Put the mint leaves in and keep tossing them around until the leaves are wilted with the heat and turning just about dry.
Cool the mix. transfer to the jar of a dry grinder and grind to a coarse powder.

Transfer the podi to a dish and allow to cool.
Store in clean, tight lid jars to use when required.
Serve with hot rice and oil to mix.
The same can be ground with enough water and be made as thogaiyal.

Yet Another Milagai Podi pairs Dosais and Idlis

We are  heavy breakfast, moderate lunch, an evening snack and a light dinner routine family. Idlis and dosais can be made in varieties for the morning and the batter helps plan something for dinner too. Most likely, I might eat my idlis and dosais with a freshly made sambhar or some chutney. While that is the to-go accompaniment for them, apart from a quick tomato masala, I keep stock of idli milagai podi also. My mother's pantry never runs short of supply of  her  milagai podi. Stock in mine and my sister's though, seems one batch stays forever. Just the other day I used up all of the podi I had in stock and was wondering if I could have a recipe other than my frequently used ones.
My paternal cousins, my sisters and I are always a WhatsApp message away from each other. So that was the best forum to get a recipe and I put out my request. Not surprisingly, each one had a recipe, however little they varied in terms of ingredients or proportions. Thus, be warned, I shall be posting a different podi recipe soon as one stock gets finished.
The recipe I share today is from a cousin who follows her mother-in-law's. I did not make any tweaks or changes on my whim, though a lot of discussion happened, about more wholesome additions.This recipe is quite adaptable to such tweaks and one may try variations.

Milagai podi for Idlis and Dosais - Version 3

Ingredients:
All measures are 125 ml cup
Yield: Fills a 450 ml jar/ 280 grams

1 packed cup dry red chillis broken in small bits
1 cup urad dhal
1/2 cup channa dhal
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon powdered jaggery (for flavour only, so you may adjust accordingly)
Salt to taste
2 drops caster oil to fry chillis (optional)

Method:
Rub in the oil on the chillis and roast the chillis in a heavy bottom pan until brittle and brown without burning them.
Transfer to a largish plate and keep aside.
Dry roast each separately, the urad dhal and channa dhal until the lentils are golden and aromatic.
Transfer from heat.
Roast the sesame seeds until they pop and add to the dhals.
Finally toss the salt (I use coarse sea salt) in the heat of the pan and keep aside.
Transfer the dhals and sesame seeds to the jar of your spice grinder/ blender and pulse to a coarse powder.
Add the chillis and salt and grind further until almost fine.
Finally add the jaggery, pulse to mix and transfer to a dish.

Allow to cool and store in an airtight jar.
Keeps well for months at room temperature.
Serve this podi as side for idli and dosai along with sesame oil/ ghee.

Paruppu Podi

It is rare that you do not find a small bottle with some 'podi', to mix with hot steamed rice, in my pantry. Hot rice, a generous spoonful of ghee or gingelly oil and to mix with it a 'podi', can be a 'go to comfort food' for me. 'Podi' is a powdered and spiced mix of dhals or other varieties. I stock up on thengai podi, sambharapuli, dry coriander powder, curry leaves powder regularly. My husband's favourite is though the simple paruppu podi.
Paruppu podi is an awesome mix needing just three or four ingredients other than salt, a roasting of ingredients for few minutes and grinding them down to a powder, is all the labour required
. I have read some recipes that use roasted gram along with the staple thuvaram paruppu/ thur dhal, while there can be an added flavour by adding garlic also. What I make is a simple version with just three ingredients and salt. While I like to eat my rice just with the podi and ghee, my husband likes to add some 'rasam' to moisten the otherwise dry dish. This podi has quite a shelf life and can be stored at room temperature. This is one easy spice mix to make and store.
Paruppu Podi

 

Yield: 150 grams of powder
Ingredients:
2/3 cup split pigeon peas/ thur dhal/ thuvaram paruppu
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
6-8 dry red chillis
1&1/2 teaspoon sea salt (Adjust as required or if using table salt)

 Method:
Dry roast on a medium flame the dhal until it is aromatic and slightly brown. Transfer to the grinding jar and allow to come to room temperature.
Dry roast the chillis until brittle and pepper to heat.
Also roast the salt until very warm to touch.
Add all of the roasted ingredients to the roasted dhal. Take it in a blender or spice mixer and grind to a somewhat smooth powder. It shall not be finely powdered, a little coarse texture is good.
 

Transfer to a storing bottle or jar.
Use as required.
Serve with hot rice and some ghee or gingelly oil.
My Legume Love Affair, the original idea initiated by Susan is now being taken on and hosted by Lisa. This 85th Edition of the same event is hosted by Jagruthi. I would love to send this to the same.

(Almost) Instant Puliogere - Ready to Mix Puliogere Spice Powder

I started writing this blog to help my daughter ad her housemates cook for themselves between their hectic time table. If that helped them or not, this activity, has given me much to learn from and experiment and venture further into food. I used to part cook and freeze dishes for my husband when ever I travelled. It helped that he only had to thaw defrost and cook until done. Over the years now, he has picked up cooking for himself a basic meal, and, a little more too.
My nephew found three other guys who would share chores, cooking and washing dishes. He packed a few utensils and basic stuff like home made powders with him. We also purchased ready to mix and cook instant mixes for him. that gave us an idea to try making ready mixes at home. I made adai mix, rawa dosai mix and such last time for my husband which he found useful.
This time on, my younger nephew is off abroad for twelve weeks. He has not been trained to even making his own tea. To manage in a foreign land, between his busy schedule, working on and presenting thesis would be tough. My sister tried finding friends and family closer to his University without much help. Then between my mother and the three of us, we came up with making at home ready mixes that will aid him and the other boy who will be at the same university.. We suggested boil in bag rice to go with whatever we pack. thus we have made rasam, sambhar and this puliogere ready mix. It is not instant, but can be made in under 10 minutes.
The list of ingredients can be intimidatingly long, but the end product is worth the effort.

Ready to Mix Puliogere Spice Powder

Ingredients:
Yield 300 grams of powder (not taking into account the garnish of peanuts, cashews and curry leaves)
(Put together they fill a 800 gram capacity jar)

1 cup (Heaped and tightly packed)/ 250 millilitres/ 140 grams torn bits of tamarind
1/2 cup/ 125 millilitres broken dry red chillis
3 tablespoons sea salt (adjust salt level according to individual taste)
2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1/8 cup white sesame seeds
1/4 cup coriander seeds
1 tablespoon balck pepper corns
2 tablespoons channa dhal
2 teaspoons urad dhal

For garnish* (See Notes)
1/2 cup/125 millilitres roasted peanuts
25 numbers cashew nuts roasted
10-15 dry red chillis dry roasted and broken in medium size bits
10 sprigs curry leaves, washed and sun dried or roasted dry

*Notes:
These can either be mixed in the powder or can be added in required quantities when the tamarind rice is being mixed.

Method:
Tear the tamarind in small bits removing the membrane and tiny bits of shell that might be present.
Spread it on a plate and dry it in a pre-heated 200 degrees C oven for 8-10 minutes. The tamarind would have become dry and brittle when cooled to room temperature. You may choose to sun dry them for a few days until the texture is achieved.
Keeping the heat low to medium, dry roast each of the listed ingredients separately until crisp. The turmeric powder and asafoetida powder can be dropped in the warm pan after switching the heat off.
Allow to cool and grind to an almost fine powder in a mixer/ spice grinder.
To the mixed powder, add the ingredients for garnish.
Store in an airtight container.
The powder alone comes to 300 grams/ 550 ml. Adding the ingredients listed under 'for garnish' it fills a 800 ml glass jar approximately 420 grams.
This can be stored for six months.

To make the puliogere (puliodharai/ puliamsadham):
Cook a cup of rice, allow to cool and fluff with a fork.
Add two tablespoons of gingelly oil to the rice and mix it in.
To the above add required amount of the powdered ready mix.(If salt is less in the mix, you can always add salt at this stage to the rice also) Mix well with the rice.
Heat some oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, allow them to crackle. Temper the mixed rice.

Serve as part of meal with fried crisps (vadam/ appalam) and/or potato/ banana chips. We enjoyed it with urulai roast.

Milagai Podi for idlis and dosais - version 2

At home, seven times out of ten, milagai podi  mixed with gingeley oil (oil from sesame seeds) is the only side dish preferred for idlis and dosais. We used to make do with that and left over sambhar. Chutney was not an option unless there was some excess of coconuts. My grandmother had a way of having her idlis. She would crumble them and mix with the milagai podi and ghee / oil. She would then roll them and eat. We have been offered those and enjoyed them along with her.
But things were different in my marital home. Idlis were staple breakfast and with six highly yielding coconut trees, chutney was the main side dish. Here again, sambhar was an option only when we had left overs. They never had stock of milagai podi. So, for many years, I used to get a small stock from my mother or sisters and keep them for myself.
Once at my parents place that my husband ate his idli / dosai with the podi my mother had freshly made. He liked the aromatic sesame seeds addition. Then on, I also started grinding and keeping stock. I have found many other variations and have made the Gujarathi podi and the Bangalore Chutney podi
When I ask for recipes from my aunts, they suggest quantity of ingredients randomly with hand measures. They are so good with the eye-ball measures that it was difficult for them to be more specific. It was up to one to deduce how much was a tight fist or a fist-full and most times just  'a little'. It comes with practice that you fix the quantities to suit your taste. I got used to such practices and only when I have to make a clear list for sharing in a  post, I measure them out.
I am trying to document recipes, most of those scribbled down in any piece of paper. This is one such recipe. I was at my sister's home and found a notebook where she had jotted a few that I found interesting. The only piece of paper I could find immediately was the envelope of some invitation. To keep all of those safe is not easy. The blog is my current journal where I record recipes. So the podi has been made and posted.
The ingredients listed are not typically those in the regular podi, but they just add to the taste. So here is Mala's milagai podi as my husband has labelled that.

Ingredients:
Yield: 250 grams milagai podi
I have used a cup that measures 200 millilitres as standard for this recipe.
200 ml (heap it up) dry red chillis ( broken in pieces)
100 ml channa dhal
150 ml split urad dhal
1 tablespoon tamarind (torn in bits)
3 tablespoons coconut (if using fresh, roast well. It is ideal to use copra)
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida
50 ml curry leaves
50 ml coriander leaves
Salt to taste




Method:
Dry roast the red chillis until they are browned and brittle, but do not char them.
Remove and transfer to a dish.
In the same pan, roast the tamarind, curry leaves and the coriander leaves until the leaves wilt and get dry.
Roast the salt to remove the moisture.
Roast the coconut until very aromatic but not very brown.
Dry roast the dhals separately until they are golden.
Allow the ingredients to cool.
In a spice grinder, first powder the chillis, tamarind, curry leaves and coriander leaves.
When they have been coarsely done, add the dhals, salt and asafoetida and grind to a near fine powder.

Remove from the grinder and spread on a flat dish to cool.
Place the coconut in the grinder and pulse at lowest speed allowing it to powder. Take care not to over run the grinder that the coconut oozes oil.
Transfer the coconut also to the already powdered mix and mix well with tips of fingers.
Allow the podi to cool and store in clean glass jars with air-tight lids.
Enjoy podi mixed with sesame oil or ghee with soft pillow idlis or dosais.

Gongura Chutney - Pulichcha Keerai thogaiyal

I do not remember having cooked gongura leaves before. It was not so commonly found green in my hometown and even during the few years in Madras, I may have come across them but was ignorant to recognise them. Though I may have tasted the very famous gongura chutney sometime, I cannot recall the taste.
The many cookery books that I have collected list a recipe of this with many of them making it sound very flavoursome with added ingredients. I might just read those and let them be. However, there came a day when I had to spot them and not just pass it on, but buy and try making the chutney! Finally!!!!
 
Last week when I had already loaded my green grocer shopping bag with fruits that I might need for the Varalakshmi poojai at home and a few random vegetables, I had to wait for my driver, who had gone looking up a florist's address for me.
I was next to the greens aisle in the shop where I found some fresh amaranth and as I requested the assistant to pick me one bunch, he said that they were GONGURA GREENS. I was wondering that he used the Indian name for the red sorrel leaves, and corrected him that the greens he gave me were amaranth. He still insisted that he had the gongura and showed me those in the other section, which indeed were the gongura leaves. I bought them also.
At home they were washed, patted dry and rolled inside a cloth bag and off they went into the crisper tray of the refrigerator and forgotten until the beginning of this week. As luck would have it, they had not wilted and where in good condition to be cooked. Thus my chutney was to be cooked and tasted at my own kitchen.
I chose to make the simple form of the chutney with just basic ingredients and no flavours. Only while trying to take pictures did I feel that the chutney looked plain and brown and that some onions and garlic may give it a boost both looks wise and in taste. Nonetheless the chutney tasted great and I consumed it with dosai, rice and anything I could pair it with.

Ingredients:


2 cups red sorrel leaves / pulichcha keerai / gongura
8 to 10 dry red chillis
4 green chillis
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons sesame seeds oil (or any cooking oil)

Tempering:
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Few dry red chillis

Method:
Wash the greens, pat them dry and remove the petiole and the midrib, if necessary and dry them well spread on a cloth.
Dry roast the fenugreek in a heavy pan until a pink - red tinge forms. Keep aside.
In the same pan heat half of the required oil, add the chillis and coriander seeds. Toss them until they are well roasted and add the salt, turmeric and asafoetida. Remove from the fire after a few seconds of this addition.
Transfer these to the jar of the blender along with the fenugreek.

In the same pan toss the gongura leaves until they wilt to a brown colour.
Allow them to cool.
Grind the roasted ingredients initially to a slightly coarse powder and then add to the jar the gongura leaves.
Blend well until a thick paste is achieved. No water is to be added and the chutney will blend well with the moisture in the cooked leaves only.
Heat the rest of the oil in the pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop add the chilli and finally add the chutney. Toss the chutney in the hot oil for about three minutes and switch the heat off.

 Cool the chutney and store in clean containers.
This chutney keeps well for a week.
If you desire to store this as a pickle, you may dry the leaves in the sun and increase the quantity of oil. Cook the chutney for a longer period in the final step until the contents are well reduced and the oil forms a layer over the surface. This way it can be stored for as long as six months too.

An exercise in food photography with Bangalore Chutney podi

A certain advantage with writing a blog is that one gets to learn new things however big or small. 

We had a particular assignment while in our second year in college to  learn to use a normal camera and also develop the film in our physics lab as part of optics. We were encouraged to take pictures in different light conditions and with just the adjustment of the shutter which also was done manually as then was not the time with automatic cameras and some thirty years ago, digital photography was unheard of where I schooled. We had fun shooting anything that caught our attention and were soon aware of how poorly we can perform, if not guided by the teachers, when we developed the prints. Yet we had so much fun with the camera and the printing!

Many years later with the progress in the field of photography, today I own a basic dslr camera, but still very novice with my picture capturing skills. I have always wondered what details one must pay attention to in order to make your pictures look good, especially the food that you capture and share in the post. I would look up some various sites that offer tips and such hoping to learn and improve upon. Some of my friends share pictures on their photo blogs where the necessary details are added to the picture and that would help me to try the same with my settings.

Recently, Aparna encouraged us to make an effort to work on our skills and I willingly joined the exercise. The first of this exercise is with the Aperture and Depth of Field. I have tried the experiment with a Nikon D5000 with the 18-55mm kit lens. 

For this I chose to make Jayasri Ravi's Bangalore style chutney pudi.

Below are the two pictures taken with a 24 mm focal length and two different apertures viz, f/4 and f/8. The rest of the settings such as shutter speed and ISO remain the same. These have been taken partially hand held with the camera being supported on a strong cardboard box and a coaster to tilt it a bit. The day light from my patio door lights up the wall on the back. Both pictures have been shared as taken with no adjustments.

Aperture and Depth of Field

 

Bangalore Chutney Podi:

Source: Jayasri Ravi ( Read her post here)

I have made 1/5th of her shared recipe. I had intended to share the measures in volume as against her recipe in weight. However, I got disoriented with the above experiment and such that I have not worked on the volume. Hence I would love to share her recipe here.

Ingredients:

175 grams channa dhal

115 grams urad dhal

375 grams copra (dry coconut shredded)

50 grams dry red chillis ( Guntur variety that is high in heat)

50 grams byadagi red chillis (for nicer red colur)

12 grams mustard seeds

40 grams tamarind

1/2 of one small cube jaggery ( about 1 heaped tablespoon jaggery powder)

5-6 sprigs curry leaves

2 grams of asafoetida

Salt to taste

Oil as required to roast the chillis (I have omitted that and dry roasted all the ingredients)

Procedure:

Her post elaborates with many tips to do this. I have just roasted each ingredient, save the jaggery, on a very low flame and separately until the dhals and copra are golden, the chillis are brittle and the tamarind also is dry enough. i use a non stick utensil so the tamarind did not stick to the pan, However, I usually roast the tamarind also in my regular hindalium pan and over a gentle heat it will roast well .

Cool the roasted ingredients. Pulse the dhals, chillis, curry leaves, salt and mustard seeds gently to a powder. Add the copra and the jaggery and pulse on the lowest speed of the blender inching short pulses lest the copra oozes oil and the powder becomes sticky.

Transfer to a flat dish from the jar of the blender and cool.  Store in airtight containers.

Serve as accompaniment with dosas and idlis.

Pachchai milagai chutney

I think that I have repeated enough number of times that I hardly store pickles. On the other hand, I am very fond of chutneys, thogaiyals, thokkus etc. I keep small containers of such in my refrigerator.
Most times I keep the dry chutneys for fear of not consuming quickly; however, those like puli-inji, milagai gojju will stay so long as a fortnight.
I found this very interesting recipe written in amma's notebook. I did not recall that she ever made it for us though.
She had copied it as dictated to her by Semboli maami (Shenbagavalli, must have been the name, but I have always heard it the other way). This old lady was widowed quite young and in line with the tradition of the bygone era, she had shaven her head, given up jewellery and finer things; she made her living by undertaking cooking assignments for small functions and gatherings. She would go and assist anyone when there were guests and a huge menu was to be served or loads of bakshanams were to be made. Those were the days when you visit your grand parents during long vacations,and allow them to indulge you with food among other things.
She also helped out with chores like giving body massage and bath to the newborns and those who were delivered of those newborn babies. She lived about half a kilometre away from my maternal grandparents' home and used to walk the dark streets at dawn (three in the morning, is not dawn though) braving the street dogs that walk along side her.
My mother recalls her adhirasams, that used to be 9 inches in diameter and as thick as the pizzas of today, dripping ghee.
I had copied the recipe of this chutney sometime in May 2009 and never attempted to make it at home until very recently. Inviting guests for lunch during navrathri was the opportune time to try something fresh. I had the elumichchangai oorugai ready; so I opted to make this chutney.
What I did not expect was that my husband would find it lipsmacking good! That must say something: someone who has no inclination to try pickle type chutneys, fell for it!
This chutney keeps excellently well at room temperature for about 6 -8 weeks, is an added bonus.

Pachchai Milagai Chutney

Ingredients:

20 numbers long variety fresh green chillis
1 medium lime size ball of tamarind
2 tablespoons powdered jaggery
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1 tablespoon salt (adjust according to the spice level of the chillis)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds oil (or any cooking oil)

Method:
(amma's note book does not give exact measures or procedure. I had to work my way around and am detailing my method.)
Choose fresh green chillis. Wash them and pat them dry with a towel. Remove the crowns and slice the chillis.
Place a pan on the stove and dry roast the salt and asafoetida powder. Keep aside.
Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in the same pan. Toss the chillis in the oil until they have turned a bit soft.
Remove the chillis from the heat and drop the tamarind torn in bits in the pan. Toss this in the pan so the tamarind gets soft.

Add little water to the jaggery, dissolve the same and strain out the impurities.
Bring this solution to a boil and allow it to boil a few minutes. Switch the heat off.
Place the chillis, tamarind and salt- asafoetida mix in the jar of the blender. Grind to a coarse past. Add very little water as possible, just as much that the tamarind gets blended.
Remove from the blender, use the jaggery solution to clean the jar and recover the adhering paste. Add the turmeric powder to the mix.
Heat the rest of the oil in the pan. Drop the mustard seeds in the hot oil. When they crackle, add the fenugreek seeds. Toss them until the fenugreek seeds are brown but not charred.
Reduce the heat and transfer the blended mix to the pan. Cook this on low heat for about 8-10 minutes.
Higher heat and over cooking will caramelise the jaggery. So do this carefully.

Switch the heat off. Allow the chutney to come to room temperature and then store in clean jars.
This can be eaten as an accompaniment for dosais, adais, rice and even chappatis.
As the added water content is very little, the chutney keeps well. Storing in the refrigerator is recommended, though it keeps even in room temperature.
Jaggery can be added if you like the hot and sweet taste. The above tastes quite spiced and hot.
I am happy to have tried a good recipe that suits our tastes and my guests liked it very much too.
If the chutney gets too dry for your liking, take the serving portion in a bowl and add warm water to that just before serving.
With the above measured ingredients, the yield was just sufficient to fill a 100 ml jar. We finished the same within a week.

Thengai Podi

Most summer holidays through my school years, were spent at our maternal grand parents' home in Gobichettipalayam. As was the case then in many Tambram families, it was lunch at 10 AM in that household too. Breakfast was unheard of. But the children were always fed left over rice at around 8 AM. They used to cook extra rice in the night and keep it over for us to eat with curd. Being summer curd rice was mandatory. To go with the curd rice there would be pickles and milagai gojju or thengai podi.
As my grandfather would perform an elaborate pooja every morning, whatever was cooked that day was kept for neivedhyam (offering). Hence we were not allowed to partake any of the food being freshly cooked just then. We would eat that for our mid day meal, a full course with vegetables, sambhar and rasam and all.
We were of course, allowed to snack in between on a whole mango or some fresh nungu or some fruit. Biscuits and candies were strictly not to be had.
We would grudgingly eat the meal in the morning because, we always equated that to leftovers. Little did we know that it was meant to be. The many pickles that will be available might be lime, vadu maanga, maagani kizhangu, dry narthangai etc. giving you plenty to choose from. The thengai podi can be had with plain rice drizzled with some oil or as a side for any rice dish too. I favoured this podi to oorgai. The same is true even to date.

Ingredients:
1 &1/2 cup freshly grated coconut (Ensure that the coconut is ripe)
10-12 dry red chillis
1 table spoon channa dhal
1 tablespoon urad dhal
1 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1 small marble size tamarind
2 teaspoons oil
2 heaped teaspoons sea salt (adjust as required)



Method:
A ripe coconut will be best to prepare this. It ensures shelf life of about a week to 9 days at room temperature.
Scrape the coconut and obtain evenly grated coconut.


Traditional coconut scraper


Heat the oil in a pan and roast the two dhals separately until golden brown.
Remove them from the pan and roast the red chillis, tamarind and the salt.
Next on a low fire, roast the coconut scrapes until they are evenly light brown and aromatic.
Allow all of the above to cool.
Transfer the roasted dhals, spices and the asafoetida powder to the jar of a spice grinder.
Pulse for a few seconds and add the coconut to the jar. Grind to a coarse but combined powder.
Remove from the jar, allow to come to room temperature and transfer to clean, airtight storing jars.
Enjoy with rice.

Dukkah - A blend of spices

Just about the other day, I chanced to talk to one of my husband's colleagues from his Egypt office. I called to wish her on Mothers' Day; she has been more than a colleague then and a good friend ever after. She asked me how I liked the West of Africa and spoke about other things like whether I am able to procure all Indian groceries unlike my Egypt years when I carried stuff from India and saved them until my next visit.

As we were speaking I told her about the blog and I said I was so wanting to write a few Egypt recipes that are vegetarian. She gave me a list of few that I could try at home and thus I have this post today! A very simple one and very handy to have.

Dukkah is a mix of coarsely blended nuts and spices. It is a great mix that you can enjoy with bread. You will have to dip the bread in olive oil, just about to coat it and then plunge it into the dukkah to coat it with the spiced powder as much as you like and as much heat your tastebuds can tolerate.

Each household uses their own proportion of nuts and variants too. But mainly hazel nuts and sesame seeds, coriander seeds and pepper corns are used. You can vary the ingredients and quantities and have your very own special spice powder. This is as much variety can get with as the South Indian molagai podai for idlis and dosais.

Ingredients:
1 cup of mixed nuts ( I have used hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios)
1/3 cup of sesame seeds
1/6th of a cup coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 and 1/2 tablespoon black pepper corns
Sea salt to taste




Method:
Before mixing the nuts, roast each gently on slow fire.
If you get slivered almonds just roast them and add as such. I have used whole almonds and was not easy to remove the skin. Hence my powder is a bit red in colour from the skin and also I pulsed a wee bit longer than required that my nuts were crushed well. (They are usually just about broken to a bit coarse, not very fine.) Nonetheless, the powder tastes great.
Do not over roast the pistachios as they get oily. They need to just get a bit of warmth from the fire.
Roast the sesame seeds without allowing them to brown, but until they pop.
Similarly roast the coriander seeds, cumin and the pepper.
Since I use sea salt and usually roast it before adding to any of the powders I intend to keep long, I would roast that too.
Allow this to cool and pulse everything together in a mixer jar or a spice blender until coarsely pounded.
Cool and store in airtight containers.
This has a shelf life for about three months at the least.


As I said it make a great dip with olive oil and freshly baked bread.
However, I mixed it in hot steamed rice like I would any other podi and added sesame oil to it.
You can easily have most ingredients in any household. Add or reduce other nuts and such will only make it all the more interesting. Flax seeds for instance, will be great and so will be the addition of garlic.
Try your own recipe and enjoy!

Gujarathi Milagai Podi

Like I told earlier, my pantry stocks all kinds of podis. For idlis alone I have three or more milagaipodis, like the ellumilagai podi, chutney podi and the gujarathi milagai podi which I'm sharing today.

This is a recipe again adapted from S.Meenakshi Ammal book. I don't know why she calls it Gujarathi milagai podi though. I asked my Gujarathi friend if they make anything like that but was replied in the negative. For want of a better name, I will use what the original recipe calls it.

Call it anything, the flavoursome podi is sure to tickle your palates.

Ingredients:

( The picture below shows double the volume of ingredients listed below)

Preparation time: 20 minutes for roasting and 5 minutes for powdering.
Yield : 200 gram of podi

Dry red chillis 3/4th of standard cup (180 ml)

Sesame seeds 3 tablespoons

Urad dhal 3 tablespoons

Thuvar dhal 3 tablespoons

Channa dhal 3 tablespoons

Moong dhal 1 1/2 tablespoons

Salt 2 1/2 tablespoons (Sea salt. If using table salt adjust according to taste)

Asafoetida powder 1 teaspoon

Roast sesame seeds until they pop; salt until dry, asafoetida until it emits a nice aroma.Keep aside.

Roast the red chillis on a low heat. They should be brittle but shall not char. While roasting chillis be prepared for a heavy bout of sneezing though! Keep aside.

In the same pan first roast the channadhal for some minutes before adding thuvar dhal. Roast further and add the urad dhal and finally the moong dhal. This way all the dhals roast evenly and golden without getting charred.

Cool all the roasted ingredients.

In the jar of the mixie first powder the chillis, salt and asafoetida initially until they are a coarse powder. Add the roasted dhals and powder to a fine powder as possible.

Transfer to clean airtight bottles and store in a dry place. As these are all roasted without adding oil the shelf life is long. Over the days the colour may fade a bit but it will taste every bit flavoursome as the first day.

This podi makes your fluffy idlis more indulgent :-)

I would love to send this to,

Lakshmi Venkatesh's Think spice - red chillis this month an event initiated by Sunita of

Sunita's World.

and to

MLLA 15th helping hosted @ Sia's Monsoonspice this September while Susan

The Wellseasoned cook initiated this event.

Coconut Thogaiyal

Thogayals and podis make very delectable rice accompaniments. Add some to hot steamed rice with some ghee and if we have a pachchidi to go with that is pure bliss.

This simple coconut thogaiyal is just one such dish. It is one of my husband's favourites too. So I make this quite often.

For thengai thogayal you may need
1 cup dessicated coconut
10 dry red chillies
4 teaspoons urad dhal
A small lemon size tamarind
½ teaspoon asafoetida powder
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons oil for roasting the dhal and chillies.
Oil and mustard seeds for tempering
Heat oil in a pan and roast the red chillies until they shine and are brittle, add the urad dhal and continue roasting until dhal is golden brown and the aroma of fried dhal arises. Switch off the stove.

Allow to cool.
Transfer this to the jar of a mixie and add tamarind, salt and the asafetida. Run the mixie at medium speed until the contents are powdered coarsely. Add the coconut and grind adding little amount of water until well blended still holding a coarse texture.
Transfer to a bowl. Temper with mustard seeds.
Serve with hot rice and vegetables.

This is yet another entry to Let's Go Nuts - Coconut event. hosted by Padmajha Suresh.

Sambharapuli and Paldya

I was speaking to my friend on skype and told her about the RCI event, reflecting to her that inspite of being married to a Mangalorean, I have not picked up cooking authentic Mangalore dishes. The reason being that my parents-in-law were well settled in Tamilnadu and even if amma cooked anything that was South Canara, she would call it either, Kozhambu, Sambhar like in Tamil. And I can only recall Neeru dosai and Shavige that too served with some masala kozhambu or coconut chutney being made often.

As we were chatting, Lalitha, mailed me the recipe for paldya stating it was a very coastal canara dish. She said it was a close relative to moarkozhambu and she loves it. She suggested that I may like it too. The recipe was very simple and she was right on both counts. It was very similar to our pachchai (as for raw or uncooked) moarkozhambu and I simply loved it.

I had made my sambharapuli, which is nothing other than Kothumalli thogayal that is ground without water, so that it stays without rotting for atleast a fortnight. And with a simple carrot kari they were all complementing.

Now to the recipes,

Paldya:

Ingredients:

Any vegetable that suits a moarkozhambu. (Chow chow, Avaraikkai, Ash gourd and such)

1/2 a cup of yoghurt beaten and little water added to it.

1 large green chilli

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 tablespoons dessicated coconut

salt to taste

For tempering;

1 teaspoon oil

1teaspoon mustard seeds

1 red chilli

few curry leaves.

Grind coconut, greenchilli and cumin seeds to a paste.

In a pan on stove, cook the desired cut vegetable until half tender.

Add the ground paste and salt. Cook further until the vegetable is well cooked and the masala is blended to it.

Remove off the fire. Allow to cool slightly before adding the beaten yoghurt.

Temper with the mustard seeds, redchilli and curry leaves.

Serve with hot rice and upkari/palya.

Sambharapuli:

Ingredients:

1 large bunch of coriander leaves.

1/4 th of a cup of urad dhal

1 tablespoon channa dhal

10 red chillies (adjust according to spice requirement)

a small lime size ball of tamarind

asafoetida

salt to taste

oil few spoons to roast the dhals, chillies, tamarind and salt.

Wash coriander leaves. Dry them on a cloth spread until all water is dried.

Separate leaves and stems. ( if stems are tender we may grind them too.)

Place a heavy pan on the stove. Put oil in and roast red chillies, dhals ,tamarind, salt and asafoetida until dhals are golden and salt gives away crackling noise.

Remove these from fire and keep aside.

In the same pan toss the coriander leaves and stems for a few minutes.

Let them cool.

Put the dhal, tamarind, chilli combination in the jar of the blender and run it on a slow speed until they are coarsely pounded.

Add to this the coriander and grind further until they are well combined.

This will be sort of coarse chutney as no water is added.

If you intend the thogaiyal to be more combined, you may grind with some water. But that will not keep for long, you may have to use within two days.

This thogaiyal can be served as rice accompaniment or with dosais and idli with little oil.

Mandarin peel thogaiyal

Orange peel thogaiyal and venthya kozhambu are my periamma's specialities. My daughter and myself are quite fond of the tangy tasting kozhambu. I don't save the peel so much to make thogaiyal often. But sometimes I try to use up all of the peel.

Ingredients:

• Mandarin orange peel - of one orange (shredded 1/4 cup)
• Tamarind - size of a small marble
• Dry red chillies - 6 long pieces
• Urid dhal - 3 tablespoons
• Channa dhal - 1 tablespoon
• Asafoetida powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 3 teaspoons

Heat oil in a pan. Toss the orange rind in the oil until the shreds are soft. Keep aside. In the same pan roast the dhals, salt, tamarind and red chillies until the chillies are crisp and dhals are golden brown.

In the mixie first pound the above mixture coarsely and then add the cooked orange rind. Run for a few more minutes until all of them blend well almost powdered.

The thogaiyal can be had with rice like any other podi or thogaiyal with a little ghee or gingley oil.