Wednesday 10 April 2013

Sambhar Podi

Idly-Sambhar is very satisfying for breakfast. If the sambhar is especially yummy, one can even drink a bowlful of it. What easy way to make sambhar predictably every single time than have a ready made podi in hand. We make just one boxful and use it up within a month or two so the flavours remain fresh until the last helping.

Ingredients:

Dried red chillies - 1/4 Kg
Dhania - 1/2 Kg
Pepper (Milagu) - 50 g
Toor dal (Thuvaram paruppu) - 200 g
Channa dal (Bengal gram, kadalai paruppu) - 150 g
Jeera (Cumin, seeragam) - 60 g
Methi (Vendhayam) - 30 g
Curry leaves - 8 - 10
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Sun-dry chillies and dhania. Dry roast them separately. Dry roast pepper, cumin, curry leaves, methi, turmeric, toor dal and bengal gram. Keep them aside. After the roasted ingredients have cooled down, use the large mixer jar, to blend them into a fine powder.

Use a teaspoon ful of sambhar podi to make sambhar serving 4 people.

Variation:There is a short-cut to this recipe. For those of you who have already ground chillies and dhania for milagai podi, you can use powdered ingredients in the right proportion to make sambhar podi.

Use 1 cup milagai podi (made with chillies and dhania in 1:2 ratio). Dry roast this and keep aside. If pepper and jeera are in powder form, dry roast 2 tbsp pepper po, 2 tbsp jeera powder with 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder.

Now you only need to dry roast, toor dal, channa dal, methi and curry leaves. Powder these fine and once cool, tranfer to the storage jar (400 - 500 ml). Add the chillie powder and pepper, cumin powders in the jar. Close the lid tightly and shake it well to combine all ingredients. Keep aside. Once the powders have completely mixed and settled down, transfer a small quantity to a small jar (150-200 ml).

Use the sambhar podi from the smaller jar and refil at regular intervals from the larger storage jar. This will help keep flavours of the spices fresh.

Verdict:
Definitely recommend this to anyone who uses store-bought masala. This is a small step towards avoiding artificial colours and flavours.

priya's signature image at photobucket

1 comment:

Swathi said...

Delicious sambar powder