Poriyal Podi & Sweet Potato Poriyal Recipe

I have been keeping a secret for a while. Yep, I have. And that is, my love for sweet potatoes. There you go, now you all know me inside out. That's all there is to me - I love sweet potatoes, chocolate, brinjal and step by step recipe pictures. I am a very simple person.

Back to sweet potatoes. What does that have to do with this poriyal podi recipe you ask? Well, I usually have sweet potatoes just boiled and very lightly salted. It makes my troubles go away like nothing else can.

But the other day, I was going through Chandra Padmanabhan's Southern Spice, for the umpteenth time, and saw this recipe called chakkaravalli kizhangu poriyal recipe. I had no clue chakkaravalli kizhangu is sweet potato. All this time I thought sweet ptoato is cheeni kizhangu in tamil although I have no clue how I came to that conclusion.

I tried it and let me just tell you this much - it beats slightly salted sweet potatoes to the door and back, any day!

To make this poriyal, you need poriyal podi. It can be made in a jiffy so don't let that intimidate you. You can make a bit of this and store it for future use too.

Poriyal Masala Podi Recipe

Source: Southern Spice by Chandra Padmanabhan

What I Used:

1 cup coriander seeds/kothamalli

1/2 cup urad dal/uluntham paruppu/husked black gram

1/2 cup grated coconut

2 generous pinches of hing/asafoetida/perungaayam

10 dried red chillies

2 tsp oil

How I Made It:

1. Dry roast the coriander seeds in a skillet/kadai until the seeds turn a darker shade of brown (about 4-5 mins). Set aside.

2. In the same pan, dry roast the dal until golden brown, taking care not to burn it. Set aside.

3. In the same pan, dry roast the coconut until just short of burnt. I made mine turn a dark brown taking care not to burn. Set aside.

4. Add the oil to the pan, let it heat through and throw in the red chillies. Fry them until they are short of burning, throw in the hing, stir through for 10 seconds and remove from fire.

5. Cool, combine and grind the ingredients to a powder.

The smell of this freshly made poriyal podi is a-m-a-z-i-n-g and I am not even exaggerating this time. So let's quickly go make this sweet potato poriyal, shall we? Store the leftover poriyal podi in an air tight container.

Chakkaravalli Kizhangu / Sweet Potato Poriyal Recipe

Source: Southern Spice by Chandra Padmanabhan

Serves: 2

What I Used:

2 cups sweet potatoes, cut into small cubes

2 green chillies

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1.5 tbsp poriyal masala podi

For tempering:

2 tsp oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds

1 red chilli, halved

A pinch of hing (optional)

A few curry leaves

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil for tempering in a pan and add all the ingredients. When the mustard seeds beging to pop, add the turmeric, green chillies and sweet potatoes with some salt and 1/3 cup water. Mix well.

2. Cook closed for 10-12 mins until the sweet potatoes are soft and cooked. If there is extra water, leave the pan open and let it evaporate. Once the mixture is dry, add the poriyal podi and stir well.

3. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Instant Sambar Powder Recipe

My mom-in-law has three sisters, each of them different and unique in their own ways. During this trip, TH and I stayed in Bombay with her elder sister, Geetha Perima. She is a cooking wiz, makes her own ghee in 10 mins flat, always has pickles, thokku and different kozhambu pastes in her fridge - all homemade, and makes ice-cream which makes one wonder why we ever buy ice cream! She makes all of this seem extremely simple too.

One recipe of hers that immediately caught my attention is the instant sambar powder recipe. Her son is studying in the US and recently, she sent him this powder. All you need to do is add it to boiling water with your choice of vegetable(s) and chopped onions if you like them. The powder has all other ingredients for a sambar, like toor dal, tamarind, chilly powder, hing, etc etc.

Here's how you can make this powder. Great for lazy people, working folks and of course, for you to pack it for your son/daughter who is moving abroad and needs a quick fix of homemade sambar in no time!

Geetha Perima's Instant Sambar Powder
Makes about 1.5kg powder

What She Used:

1kg toor dal
100 gm dhania / malli / coriander
25gm channa dal / bengal gram / kadala paruppu
50 gm dry red chillies
10gm fenugreek seeds / uluva / menthayam
A large lime-sized ball of tamarind
2 tbsp whole black pepper
2 tsp jeera
1 tsp hing / asafoetida / perungayam
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (optional, added for the colour)

How She Made It:

1. Heat about 2 tsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the red chillies. When they start to brown, remove and set aside to cool.

2. Remove all strings and other stuff from the tamarind. Separate into pieces. Add these to the same oil and fry by pressing down, making sure all the sides are roasted. Keep fire on sim and continue to roast for about 5 mins. It will be very soft at this stage. Drain and set aside to cool. You will find that the tamarind has gone crisp and brittle to touch.

3. The other ingredients don't need to be roasted. Starting with the dal, powder each ingredient separately and keep adding to a big bowl. The tamarind will powder nicely once its cool.

4. Mix all ingredients well with salt. Store in an air tight container and use to make easy and quick sambar.

To Use:

To serve two, boil about 3 glasses water and add 2-3 tbsp of the instant sambar powder. Add chopped vegetables and onions. Let it boil on sim until the vegetables are cooked. Serve hot. This powder will make sambar that's a bit watery. If you want it thicker, also add some cooked toor dal while preparing it.

Kandi Podi / Gun Powder / Andhra Style Paruppu Podi

This is my dad's favorite accompaniment to anything. So much so that each time I visited home from Hyderabad, he would request for this and only this. I try it when we go to Andhra thali restaurants but recently I started craving them and decided to make some.

Andhra Paruppu Podi

What I Used
(Recipe from here)

Toor dal / Tuvaram paruppu /Split gram - 1 cup
Moong dal /Paasi paruppu / Cherupayar Parippu - 1/2 cup
Chana dal / Kadala paruppu / Bengal gram - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 2 tbsp
Black pepper powder - 2 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida / Perungayam - 1/2 tsp
Jeera / Jeerakam - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Dry fry all the dals separately until they turn golden brown. Mix well.
2. Add the jeera and hing to the dal mixture when its still hot and keep aside to cool.
3. Once cool, grind to a course/fine powder depending on preference.
4. Add red chilli powder, pepper and salt to the ground mixture and store in an airtight jar.

Serving suggestions:

- With steamed white rice and hot ghee.
- Mix with some curd or oil and serve with dosa.
- Some variations include adding dry fried curry leaves to the powder. I am sure that's yummy as well, I just didn't have enough curry leaves in hand.

This is my entry to the 7th helping of Legume Love Affair being served by Srivalli this time.

Mystery Masala Series - Sambhar Cum Rasam Powder

This is my mom-in-law's superb recipe for sambhar cum rasam powder. But that doesn't mean you can only use it to make sambhar and rasam. I add it to a whole bunch of kozhambu and curries, recipes of which will follow soon.

Until a week back, I had the powder from the batch she sent with me when we moved to Singapore. Last week I made this on my own. She does this in bulk and takes it to a dry mill but I used powders and gave it a twist in my mixer.

This is the second masala powder recipe in my ignored-for-a-while Mystery Masala Series.

You Will Need:

Dry red chillies - 2 cups
Dhania (coriander/kothamalli) - 2 cups
Black Pepper - 20 grams
Jeera (jeerakam/cumin seeds) - 25 grams
Toor dal (tuvar dal/tuvara parippu) - 1/2 cup
Chana dal (Bengal gram/kadala parippu) - 1/2 cup
Fenugreek (methi/vendhayam/uluva) - 2 tbsp
Turmeric (optional) - 2 tbsp

Method:

Dry roast all the ingredients till golden brown. Stir continuously and make sure you are standing over it till its done. Powder until fine and store in an air-tight container.

Notes

- I used the powder form of all spices and gave it a spin in my mixer so that it blends well.

- If you are making enough for over a month's use, store in the fridge to prevent bugs.

- Use as normal for making sambhar and rasam alike, just like you would normal sambhar and rasam powders that are store-bought.

This goes over to Think Spice Think Fenugreek Event hosted this month by Kittie of Kittens in the Kitchen. The event, as we all probably know, is the brain child of Sunita.

You may also like my All-Purpose Curry Masala Recipe.

In Celebration Of Spices - Mustard Seeds in Saarina Pudi

When Sunita announced her spice of the month as mustard seeds, I was wondering what I can make which would give this spice its due importance, since I add it to almost everything I cook, including scrambled eggs! Anyway, I was giving some thought to the RCI - Karnataka event, when it struck me! I made Bele Saaru following an authentic recipe and its even more special to me since I made the Saarina Pudi (Sambhar powder) on my own, one of the dominating ingredients being none other than MUSTARD!

So here is how I put the omnipotent spice to other uses.

Saarina Pudi (Sambhar powder, Karnataka Style)


What I Used:

Dhaniya seeds - 250 gms.
Red chillies - 100 gms
Jeera seeds - 50 gms
Fenugreek seeds - 25 gms
Mustard - 25 gms
Pepper - 25 gms
Hing - 1/2 tsp

How I Made It:

Roast dhaniya and red chillies in very little oil till it emits a nice smell.

Dry roast all other ingredients till well done and add hing at the end.

Grind all together and store in airtight container.



Recipe courtesy goes here.

This is my entry to this month's 'Think Spice.. Think Mustard Seeds' hosted by Sunita of
Sunita's World. I would also like to send this to Asha as my first entry to RCI - Karnataka.