Making Sambar And Rasam Powder And Vethakozhambu Podi And Other Indian Dishes

Since Picasa seems to be gone (Damn, I miss it), I am writing down some of the crucial recipes for south Indian / Tamil menu items here. Recipes were so nice to maintain in Picasa.

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Rasam and Sambar powder:   Rasam      Sambar

Dhaniya (glassful):                 2                 2 

Red chili (glassful):               2.25           2.25

Tuvar dal (glassful):               0.5             0.5 

Chana dal (glassful):         Very Little        0.5 

Methi (Karandi = 50gm):       None           0.5 

Jeera (Karandi):                   0.5             None 

Pepper (Karandi):                   1              None

Haldi sticks:                           2                 2

All ingredients for rasam powder (on the left) and sambar powder on right should be roasted and left to cool. Rasam to be ground rough (once in mill) and sambar fine (twice). Chana dal needs a longer time to roast. Haldi to be roasted for 2 min. Rest for rasam powder can be roasted together, for 4min. 1 glass:200ml. Karandi:big size.

Roast chana dal and haldi together. Rest can be roasted together.

Incidentally, while making Jeera rasam if one were to grind dhaniya seeds also along with other stuff, it turns out pretty good.

Jeera rasam powder:

See picture below. Tuvar dal, red chilli, pepper, jeera to be roasted and ground.

Vethakozhambu Podi:  Take equal measures (1 karandi) of Tuvar dal, Chana dal, Urad dal, Pepper.  Also need a little Haldi (ideally Sticks of Haldi. But if you dont have it then, use haldi powder), curry leaves. Roast each of them separately, stir constantly while roasting. Be careful with chana dal, it might become over roasted if not stirred carefully. Roast other dals until they become a little reddish. Roast pepper until you hear crackling sound. Break haldi into small pieces and roast a little (a minute or so). Curry leaves to be roasted until they becomes dry (remove the stem and roast only the leaf). Mix roasted stuff, then grind them. Mix the ground powder with chili powder-ratio 2:1. Result is Milagu podi. This is used in Vetha Kothambu, Perungayam Vitta Poricha Kozhambu. 

Milagai Podi (for idli, dosa)
Fry all dal (except moong dal), solid hing and red chilies, pepper and white ellu (preferred over black ellu) in til oil. 

Note:

1. Til is to be roasted (meaning without oil) and not fried
2. Fry chilies separately because of its higher volume.. Mix all the stuff and grind them.

Potato Podimas:
Urulaikizhangu (podimas) Podimas: Cut green chilies, ginger add curry leaves, Chana dal, urad dal, red chili, mustard and fry the same. Mix with boiled, mashed potato. Boiled potato can be replaced with boiled (and peeled) raw banana to make a nice side dish.

Pattani Chandam (Peas Rice / Pulao)
Roast a little grated coconut and then add Dhaniya, Chana Dal + urad dal, Red chili, hing, salt. You can add green chili and jeera also while frying (and subsequently grind). Grind the roasted stuff. Break raw Cashewnut into smaller pieces. Fry it in refined oil. Mix the ground powder, rice, ghee dhaniya leaves, fried cashewnuts. (Good idea to add boiled peas also). You can add a little fried coconut.

Vazhakkai Podi:

1. Boil Raw banana in a pressure cooker along with rice. And then grate it
2. Fry all dal, hing, red chili and salt. Then grind this. Mix grated raw banana with grated coconut. Mix grated stuff and ground stuff.  All dal means tuvar, chana, urad, and moong

Tomato Kozhambu

1. Boil cut tomato (Retain the hot water). Boil dal (tuvar dal or moong dal) Take the tomatoes out, cool them in cold water and peel the skin and mash the peeled tomato well.  Put the mashed tomato back into the boiled water. Add salt and haldi powder.
2. Add roasted and ground mixture of red chili, dhaniya, methi, jeera, hing and pepper
3. Add the ground mixture in water and let it boil for some time. Sautee mustard and green chili. Then add dhaniya leaves. Difference from sambar: no sambar powder but roast and ground dhaniya, jeera, pepper (no imli because of tomato). Almost same stuff to be ground as Pattani chadam, methi also needed in addition.

Mor Kozhambu
Wet grind Grated coconut, green chilies, rice, salt, then mix with buttermilk (on the side) and heat less than 5 mins.. Add fried red chilies, mustard, methi.


Varuththu Araicha Mor Kozhambu (VAMK): Add longitudinally cut eggplant, potato. Fry and then grind urad dal, red chili, rice, methi then grind with coconut. Add this and cut vegetables to boiling water (no imli, no hing), add salt and buttermilk. (Imli can be added instead of buttermilk.) Eruvali kozhambu: Same as VAMK except use chana dal instead of urad dal.

Aviyal:

Coconut Rice and Lemon Rice - Usually made on Kanu (Day after pongal and for Adi Perukku); 

Seasoning for both: Mustard, red chili, green chili, curry leaves in til oil for all rice. 

In addition: Lemon rice: Chana dal seasoning. Lemon rice: Mix lemon juice, haldi, salt. Then add seasoning with rice to make lemon rice.  
Coconut rice: Urad dal, grated coconut, cashew nuts, coconut must each be fried separately (and then added with seasoning and rice). Coconut must be roasted until it becomes red.  Add salt. Mix with rice. 
Tomato rice: Cut tomato into small pieces. Sautee Mustard, jeera, chana dal, curry leaves, onion. Add sambar powder (and garam masala powder or my suggestion: garlic and ginger paste). Add cut tomato, salt. Mix this with rice. Add curry and dhaniya leaves.

Tarka, Ghooghni, Aludam, Khichdi, Dal Makhni:

Lemon pickle:

1. Cut lemon (remove the seeds) and mix with salt and haldi for a couple of days
2. Roast methi then powder
3. Fry solid hing then powder (or use hing powder)
4. Add Red chili powder (1:1.25 by volume of lemon: chili powder), methi and hing powders from above.
5. Heat oil, fry mustard seeds, add above ingredients
6. Only til oil to be used for all pickles

Inji Jeeram
Peel ginger, add jeera, methi, dhaniya. Grind this mixture and then add jaggery and grind. Take the ground stuff and stir in ghee. This is good for indigestion. This is to be eaten like a medicine 1-2 tsp.

Stir Until Very Thick

Inji Char:
Optionally inji, jeeram, pepper, haldi can be wet ground adding sufficient amount of hot water. Then squeeze the ground ingredients and retain the liquid (throw away the solids). Add sugar and squeeze lemon.

Puli Molagai (Milagai): 

Kozhukkattai:

Grate coconut. Make paagu by adding a little water to jaggery. Filter it and remove the solids (dust, stone etc). Heat the liquid, then add grated coconut and keep stirring. It will become sticky after it dries. Add elaichi powder. This is the poornam.

Soak raw rice in water for an hour. Remove the water, and powder the rice fine (not coarse) in mixie. Boil water (the volume of water  to be same as volume of rice powder), add til oil, a little salt and switch off the stove. Then slowly add rice powder and keep stirring and make it homogeneous until it become like roti dough. Then use til oil to ensure the dough doesn't stick.. And then make a choppu (semicircular) shape and then fill the poornam and close the choppu. Make a few such. Then steam the batch for 5-8 minutes. Kozhakkattai ready. You may have to steam them in batches depending on the quantity you plan to make.

• Badam Halwa:
• Keerai (Spinach) Masiyal
• Homemade Butter And Ghee
• Rava Upma And Coconut (Thengai) Chutney
• Chakkarai Pongal
• Paruppu Usili And Paruppu Urundai Kozhambu

Note that fried dal mixture, red chilli, hing, coconut are used in VAMK (varuthu araicha mor kozhambu), coconut rice, vazhakkai podi and vaazhakkai koottu.

A friend sent me this: use at your peril - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1xQDlpMnLKxd0RqMnhzRzBuTzg/view?usp=sharing



Additional reading:

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/01/recipe-chakkarai-pongal.html: Chakkarai Pongal
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/01/making-ghee-from-home-made-butter.html: Making Home made ghee
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-list-of-indian-mostly-tamil-lunch-and.html