Chammanthi Podi | Nadan Chammanthi Podi | Nalikera Podi | Kerala Style Roasted Coconut Powder for Rice

Chammanthi Podi needs no intro for a Malayalee ;) It is a staple at many Mallu homes and almost every other mallu going abroad would have taken this condiment, packed & sealed tightly and buried deep inside the suitcase :D If they do not take it during their first visit, they will definitely remember to pack some when they come & go back after the vacation :)

It is really yummy, easy to make, can be stored for quite some time if handled properly and can be had with just rice and curd. It is the most yummax combo if you ask me :) And we eat a pot full of rice when we eat them with matta rice & curd combo. Of course, we make a fluffy omelette loaded with onions also to go with it ! So now without much talk, let's see how this is made.. 

P.S: This one is made by my mil & I took only the pics :D And these are one of the first set of food pics taken with iPhone XR. Am going to ditch my SLR for a while now...

Recipe Source: Amma

Serves: 3-4 persons

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

I Used:

Coconut	-	2 medium sized coconuts - Around 4 cups - grated
Tamarind	-	3 tbsp - A big lemon sized
Shallots	-	15-20 nos - medium sized
Curry Leaves	-	4-5 sprigs
Red Chilly	-	20-22 nos

The Way:

1. Grate the coconut finely without bigger scrapes. If you get big scrapes while grating, then you can add them in a mixie jar and give a quick pulse so that the scrapes are even. This will ensure that the colour of the powder/podi is even and dark without white specks

2. Take the grated (& pulsed) coconut in a wide and thick bottomed pan/uruli. Roast them on a low/medium flame. Keep roasting them as often as possible to ensure that they do not get burnt or get stuck at the bottom of the vessel

3. Once the coconut starts to brown slightly, add the tamarind pieces (If you wish, can wash them and add) and keep roasting

4. After 2-3 minutes add the curry leaves and shallots. If shallots are bigger, slice them and add

5. Keep roasting them till they turn deep brown in colour. Keep caution to not to burn them else the taste of the podi will not be up to the mark

6. In a separate kadai/vessel roast the dry red chillies for 2-3 minutes till they swell up and give out a good glaze. Do not roast for long as it will get burnt 

7. Now allow them to cool till they reach room temperature

8. Then add all the contents including the red chilly to a large mixie jar and grind them coarsely. Ideally it should be a little coarse. You can grind them as fine or coarse as you wish though :)

Serve with matta rice, curd & pickle :)

Cheers,

Chitz

Karuveppilai Podi | Easy Karuvepilai Podi for Idly/Dosa/Steamed Rice | Karivepila podi | Curry leaves powder recipe

I am a fan of this podi recipe of my mom's. It is slightly different from the normal recipes which use more of dal but my mom uses coriander seeds. They give a nice flavour as well as a slightly different taste to the podi. She is a fan of the coriander flavour so she uses more of them in her cooking :) I feel that coz of the coriander this podi tastes more yum with rice and I eat them with rice more than with idly/dosa. Where as Deepak feels this is more yum with idly and dosa and has it only with them. So you get the general feeling right? This recipe is a winner. We make some or the other excuse and finish them off soon ;)  And it is a nice way to include curry leaves in your diet too :) So let's see how this is made.. 

Preparation Time : 25 minutes

Cooking Time : 25 minutes

Recipe source : Ma

Makes : A 200 gm bottle

I Used:

Curry Leaves	-	1 cup
Urad Dal	-	1/8 cup
Coriander Seeds	-	1/8 cup
Red Chilly	-	2 nos
Jeera/Cumin Seeds	-	1 tbsp
Hing/Asafoetida Salt	- -	1 tsp As Needed

The Way:

1. Remove the curry leaves from the stalks and rinse them in water 2-3 times. Sometimes they may contain dirt or sand particles. Hence rinse them thoroughly

2. Then drain them well and spread them in a plate or a flat surface and allow them to dry properly. If there is moisture content the podi will not have a longer shelf life

3. When it is dried properly, take them in a pan/kadai and saute them on low flame till they become crisp and dry. Then keep them aside

4. Then take the coriander seeds and red chilly in the pan and saute. The coriander seeds should slightly change colour and become deep in colour. This would take about 3-4 minutes in low flame. Then remove them and keep aside

5. Next take the urad dal and keep roasting them also in low flame till it changes colour to golden. This would also take around 3-4 minutes. Once done remove and keep aside

6. Now take the cumin seeds and hing and saute on low flame. Once the cumin seeds start to splutter, remove them from flame as well

7. Now take everything in a blender/mixie jar. Add sufficient salt and grind to a coarse powder

8. Preserve them in an air tight container and keep away from moisture. Use a clean and dry spoon to take the podi every time so that the shelf life is not affected

Serve with gingelly (sesame) oil for your idly or dosa or even steamed rice!

Notes:

• Store in a clean and dry air tight container for longer shelf life
• Always use a clean dry spoon to take the podi from the bottle

Cheers,
Chitz

Unakka Chemmeen Chammanthi Podi | Kerala Style Chemmeen Chammanthi Podi | Dry Shrimp Chutney powder

You know, I have been making this condiment on and off for the past 5 years.. On and off in the sense, whenever I get my hands on a pack of dried shrimps, I for sure make them ! I learnt to make them from a very dear blogger friend Meena's space 'Elephants and Coconut trees'. It was a saviour during our days at Norway. Deeps is a great fan of dried fish and getting them was close to impossible there. Once in a while we get the dried shrimps packet in the Asian stores. Whenever we spot one, we buy them and get it roasted and ground :D 

And the taste is so awesome that even after getting back to India and having pretty good access to fresh and dried fish, we still crave for this :D And this time when we went to Kerala, Deeps found this at our local super market and got 2 packets :) So I made this podi with one packet and some other dishes with the other one. Stay tuned to see what they are :) Meena keeps her podi pretty simple but I, when I made it the first time itself used all those extras that she mentioned in her notes.. So I have been making it like that ever since ! They are sooper easy to make. A little time consuming only to roast the ingredients and that is so important coz your shelf life depends on how well they are roasted and how moisture free they are.. And we like to pair it up with kanji (rice gruel) for our dinner. Little of this podi, choodu kanji, mutta scramble (egg scrambled) and achar (pickle) is all that we need to have a mind filling dinner :) So do try this out if you get your hands on one and let me know how you liked it :)

Other recipes with Dried Shrimps:

Unakka Chemmeen Roast | Dried Shrimp Fry

Unakka Chemmeen Curry | Dried Shrimp Curry

Unakka Chemmeen Maanga Curry | Kerala Style Dried Shrimp Raw Mango Curry

Recipe Source: Adapted from Here

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 45 minutes

Makes : 1.5cups

I Used:

Dried Shrimp	-	One 50 gm packet
Grated Coconut	-	1 cup
Shallots	-	8 nos
Garlic	-	5 pods
Curry leaves	-	2 sprigs
Pepper	-	1 tsp
Red Chilly powder	-	2 tsp
Asafoetida	-	½ tsp
Tamarind	-	1 tsp (tightly packed)
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. Rinse and wash the shrimp thoroughly 3-4 times to remove any dirt or dust particles in them. They tend to absorb water, so be quick to rinse and once done, drain them and take them in a plate and spread them out. Leave them for 30-60 minutes to dry

2. If you are hard pressed for time, do not bother to dry them. Take them in a kadai/pan and dry roast them in low flame. For a better and longer shelf time, there shouldn't be any moisture content in the powder we are going to make. Hence make sure you roast the shrimps in low flame till they are crisp and dry. Also make sure that you keep stirring occasionally so that they don't get burnt

3. Once they are crisp and starts to crack and splutter, take them in a plate and keep aside

4. In the same pan, add the grated coconut, shallots, garlic, curry leaves and pepper. Saute on a low flame till the coconut turns deep brown in colour. Keep sauteeing continuously and take care not to burn them

5. Now add red chilly powder, salt and asafoetida. Give a quick stir

6. Then add the roasted shrimp and give a nice stir. Keep stirring for another 3-4 minutes. Then add the tamarind and saute for a minute. Switch off the flame

7. Allow it to cool down. Then grind it coarsely and store in an air tight container

Notes: 

• Store in an air tight container for a longer shelf life. Use a clean and dry spoon to take out the podi
• Dry shrimps comes with added salt. Hence add salt accordingly while making the podi
• If your shrimps are a bit larger and you want to remove the head and tail then you can do the same. I use small variety for making this podi and don't remove the heads or tails
• Roast the ingredients really well and keep them away from moisture for a better shelf life

Cheers,

Chitz

Dosha/Dosa Podi | Idly/Idli Podi

Ground lentils with red chilly & pepper corns

It's been almost two weeks since the 'podi' I got from India has been over. I have to tell you it's been a great relief for me not to make side dishes for morning breakfasts during weekdays. Primary thing is I wake up just in nick of time and I will be racking my brain for ideas. And I don't get any !!! So when this podi got over, I was at a loss. So that's when I got the recipe from my Mil and decided to make it. So here's a side dish with a punch for your busy weekday mornings. You can make this over a weekend and store it over for over two months, if it lasts that long ;)

Recipe Source : Mil

I took : 20 minutes

I Used:

Urd Dal	-	1 cup
Channa Dal	-	½ cup
Red Chilly	-	15-20 nos
Pepper Corns	-	2 tsp
Curry leaves	-	10 sprigs
Asafoetida	-	¼ tsp
Salt	-	As needed

The Way:

Dry roast all the ingredients separately and allow them to cool. Coarse grind them together and yo-ho !! Dosha podi is ready to be served with oil for steaming idlys or doshas :-)

Cheers,

Chitz