Dosa / Idli Podi or Powder

  

This is a favorite of mine from very younger days. I remember oftentimes going on trips with my family in the family Ambassador car and one of the things that I fondly remember is my mom packing up lots of Idlis and this powder or Podi along with some fresh edible coconut oil to add to it before mixing it up and feeding us, stopping the car on the wayside somewhere. We used to use banana leaves as makeshift plates too. This can be made and stored in airtight boxes for future use.

Idli coming off fresh from the steam

   

 Ingredients:

1: Toor Dhaal                                             - 1 cup

2: Channa Dhaal                                         - 1 cup

3: Urad Dhaal (Black/ white)                        -1 cup

4: Ellu /sesame seeds(black/white)               -2 spoons

5: Dry red chilies -100 gms

6: Curry leaves                                           -2 sprigs

7: Hing / perumkayam/ kayam                    -2 -3 small pieces or 1 tsp powder

8: Salt                                                        -to taste

 Method of preparation:

First, dry roast the sesame seeds and put aside, then one by one dry roast the each Dhaal(Toor, Channa and Uraad) separately and put aside to cool. Now dry roast the Hing/Kayam if you are using the hardened form and add the red chillies and curry leaves and dry roast them too.

Let all the ingredients cool down. Then grind all these ingredients in a mixer/grinder one by one along with enough salt and put them in a large bowl and mix them all well together. Let the powder cool down before storing it away. Enjoy this powder as a side for idli/ dosa adding coconut oil or gingelly oil or any edible oil to it and mixing it up. A tip to remember about grinding the Dhaals, try not to make a too fine powder of it.

 I roast them all together, as I add one cup each of the Dhaals at a time and reduces the number of chilies to balance the heat as you can see in the picture.