Sambar Podi / Sambar Masala Powder

I am sure every home has their own version of sambar masala powder. Here, I share my version which we usually prepare at our home every time.



Nothing can beat my grandma's sambar and her sambar masala. Every Friday she used to prepare some type of sambar(If no vegetable is available, she prepares onion sambar). If she prepares it, I simply drink it instead of eating it with steamed rice. :-)

This sambar masala can also be used for other curries where we need to use red chilli powder and coriander powder. I accept there is a slight change in taste but for some recipes this masala adds very good taste.

Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Idle Time: 5 hours
Makes: 1kg of sambar powder (approximately)

Ingredients:


Dry red chillies - 1/2 kg
Dhania/ Coriander seeds -  1/2 kg
Urid dal - 1/4 cup
Channa Dal - 1/4 cup
Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
Rice grains - 1/4 cup
Black pepper corns - 50 grams
Cumin seeds - 50 grams
Mustard seeds - 30 grams
Fenugreek seeds - 10-20 grams
Katti perungayam / Asafoetida - 20 gram, crushed (see notes)
Fresh Curry leaves - a big bunch, yields 1 cup approximately, optimum packing
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Method:


1) Sun dry all the ingredients for 5 hours separately.

2) On the same day, collect all of them and dry roast them in heavy bottom pan one by one separately until the ingredients gives a wonderful aroma. Rice grains should be opaque. I forgot to take picture of dry roasting coriander seeds and dry red chillies. Except those two pictures, all the other pictures are given here.

3) Dry roast curry leaves until they turn crisp.

4) Heat a teaspoon of oil and fry crushed, sun dried asafoetida for few minutes in another pan.
5) Allow the roasted ingredients to cool completely to room temperature.
6) Grind it using mixer/food processor to a fine powder. As I prepare it large quantity, I often grind them at Flour mills / Grinding mills.

7) Allow the ground powder to cool to room temperature by spreading it in a wide plate.
8) Store it in a clean dry air tight container.

Note:
1) If you are using katti perungayam or kootu perungayam, dry it well in sunlight and use. If you are not getting katti perungayam at your place, use a teaspoon of asafoetida powder. You can very well adjust the quantity as per preference.
2) If you are making this powder in large quantity, then store it in a big container. For daily use, store smaller quantity in small jar and refill the small jar weekly once using a dry spoon.This helps you to prevent bugs.
3) If you are not able to sun dry all the ingredients, directly you can roast them and make a sambar powder.
4) You can also add 25 grams of roasted poopyseeds/ kasa kasa for unique taste.

Besan Laddu

When I made besan laddu for the first time, it was a great flop. The gram flour I used was not roasted properly and because of it, all the laddus directly went to the bin. but, next time when I prepared it, I was very careful in roasting part and too cautious for not making the same mistake again.This time, I made perfect, tasty besan laddus. So make sure to roast the gram flour properly and thoroughly to avoid the raw smell of the gram flour while eating.

Basic Information:
Preparation and Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Makes: 15 - 17 laddus

Source: Manjula's Kitchen

Ingredients:


Basen / Gram flour / Kadalai mavu - 1 and 1/2 cup
Semolina / Rava - 2 tablespoons

Ghee - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Almonds - 1/4 cup, sliced
Cardamom - 3 nos

Almonds or Pistachios - for garnishing

Method:

1) Mix both sugar and cardamom in a mixer and make a powder of it. Keep it aside.
2) In a kadai / wide pan, mix basen, rava and dry roast for few minutes. Add ghee to this mixture and continue roasting for few more minutes in low flame.

3) Initially the mixture looks crumble. If you keep on mixing it, you can see that the crumbled mixture will bind together and not sticking with the pan. When the besan mixture turns light golden brown and not sticking with the pan, remove from the pan. It took 10-15 minutes for me as I did it in very low flame.
4) Transfer the mixture to the bowl.

5) When the mixture is warm, add sugar, cardamom mixture (as said in step 1) and almonds.

6) Mix it well and start making laddu. I made laddus when the mixture is warm to make perfect shaped laddu with the help of melted cold ghee.

7) Once you are done with making laddu's decorate it with crushed almonds or pistachio.
8) Cool to room temperature and store in a container.

Note:

1) Roasting part of the besan is important and make sure to roast it correctly for perfect tasting besan laddus.

2) If you are not able to form laddu shape, add little more warm ghee to act as a bind factor. Use very little quantity.

3) Increase or decrease the almonds as personal preference.

 

Library east side doors.  The inside doors came off and went to the shop for repair and now we are installed them.  We are also taking the screen doors off to go in for repair.  www.bettermadecabinets.com

 

Library east side doors.  The inside doors came off and went to the shop for repair and now we are installed them.  We are also taking the screen doors off to go in for repair.  www.bettermadecabinets.com