25 June 2013

Gun Powder (Milagai Podi)

Gun powder (or) Chutney Powder is a most suited side dish for idlies and dosa’s.  This is a dry powder made with couple of dhals and spicy ingredients which can be mixed with any oil and consumed as an accompaniment for idlies and dosas. It is famously known as Milagai podi in south india (milagai refers to its spiceness due to red chillies, podi is tamil name for powder). Most of the restaurants in Tamil Nadu, can be seen serving this podi for a plate of idli/dosa. It is also commonly called as Idly podi, Idly milagai podi etc.

This podi is a savior in my kitchen, because many times when there is lack of time for cooking a side-dish, this powder always comes to my immediate rescue. I don’t restrict this podi as a side-dish for just idlies and dosas, but also sometimes extend to semia upma, rava upma, adai etc. Right from children to adults, there is hardly anyone who may not like this podi, as it is so tasty. There is always extra appetite to accommodate one or two extra idlies/dosas , if this podi is kept as a side-dish at home. This milagai podi is prepared according to the method followed by my mother-in-law.

The preparation of the milagai podi needs a little patience as it is bit time-consuming, but this is just a onetime effort, once the podi is prepared in a reasonable quantity, it can ease your work for many days/weeks and even months. 

Ingredients:

1. Whole urud dhal (white) – 2 Cups
2. Channa Dhal – ¾ Cup
3. Seasame seeds (black) – ¼ Cup
4. Red Chillies – 15 to 25 (depending on your spice taste)
5. Salt – 1 ½ to 2 tsp
6. Curry leaves (with stem) – 2 full leaves stem
7. Hing – 1 tsp
8. Garlic pods (with skin) – 2 or 3 (optional)
9. Oil – 3 tsp


Method:

1. Take a broad kadai/non-stick pan and fry as per the given order separately.

a. Dry fry sesame seeds until it splutter nicely and remove and spread on Plate1.


b. Dry fry the channa dhal until it turns light brown and remove and spread on Plate2.



c. Dry fry the curry leaves, until it becomes crispy and remove and spread on Plate2.


d. Dry roast the hing for just 3-4 seconds, the heat in the tava will burn it otherwise,  don’t   keep beyond 5 seconds max & remove and spread on Plate2.


e. In a teaspoon of oil, add the urud dhal and fry until it becomes light brown and remove and spread on Plate2.


f. Add a teaspoon of oil, add the red chillies and fry until they start turning light black and remove and spread on Plate3.


Plate(s) with Ingredients:

Plate1: Fried Sesame seeds.
Plate2: Fried Urud dhal, channa dhal, hing, curry leaves.
Plate3: Fried Red chillies.



2. Cool all the above ingredients and take them to a mixer and grind to dry powder in the following order.

a. Grind first the contents in Plate3.

 
b. Add the contents of Plate2 and add required quantity of salt (iodized salt) to the above and grind until the dhals become coarse.


c. Add the contents of Plate1 and allow grinding for just a minute, until the sesame seeds get powdered. Grinding the sesame seeds for too long will leave out oil.



d. Finally add the raw garlic pods with skin and allow a quick grind so that the garlic breaks fine and mixes well with the powder.  


3. Remove the Milagai podi prepared from the above method and store in an air-tight container.


4. While serving, add required amount of this milagai podi and add oil to it and mix well and eat as a side-dish for any preferred main dish.


Tips:

1. Instead of hing powder , use rock asafetida, if rock asafetida is used, dry fry it until it becomes dry and use for powdering.

2. Instead of iodised salt, use table salt. If table salt is used, fry the table salt until it becomes dry and use for powdering.

3. If you choose not to use garlic, you can avoid it in your preparation.

4. If you choose not to use sesame seeds, you can skip that step and proceed with the rest.

5. Milagai podi taste best when used with gingely oil (Nallennai) compared to other oils.

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