For the Love of Podis - Putnala Podi

You know what I love about Indian cuisine, the fact that it's not just all curry. It's not tikka masala or some sauce-based cuisine. There's more to Indian cuisine because there are 29 provinces or states in India. We are all Indians but the dishes are as diverse as the people who live there.

I am originally from Andhra Pradesh which is in South India. We eat "curries" with rice. The curries can be dry or wet depending on our mood really. We also eat rice with pickles or podis.

Indian pickles are not pickled cucumbers. Pickles are vegetables or fruit which are cooked and cured/pickled in oil and spices. 

Podi is a Telugu word for powder. Powder sounds a bit odd because it's not like powder that you put on your face or even confectioner's sugar which is finely powdered sugar.  

Podi is a coarse powder. It is generally made with roasted lentils and whole spices which are then ground to perfection (consistency depends on you). 

Today, we're making Putnala podi or roasted chana dal powder. 

Ingredients

1 cup of chana dal (roasted chickpeas)

1 tsp jeera (cumin)

½ tsp chili powder

¾ tsp salt

Grind all of the above ingredients together in a blender until the chana dal is powdered. It is alright if
the jeera or whole cumin do not get powdered. Adjust the chili powder and salt quantities to your taste.

We like eating putnala podi with warm, white Basmati rice. Heat up some rice, add some ghee
(clarified butter) and mix in this podi. This mashup of rice and podi goes really well with vegetable fry
as well.

There are many podi varieties. Putnala podi is the well known amongst my family. There is also Peanut podi, Dry Garlic podi, Mint podi, Karvepaku (made with curry leaves) podi, Poppy seeds podi just to name a few. This post is first of many in a series about podis. Stay tuned for more.

A Real Crunch Muncher!

If you have ever read "The Namesake" or watched the movie, then you will remember this scene I am about to narrate to you. Ashima Ganguli newly married leaves her hometown in Calcutta, India to settle with her husband, Ashoke in Cambridge, MA. Ashoke is an engineering student at MIT and lives in an apartment on or near campus. Ashima wakes up in the morning and looks around their little kitchen to figure out what to eat for breakfast. Oh, I forgot to mention she's pregnant. I guess pregnant women have all sorts of cravings, something spicy, sweet or salt. All Ashima could find is a box of Corn Flakes in the cupboard. So she takes out a bowl, pours the corn flakes into it and just looks at it; it's so plain. The next scene that I remember from the movie was that she chops up onions and adds them to the cereal and tosses it with masala and salt. Note to self: every Indian household has masala for cooking...it's a necessity.

Anyways, after mixing everything together, she sits down by the table and eats her spicy corn flakes mixture for breakfast with pleasure. Now I have explained this particular scene to you because that was one of the scenes that reminds me of foods I grew up with and how I could relate to the movie. My mom made a similar Corn Flakes Mixture this weekend and I just couldn't help but think of the scene from "The Namesake".  And you know what, the procedure for this snack is so simple and so easy and it takes like 10 minutes. So grab some corn flakes and get cracking!!!

I'm sure you are so excited about this snack that you are dying to know what's in it, right? Well, I'm gonna tell you and then you have to tell me how it turns out. You will never look at Corn Flakes the same way again.

Ingredients:

- 7oz box of Corn Flakes cereal
- Handful of Peanuts / cashews
- Handful of Roasted channa dal
- ½ tsp of Red Chilli powder
- 1 tsp of Coriander powder (dhania),  (optional)
- 1 tsp of Salt (as per your taste)
- ½ tsp of Citric Acid powder, (optional)
- 1 tsp of Confectioner's sugar
- 3 to 4 tbsp of Vegetable oil

Procedure:
1) Heat oil in a small saucepan on medium heat and fry the peanuts/cashews until golden brown.

2) Remove from heat and add coriander powder, salt and citric acid and mix well.

3) Empty the cornflakes into a microwavable contrainer and add the roasted channa dal. Then transfer the  seasoning into it and mix well.

4) Reduce the power level on the microwave oven to 70% power and microwave for just two minutes. (Please note that heating time could vary on the power of the oven).

5) Remove from the oven and sprinkle the confectioner's sugar over using a metal sieve and mix well. When it cools down, store it in a tight container to keep it from going stale.

****If you guys haven't heard of The Namesake, you can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Namesake