Veppilakatti ~ Spicy, Tangy and Aromatic Chutney Powder

Veppilakatti is a spiced leafy chutney powder, which is very famous among the Palakkad Iyers.  The name 'veppila' meaning neem leaves, doesn't say about the ingredients. I am ignorant why the name. Anyways, these fragrant balls make a great side for curd rice. I'm sure those who have tasted this once will know, what I am talking about. For the others, when you read the ingredients, you can imagine it.  This is a very traditional dish, which is rarely made at home, these days. 

Wild lemon leaves (Vadugapuli narangathilai) is the star ingredient in the recipe. Its not the narthangai/citron  which is bitter. The leaves has to be picked carefully since the tree has lots of thorns. The picked leaves are washed and patted dry. Tender leaves can be used as such. For the rest, the thick vein in the middle has to be removed. Handful of curry leaves is also used. Traditionally, these leaves along with salt,will be pound in the mortal using the olakkai, i.e the long wooden pestle used to pound rice.  After pounding the leaves, next comes the mixture of red chillies, green chilly, hing and tamarind. These will be pounded almost fine. Finally the leaves are added to it and pounded together. This will be done in batches. Pounding will release some juice from the leaves and salt.  The spice and leaf mixture will be transferred to a big vessel and mixed well. Then it is made into balls and stored in air tight container. 

With the arrival of mixer grinder, Amma used to powder the spice mix in the mixer and pulse the leaves coarsely. Then do a final pounding in the mortal using the pestle.  Now a days, hardly anyone bothers to do all this, since it is readily available in the markets.  I don't like the store bought ones. This time, I had asked my uncle to send some through Amma. Thanks to my mama and mami, I got a huge batch of home made veppilakattis. These are the pics I clicked when Amma got it for me. Its made partly using the mixer and the rest in the mortar. Pounding in the mortar does increase the taste since the ingredients are blended better than in a mixer grinder.

The recipe I am giving is like an approximate one. This will fairly give an idea of what all goes into it and the proportions.

You need

Naaragathilai/ Wild lemon leaves - 1/2 kg  

Curry leaves - a handful

Green chilly - 15-20 nos

Tamarind  - Orange sized

Salt

To roast in oil

Red chilly - 250 gm

Hing/Peringayam cube - 50 gm

Method

Heat 2 table spoon of oil in a kadai. When the oil is hot, drop the hing pieces. It will get fried and the pieces will turn crisp. Remove and add the red chilly. Roast for few minutes. Leave it to cool. Powder the hing and chilly in mixer grinder. The add the green chilly and tamarind to it and pulse again. Remove the spice mix and keep it aside. 

Pulse the lemon and curry leaves along with salt, in the mixer till it is pound into small pieces. Finally blend the leaves and spice mixture. This can be done in batches. Take all the mixture in a big vessel. Mix it well and shape into balls.

As I mentioned before, this can be eaten along with curd rice. You can drizzle some gingely oil on it and have as a side for idly or dosa. 

Peanut Podi & Pics of painting on pot by my niece

I love podis a lot. Growing up, podi meant kalathupodi, since it was the only one made at home. Later, staying in  a hostel for my graduation,  in Andhra Pradesh, I was introduced to variety of  podis by my roommates. Every year, Varalakshmi pooja was observed in our hostel. The pooja was set in our dining hall. So the food was served on the corridor outside and we were expected to eat on the verandha of the ground floor. Food was never allowed to be taken to the room unless someone falls sick and that too with the permission slip along with it. During this pooja, we somehow manage to take dinner to our room and enjoy eating with our room mates. In  our hostel, we were 8 in each room and seniors & juniors are mixed up. During those dinner sessions, one of us will mix rice with podi and ghee in a plate. It will be made into balls and passed to the rest of the roommates. I can go on and on about my hostel life. I surely miss those hostel days. 

Now coming to the recipe, I have written down this recipe from a Tamil Magazine.  Its very easy tasty and features in my kitchen very often.

Ingredients

• Roasted groundnut - 2 cups
• Chutney dal/Porikadala/Pottukadalai - 1 cup
• White sesame seeds - 1/2 cup
• Hing - a small piece
• Khus Khus/Poppy seeds - 1 tblspn
• Red chilli - 8-10 nos (Adjust according to your taste)
• Salt
• Oil  - a teaspoon

 

 

Method

 

1.  Dry roast sesame seeds and khus khus separately till they crackle.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil. Drop the hing piece. Remove it when it is roasted.
3. Roast chilly in in the same oil.
4. Powder the ingredients when its cool. Mix with hot rice and a dollop of ghee. I usually eat with sesame oil (Nallenai)

Here is the picture of a pot painted by my 16 year old neice, Soumya. She has not taken any formal training on this. I had posted some bookmarks done by her. She was overwhelmed reading the comments received for that. During my last trip there, I clicked few pictures of her paintings.

Mysore Saaru from Asha's Foodies Hope ~ Blog on SpotLight for March

My spotlightblog idea is well received and the encouraging comments gives the necessary boost to move ahead. This month, March, the spotlight will be on Asha's Foodies Hope/Aroma Hope. Ashakka or her blog doesn't need any introduction here. She is one of the senior bloggers around and she has never failed to encourage her fellow bloggers. She makes it a point to comment on all posts of those blogs which she follow except when she is on a blogging break. Untill recently, her weekly posts will have few pics of the recipes tried from fellow bloggers. Unlike many recipe posts, each post at FH has a minimum of 5 recipes. Don't go by the number of posts in her blog to arrive at the recipe count. Its much, much more. I had tough time selecting recipes even though I was looking at pure veg recipes.

The first is the series is her gramndmother's recipe -Mysore Saaru. This saaru is remotely similar to sambhar but the spices gives it a different flavor and it is very light too. If you have spice powder ready, its very easy to put together this since most of the cooking is done in the pressure cooker and the only thing to be done is the seasoning.

Saaru/Spice powder

Coriander seeds - 2 tblspn
Tuvar dal - 2 tblspn

Poppy seeds, Cumin, raw rice,
mustard seeds and pepper corn   - 1 tspn each

Red chilly - 2 nos
Methi seeds -1/2 tspn
Cinnamon - 1 " stick
Dry coconut - 2 tblspn
Turmeric - 1/4 tspn

Roast the spices in medium heat. This will ensure even roasting of the dals and spices. I didnot have dry coconut/kopra. I roasted the coconut seperate till light brown. Powder the roasted ingredients fine in a mixer grinder. I used only two tablespoon of the spice powder. Store the rest in an airtight container. You can increase the amount of red chillies to suit your spice level.

For the saaru

Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
Pearl onions - 10 nos
Drumstick - 1 no cut into 1" pieces
Tomatoe- 2 nos
Tamarind juice - 1 tblspn
salt to taste
corinader leaves

To temper
Oil
mustard seeds
cumin seeds
red chilly - 1 torn into two pices
hing
curry leaves

Method

Pressure cook tuvar dal, pearl onion and tomato. Heat oil in a kadai. Add the tempering ingredients. Add tamarind juice and 2 tablespoon of saaru powder and salt. Transfer the cooked dal and vegetables to the kadai. Simmer gently and garnish with curryleaves and coriander leaves.  You can add any vegetable that you normally add to sambhar.

Enjoy with hot rice or steaming idlies.

MilagaiPodi

Milagaipodi or molagapodi as it is colloquially used, is an inevitable part of any South Indian kitchen. Each family has their own way of preparing this. Whatever be the ingredients used, ultimately when it is mixed with ghee/oil and used as side for idli/dosa, it makes a deadly combo. Even though, many number of chutneys or sambhar goes well with dosa and idly, molagapodi is one thing that anyone will crave for. It has an unique place among the sides used. The recipe is what I learnt from my mom and to my surprise I found my MIL also follows the same. Its just the choice of ingredients that vary.

Ingredients

Chana dal (Kadalaparippu) - 1 cup

Urad dal(split,deskinned) - 1 cup

Hing (Kaayam) - 1 tspn

Red chilly - 15 nos

Sesame seeds - 2 tblspn

Parboiled rice - 1/2 cup

salt to taste

Method

Wash and drain the rice and dry it on a kitchen towel.

Roast dals,red chillies separately in a teaspoon of oil.

Separately dry roast rice and sesame seeds.

If you are using hing bar, drop the piece in hot oil. Let it fry for a minute. Unlike hing powder, the bar gives stronger flavor.

Powder in a mixer grinder. Usually it is not powdered fine. Coarse texture of the powder is tasty. Mine is not very coarse, thought not too fine, to suit my FIL.

Take a teaspoon of the podi. Make a well in the center and pour sesame oil and mix well. Have you tried using the left over oil after deep frying. (We call it chuttennai). Molagapodi and chuttennai is a deadly combination.

Coconut chammandi podi (Chutney powder)



Since the name Kerala means land of coconuts, I thought how can I send entries without a recipe, with coconut as a main ingredient. I wanted to try something which is not so very synonymous with Kerala cuisine for a non-keralite. The usual recipes that comes to one's mind when they talk of Kerala is Puttu-Kadala, Aappam-Ishtu, Avial, Kaalan, Paaladhapradhaman... and the list goes on.

Chutney powder or Chammanthi podi is a common chutney powder in all Keralite homes. The recipe has its own variations. Here is my recipe which uses only few ingredients and gives you a very tasty podi. This goes well with idli, dosa and of course with steaming rice mixed with oil.

Grated coconut - 2 cups
Red chilly - 20 nos
Urad dhal - 1/4 cup
Hing - a small piece or 3 tblspn powder
Tamarind - goosebery size
Salt to taste

Roast the coconut in oil till brown. I kept the grated coconut in MW high for 10 minutes. Later roasted in the kadai for 2 minutes.
Dry roast urad dal.
Add a teaspoon of oil to the skillet. If you are using hing piece, add that to the oil. When it gets fried, remove from oil and add red chillies. Hing piece is fried in oil for easier grinding, else it will be sticky.

When it cools to room temp, powder chillies, urad dal, hing and tamarind. Then add the coconut and salt. Powder fine. Transfer to a air tight bottle.




This my second entry to RCI- Cuisine of Kerala hosted this month by Jyothsna of Currybazar

Kalathu Podi - To mix with rice and eat

Recipe for another podi.

Horsegram(Mudirai/Kollu) - 1 cup
Chana dal - 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
Peppercorn - 4 nos
Jeera - 1 tspn
Red chilly - 4
Salt as required

Dry roast the dals separately, till nice aroma comes .
Roast the rest of the ingredients together.

When cool, powder the ingredients together fine ly,in a mixer grinder.

Mix with hot rice using oil/ghee. Serve papads or mezhukkuvaratti as accompaniment.

I eat with gingely oil even though I love to have with ghee

Copra Kalathupodi