Pickles and powders Archives - Page 2 of 4

Tomato Pickle – 2

22 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Shilpa

I am a pickle lover, I cannot have my lunch/dinner without a pickle. While in India, I had a steady supply of awesome pickles from aayi. After coming here, for about 2 years, I relied on our occasional India trips for the supply. I even bought ready made ones couple of times, which were not even close to what aayi makes. Then I started making my own. I must have made my red and yellow lemon pickles atleast 5 times this year. Everytime we finished them in no time. I made a new batch again about 3 weeks ago, while that is getting done, I needed some other option.

So I made another of my favorite pickles – tomato pickle. The recipe is almost same as my earlier recipe. Every time I make this, I slightly modify the recipe to see if it works. Last time, I changed the spice powder to use our standard Konkani spice paste of asafoetida, mustard, fenugreek. I also gave a seasoning of curry leaves. It had a very different taste. This time, I took the seasoning to a new level by adding 1 tbl spn of freshly made ginger paste(I did not take the pictures this time, Please refer my other tomato pickle recipe for pictures). We loved this gingery taste to the pickle.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg tomatoes
1 + 1 tea spn mustard seeds
1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds
1/2 tea spn asafoetida
1/2 tea spn turmeric
50 gms red chilli powder
10 curry leaves
1 tea spn thick tamarind paste
1 tbl spn ginger paste
50-100gms salt

Method:
Heat oil and fry 1 tea spn mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida taking care not to burn.
Switch off heat and add asafoetida, chili powder and turmeric (stand away from the pan, the strong chili aroma might burn your nose).
Cool to room temperature and powder them together.
In a big thick bottomed or non stick pan, heat 1 tea spn oil. Add all chopped tomatoes and salt.
Cook on a high heat, mixing once in a while to avoid sticking. When all the tomatoes look mashed down, add tamarind. Cook for another 5-10mins.
Add the ground powders. Mix well. Let it cook for another 10mins.
In another pan, heat a little oil. Add remaining mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves and ginger paste. Fry for few minutes and add this to the pickle. Mix well.
Cool to room temperature and then store in air tight container.
It can be consumed immediately, but it tastes great after 2-3 days. Keep it refrigerated. Remains good for 3-4months.

PS: I usually make my pickles a bit more salty as salt acts as a preservative. But my advise would be to start with 50gms of salt and check if that works out for you. It also depends on the kind of salt you are using. Usually after 2-3 days when the salt seeps in, the actual flavors of pickle can be tasted.

Bamboo shoots pickle (Keerlu-ambade lonche/nonche)

Ambade(hog plums/amtekayi/ambazhanga) trees are commonly found in backyards of most of the houses in our region. There are two types of ambades â€“ sour and nonsour(sweet ). We use sour ambades for this pickle. These sour ambades are preferred in most of the recipes to obtain sour taste.These trees bear hundreds of fruits and we use tender ones – provided they get spared from ‘monkey business’. Yes, we have these mischievous monkeys visiting our garden frequently. Monkeys eat them and hardly allow them to grow.

We also use tender bamboo shoots preserved in salt for this pickle.

Ingredients:
Â½ cup bamboo shoot pieces (keerlu)
Â½ cup (5 or 6) crushed hog plums(ambades)
1/3 cup salt
1 cup Water
4 tea spn chilly powder
2 tea spn mustard seeds
1 tea spn fenugreek seeds(methi)
Â½ tea spn asafoetida
Â½ tea spn turmeric powder
2 tea spn oil

Be careful with the salt quantity. I use the raw sea salt that we get here. So change it to your taste.

Method:
Boil water with salt till it reduces by about half inch in volume and keep it aside to cool to allow it to come to room temperature. (This is called ‘meeta khol’ in Konkani ). Immerse the crushed ambades in it and keep it aside for about thirty minutes.

Heat oil in a small pan. Add mustard, fenugreek and asafoetida. Once the mustard seeds start popping, bring it to room temperature and powder it.
Mix this powder, chilly powder and turmeric powder with salted bamboo shoot pieces and add them to the soaked ambades in salt water. Mix very well.
The pickle is ready for use after about thirty minutes. It can be stored for many days.

Lemon/Lime pickle (With Green chillies)

16 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Shilpa

Aayi’s pickles are loved by everyone. They are the best and somehow I feel when I make the same pickles, they are not as half good as hers. I don’t know what is it that I miss. I am one of those, who cannot eat her meals without pickles. Lime/lemon pickles are my favorites. Aayi makes a huge batch of them just for me.

When she came here about 1 and 1/2 years ago, she made a huge batch of it for me. Last year when I went to India, aayi asked me if I wanted to take some of her lemon pickle with me. Since I wanted to bring mango pickle, which I cannot make here, I opted for that and I left out lemon pickle.

In December, all the lemon pickle was finished. So now, I wanted to make my own batch. Some of you may think I am crazy to make pickles in winter. But I wanted this immediately. So I brought a big batch of thin skinned lemons and made two kinds of pickles. One yellow and one red. The red kind was from aayi’s pickle recipe. Few days ago, I had tried lemon-chilli pickle by Sanjeev Kapoor. It was one of the best ready made pickles that I have tasted so far. It had white sesame seeds in it, which I really loved. So this pickle recipe was born from these two recipes. I followed aayi’s recipe, left out red chilli powder, used more green chillies and used sesame seeds.

As aayi had instructed, I gave it a good shake once in 15days or so and in about 1 and 1/2 months, both pickles were ready. Yayyy!!!. Finally…I am happy with pickles. They are just like the way I like. I didn’t take step by step pictures this time as all the steps are same as the lemon pickle – except for chillies and the sesame seeds. My spice powder did not become a smooth powder, so you can see some mustard and other pieces in the picture, which should be totally fine.

Last weekend was another pickle weekend at my home. I made two ready to eat pickles – cauliflower pickle and chilli pickle. I also made pineapple paank and some spice powders. My weekday meals are so much easier now because of all these. I had to spend about 3-4 hrs on the Sunday morning to get all these ready.

Two pickles on my to-do list this year – Manisha’s lemon and lime pickles. Last year, I missed them in summer, I was just too lazy.

Ingredients:
3 cups lemon/lime pieces
1 tbl spn ginger
1/2 cup chopped green chilies
1 tbl spn sesame seeds
2 tbl spns mustard seeds
1/2 tea spn methi seeds
1/2 tea spn asafoetida
1 tea spn turmeric
2 and 1/2 tea spns oil
1/2 cup salt

Method:
Cut the lemon/lime into small pieces. Chop the chillies into about 1/2″ pieces.
Heat 1 tea spn oil and fry mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida on a medium heat. Take care not to burn any of these. Mustard turns really bitter when it gets burnt, so be careful. Take off heat and add turmeric powder. When it is cooled to room temperature, grind it to a smooth powder.
Add the above powder, salt to the lemon pieces and mix well.
Heat little oil and fry ginger and green chilies for 2-3 mins. When it is cooled to room temperature, mix this with the lemon pieces. Take care to mix this when it comes to room temperature. If this is mixed when hot, the pickle gets spoiled soon.
Heat about 1/2 tea spn oil and add sesame seeds. When they start popping, take off the heat and cool them to room temperature. Add these to pickle.
Store this in an airtight container. Leave it as it is for about 15days. Then open the container and see if the pickle is fine. Close the lid again and leave it for about 45 days. As the pickle gets ready, the lemon pieces get softer. This time largely depends on the kind of lemon/lime used.

PS:
– Use hot chillies, if the chillies are mild, increase the amount of them in the pickle.
– To speed up the pickling time, some people boil the pieces and make the pickle. By boiling them, pickle gets ready within 4-5 days, but it does not usually have very long shelf life. Also, the Vitamin-C content in the lemon/lime gets lost. I personally prefer this slow pickling process where the pieces are not boiled.
– While making the pickle, make sure all the vessels, spoons, grinder/mixer are very dry. Even a small drop of water makes this pickle spoil soon. Even while serving the pickle, make sure the spoon you put in this container is very dry. Better yet, transfer small quantity in a smaller container which can be used to serve.
– As I mentioned earlier, the spices should NOT get burnt while frying. While making my last batch, I accidentally burnt some of the spices and the pickle became very bitter and I had hard time to finish it off.
– Any pickle should taste salty when it is prepared. The salt gets absorbed by the pieces as time passes. If it tastes just perfect when the pickle is prepared, it gets spoiled soon.
– Use limes or lemons that has lots of juice.
– If you think this much salt is too much, add about 1/3 cup initially and then add more if required.

Goda masala or Kala masala

77 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Shilpa

One of the most requested recipes on this blog is this Marathi special, very fragrant dry masala. I was waiting for a trip to India to get this recipe from my pachi (aayi’s sister) who is my very important connection to anything Marathi :).

I still remember those days in Belgaum. I was in college hostel while doing my bachelors. The food in the canteen was so bad that after a while we could not take it any more. My roommate and I had always eaten homemade Konkani food and this hostel food was a big shock to us. She knew little bit of cooking which was mainly Konkani – with ground coconut masalas. We were not allowed to go and meet our relatives every week (otherwise I would have probably visited pachi every weekend). So we were in for a big trouble.

One day, I went to pachi’s house and asked her for some simple recipes that I could cook in the hostel on a typical small one burner electric stove and without the help of any other electrical appliances like mixer, blender. Keeping in mind I didn’t even know to make simple rice, she gave me few suggestions. She gave me some kala masala and gave some simple ideas of using this masala. Also some other masalas which I have forgotten now. But I still remember the heavenly aroma of this kala masala.

So this time, when we had been to India, I asked pachi for the recipe. She said she buys the ready made powder and also, every one has their own versions which have different aromas. She promised to ask around in her family and give me the recipe for the one she likes the most.

After few days, she suggested a recipe from the famous book Ruchira by Kamalabayi Ogle. When I tried this, I made very few modifications to it and reduced all the ingredients proportionately to make this powder in a quantity that we can finish when it is still fresh.

Verdict – I clearly remember this fragrance. A tea spn of this masala in any dish, brightens the whole dish. I have been using this a lot these days. I am living my college days again. One of the first dishes I tried with this is, my favorite Kale vatanechi amti .

Remember – If you are making any dry masala, make it in small quantity and finish as soon as possible (like in 1-2 months). As time passes, the fragrance goes away bit by bit.

Fry in oil:
1 cup coriander seeds
1/8 cup cumin seeds
3/4 tea spn shah jeera
1/2 tea spn cloves
1 fingerlong cinnamon
2 gms asafoetida
1/8 cup dagad phool
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds

Dry roast:
1/8 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup dessicated coconut

Other ingredients:
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
1/4 cup chilli powder
Oil
Salt (I did not add this)

Method:
Heat very little oil and fry all the ingredients under ‘fry in oil’. Take care not to burn anything. You can fry them one by one. Take them out.
Dry roast the ingredients under ‘dry roast’.
Grind all of them together to a smooth powder. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Store in air tight container. (I divided it into two equal parts. One I kept in freezer. It will be used after the first batch gets over).

PS: For those who have never seen dagad phool, here is a picture. It is not same as star anise. This looks like dried flowers or lichens that are often seen on trees. It has a very strong smell. I think the main characteristic aroma of kala masala comes from this ingredient. Aayi uses this in her chicken curry, so for me, this spice has typical chicken curry smell :).

Fenugreek and Dal Powder (Menthe Hittu)

31 Comments / Konkani Recipes, Pickles and powders / By Varada

Menthe hittu(Kannada) – fenugreek powder, is a spicy powder prepared by grinding a variety of spices and lentils. This is served with hot rice and a spoonful of ghee. The Marathi version of this is called Metkoot.

Menthe hittu saves a lot of time many times, when you want to serve something very fast and have no time to cook some gravies/curries. Since it is a powder, it is also good for travel. For those people who are accostomed to curries, it looks little odd. I too felt so, when my mother served rice and mente hittu during my childhood. My husband and son both love this powder.

It is rich in protein and the fenugreek seeds used in this are highly recommended for diabetic patients.

Ingredients:
2 cups chana dal
1 cup toor dal
1 cup urad dal
1 moong dal
1/2 cup coriander seeds
2 tea spns cumin seeds
1 tea spn fenugreek seeds
1/2 tea spn pepper
2-3 red chillies
1/4 tea spn asafoetida
1 tea spn dried ginger pieces (or use fresh but fry well)
2 tea spn(approx) salt
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
4-5 drops oil

Method:
Dry roast all the ingredients (except mustard seeds, oil and salt). Heat oil in another pan and add mustard seeds. When they pop up, take off the heat.
When everything comes to room temperature, grind to a powder along with salt.
Store in an airtight container. This remains good for about a month.
Serve with hot rice and ghee.

Bilimbi pickle (Bimbla nonche)

34 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Varada

There may be many people like me who like pickles very much. During my childhood, pickle was an essential item of the meal, no meal was complete without it. It was a must with congee(pej) of boiled rice which is usually served between breakfast and lunch at around 11AM in Konkani homes. People use many vegetables to prepare pickles e.g. mangos, lemons, bimbal, bitter gourd, bamboo shoots, cauliflower, green chillies, gooseberries etc. At my home, everybody is pickle lover, so we have at least 2-3 kinds of them all the time. There are some which have very less short shelf life like this one.

Bilimbi (bimbal in Konkani) tree is commonly seen in backyards of many houses here. Bimbal is sour in taste. Children like to eat them raw with little salt. They are used in many recipes as souring agents. These are available throughout the year. The tree bears hundreds of fruits. Since bimbal fruits grow abundantly, this pickle is prepared whenever a large quantity is required for any function on a short notice. Once prepared, this pickle should be used within 4 – 5 days. Only the light green firm bimbals are used for this pickle. As they grow, they become soft and yellowish in color and not used.

Ingredients:
1 cup bimbal pieces
2 tea spn salt
4 tea spn chilli powder
1-2 tea spn mustard seeds
1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds
1/2 tea spn asafoetida powder
2 tea spn oil

Method:
Take the light green bimbals. Cut them into 1 cm. thick round pieces. Mix the required quantity of salt with these pieces and keep it aside for about 2-3hrs allowing the bimbals to soak the salt.
Take the oil in a small pan and heat it on a low flame. Add mustard, fenugreek and asafoetida. When mustards starts popping, cool them to room temperature and grind to powder. Add this powder to the bimbal pieces along with chilli powder. It is better to store the pickle in refrigerator as it gets spoiled early outside.

Tamarind rice (Puliyogare)

51 Comments / Pickles and powders, Rice items / By Shilpa

Are there any South Indian unmarried girls/guys in the world who never tried puliyogare? If there is one, I haven’t met them yet. The MTR puliyogare mix must be one of their most popular powders. It is not as much popular among Indians as much as it is among Indians who travel abroad due to job requirements or studies. This powder comes as a “life saver” to most. Confused?? Let me explain.

Normally when someone is sent to a foreign country from India on a job, most of the time it is for 3-6months, the first thing they do is, go for a big shopping spree. Since there are restrictions for carrying home made goodies, almost everyone picks up these instant powders, so that they can survive in an unknown country for at least few days. Usually one of the staples being either puliyogare powder or paste. It all started from there and after a while, everyone gets adjusted to this quick fix meal. Mainly this helps in preparing lunches. Since this is one of the simplest quick-fix-meals which does not require any sides or raw materials, everyone goes for this. When they reach the foreign place, just cook some rice either in microwave or on stove top and add this powder/paste and eat. Some go to the trouble of actually heating oil and frying the powder but not all.

Both V and I have lived like that for a long time. Basically it was before our wedding. Whenever we were sent on assignments to US or Australia, we would pack this and rice. At least in my case, I would try to make something more than this and I won’t get bored of it, but not him. So it was banned from my home for a long time.

But this rice IS very tasty. So time to time, I would sneak in a pack of MTR puliyogare powder and prepare it when he was not around. I gave him 3 years to wear off the effects of puliyogare that he had consumed. Somehow I always wanted to create it on my own. Did I say I have this compulsion to create all the powders at home? if I use store-bought powder, I feel its like buying ready-made food. So at some point, I attempt making them at home. Since last few months I have started cooking this from scratch at home.

The powder can be made in advance and stored for a very long time. I would say 1-2 months is a decent time as after that, the aroma diminishes. Even the paste can be saved for a week or two when refrigerated. Make powder and save, puliyogare gets ready in 15mins. Make paste and save, puliyogare gets ready in 5mins. I have made a big batch of powder and it is being used for last few days :).

Ohh.., forgot to explain what a puliyogare is – puli is sour and ogara – something used on top (of rice). Call it puliyogare, puliyodarai, tamarind rice or whatever, its one tasty and no-brainer item :).

Puliyogare powder:
2 tbl spn dry coconut
1 tbl spn chana dal
7-8 curry leaves
5-6 red chilies
Asafoetida
1 tbl spn peanuts
1/2 tbl spn coriander seeds
1 tbl spn sesame seeds
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds

Method:
Dry roast all the ingredients till a nice aroma comes out. Grind to a powder.

Puliyogare paste:
1 tbl spn thick tamarind extract or thick juice extracted from 1/2 cup tamarind
1/2 tea spn chili powder
1 tea spn jaggery
1/2 tea spn chana dal
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
1 tbl spn peanuts
4-5 curry leaves
1 tea spn puliyogare powder
Oil

Method:
Heat oil and add peanuts, chana dal, mustard seeds. When they are fried, add curry leaves.
Add the tamarind extract and 1/2 cup water. Cook on a low flame till it becomes slightly thick.
Add jaggery and cook till it completely melts.
Add chili powder, puliyogare powder, salt. Keep mixing till the paste thickens.
Store in air tight container.

Puliyogare:
Heat a little oil and put the paste. Fry for a min till a nice aroma comes out. Now add the cooked rice, salt and mix well. (If the paste is done fresh, just add the rice to the same pan when the paste is ready). The ratio of rice to paste depends on individual taste.

Instead of rice, this can even be made with cooked rice noodles.

Tomato Pickle – 1

49 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Shilpa

Some of you may start wondering what happened to me suddenly to start posting a recipe every day. Here is the answer. We are planning to go to India this month. Before that, I want to post more so that I can convert most of my drafts into posts. I am a cooking freak and the pace at which I post never catches up with the pace I cook. Sometimes it so happens that, I even forget the dish I cooked few days ago and keep wondering what is the dish in a particular picture (I can never type in the recipe soon after I cook it, as I get very tired by the time I finish cooking, so no, that advise will not work in my case). So please bear with me for an overdose in next few days.

Now coming back to today’s recipe. I had never heard of tomato pickle till I went to Belgaum to do my bachelors. There, we had a room mate called Swati – a very sweet girl from Andhra. She used to bring big batches of tomato pickles every time she went home. Though her pickle had more oil than what I prefered, I absolutely loved it. I didn’t know abc of cooking then and now that I think back, I don’t remember how that pickle tasted. But I can clearly remember – I absolutely loved it.

So last month when we went to Sunilanna’s home for a party, he served us a ready made tomato pickle. My love for this pickle re-surfaced and I had to prepare it myself if I wanted a good night’s sleep. So I checked the ingredient list on the bottle and recreated the recipe. I was not very sure that it would work out. But considering the feedback I have got from many people for this pickle, I think it was a success. As for me, I simply love it.

I also found out that, the original Andhra version of this pickle has some kind of seasoning – most of the times garlic seasoning. I didn’t include it in my pickle. I love the way it is, as I never liked onion or garlic in pickles(just an acquired taste). But if you like, you can include it. Addition of sesame seeds gave it a very nice aroma.

Ingredients:
1/2 kgs firm, ripe tomatoes
50gms chili powder
1 tea spn mustard seeds
1 tea spn sesame seeds
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds
1/2 tea spn asafoetida powder
1 tea spn tamarind extract
1-2 tea spns oil
50 – 100 gms salt(approx)

Method:
Heat oil and fry mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fenugreek seeds taking care not to burn.

Switch off heat and add asafoetida, chili powder and turmeric (stand away from the pan, the strong chili aroma might burn your nose).

Cool to room temperature and powder them together.
In a big thick bottomed or non stick pan, heat 1 tea spn oil. Add all chopped tomatoes and salt.

Cook on a high heat, mixing once in a while to avoid sticking. When all the tomatoes look mashed down, add tamarind. Cook for another 5-10mins.

Add the ground powders. Mix well. Let it cook for another 10mins.

Cool to room temperature and then store in air tight container.
It can be consumed immediately, but it tastes great after 2-3 days. Keep it refrigerated. Remains good for 3-4months.

PS: I usually make my pickles a bit more salty as salt acts as a preservative. But my advise would be to start with 50gms of salt and check if that works out for you. It also depends on the kind of salt you are using. Usually after 2-3 days when the salt seeps in, the actual flavors of pickle can be tasted.

Lemon/Lime pickle (Limbe nonche/Lonche)

85 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Shilpa

I have mentioned many times earlier that my aayi makes one of the best pickles I have ever tasted. They are usually very long lasting. The batch I brought with me in Jan last year, ended me whole year (well..I am very stingy when it comes to her pickles). Last year when I saw Manisha’s gorgeous lemon pickle and lime pickle, I immediately wanted to try aayi’s version also(Manisha, since we have a balcony now, I am going to try your both versions before summer ends). But unfortunately I burnt some spices while making this and my blender didn’t make a very smooth powder of the spices. In all, the pickle was not worth a picture.

This pickle can be made both with lemons (thick skinned yellow ones) and limes(thin skinned green ones). Usually the pickles should be made with the lemon or limes that are full of juice. The juice helps in pickling process. Lemon skin takes a long time to soften, lime becomes soft very soon. But my personal favorite is lemon because once the skin gets soft, these have a thick pickled skin with tastes just out of this world.

At my native, we had a lemon tree – we called these as Italian limbe. These were used to make this pickle. But these days my parents specially buy the limes with lots of juice to make this. I am an avid pickle eater and one of my favorite is this pickle. I love the taste of pickled ginger pieces in it (even though I am not a big raw ginger piece fan. I love the taste of it in this one). Some of my relatives who never liked lemon pickle before have become huge fans of aayi’s version. I can survive on this and curd rice alone :). I recommend to all people who usually love or hate lemon pickle to try this atleast once. I can bet you will love this.

Ingredients:
3 cup lemon/lime pieces
1/2 cup salt
3/4 cup chili powder
1 tea spn turmeric powder
2 tea spn mustard seeds
1/2 tea spn asafoetida
1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds
2 tea spns oil
1 tbl spn chopped green chilies
1 tbl spn ginger pieces

Method:

Cut the lemons or limes as shown below.

Heat 1 tea spn oil and fry mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida on a medium heat. Take care not to burn any of these. (Mustard turns really bitter when it gets burnt, so be careful) . Take off heat and add turmeric powder. When it is cooled to room temperature, grind it to a smooth powder.

Mix the above powder, salt, chili powder to the lemon pieces and mix well.

Heat remaining oil and fry ginger and green chilies for 2-3 mins. When it is cooled to room temperature, mix this with the lemon pieces. (Take care to mix this when it comes to room temperature. If this is mixed when hot, the pickle gets spoiled soon).

Store this in an airtight container. Leave it as it is for about 15days. Then open the container and see if the pickle is fine. Then close the lid again and leave it for about 45 days. As the pickle gets ready, the lemon pieces get softer. This time largely depends on the kind of lemon/lime used.

PS:
– To speed up the pickling time, some people boil the pieces and make the pickle. By boiling them, pickle gets ready within 4-5 days, but it does not usually have very long shelf life. Also, the Vitamin-C content in the lemon/lime gets lost. I personally prefer this slow pickling process where the pieces are not boiled.
– While making the pickle, make sure all the vessels, spoons, grinder/mixer are very dry. Even a small drop of water makes this pickle spoil soon. Even while serving the pickle, make sure the spoon you put in this container is very dry. Better yet, transfer small quantity in a smaller container which can be used to serve.
– As I mentioned earlier, the spices should NOT get burnt while frying. While making my last batch, I accidentally burnt some of the spices and the pickle became very bitter and I had hard time to finish it off.
– Any pickle should taste salty when it is prepared. The salt gets absorbed by the pieces as time passes. If it tastes just perfect when the pickle is prepared, it gets spoiled soon.
– Use limes or lemons that has lots of juice.
– Open the lid of lemon once in about 2 weeks and mix with a clean dry spoon. This helps in redistribution of salt.

Gravy spice powder(Saarina Pudi – Udupi style)

6 Comments / Pickles and powders / By Shilpa

This Saarina Pudi is a special spice powder used in most of the Udupi gravies and sambars. This is very different than normal sambar powders. I like to make it fresh because it looses the aroma as days pass, but if you cannot, store in the freezer in airtight container.

Few dishes where this can be used are beLe saru, puLi koddel etc

Ingredients:
10-12 red chilies
1 cup coriander seeds
1/4 cup fenugreek seeds
1/2 cup cumin seeds
Coconut oil
10-12 curry leaves
1/4 cup dry coconut (optional)

Method:
Heat oil and fry all the ingredients on a very low flame. Take care not to burn anything. Powder all of them together. This powder can be saved up to 7 days. As days pass, the aroma of the powder decreases. If you want to save it for longer, put in an airtight container and keep in freezer.