Curry Leaf Podi

Apr 4

Curry leaves are very well known not only for their culinary uses but also for their medicinal values .

South Indian cooking has its signature flavor from curry leaves which may not be the main ingredient but without which the cooking is not complete especially tempering with curry leaves is very essential in all Kerala based cooking as well as Tamilnadu cusine .

While curry leaves are like an extra garnishing , we also have specific recipes which uses curry leaves exclusively as the main ingredient and one such is the curry leaf podi or Karuvepillai podi as it is called in Tamil .There are many ways to prepare the curryleaf podi , coarse textured to the very fine powder type, Iprefer to make the coarse type as it feels nice to savor the crunchy taste of the roasted dals along with the curry leaves flavour .

Ingredients :

2-3 cups tightly packed washed dried curry leaves

3 tbsp split black udad dal preferred , I used white as I had no split black udad dal,it increases the nutrition so try to use it in place of white udad dal .

2 tbsp chana dal.

2 tbsp coriander seeds.

1 tsp pepper.

2 tbsp sesame seeds.

Pinch of tamrind about size of a small berry.

10-12 red chillies. increase chillies accordinig to your preference .

Pinch of asafoetida powder .

salt as needed .

1 tsp sesame oil to oil fry the dals and chiliies .

Method :

Oil roast all the dals till aromatic ( 1 tsp oil )

Seperately roast the washed dried curry leaves, roast till crunchy but not black .

Powder with salt, turmeric powder, and hing , and powder coarsely ,

Podi has several uses, from garnishing dry poriyals, add to adai batter, mix with rice and have as curry leaf rice, or simply make small balls and store in a bottle in fridge, have one every day with rice and ghee or with curd rice ( just like narthaelai podi balls )