Paruppu Podi

A simple serving of paruppu podi over piping hot rice and ghee is my hubby's favorite meal. Paruppu podi or dhal powder is a must for anyone who wants to avoid those weekend's Extra large pizza deals:)

Steaming rice served with paruppu podi, ghee, appalam and vadagam.

Ingredients:

Puffed channa dhal - 3/4 cup
channa dhal - 1/4 cup
Thoor dhal - 1/4 cup
black pepper - 1 tbsp
dry red chillies - 4
salt - to taste
cumin - 1 tbsp

Method:

Dry roast (except salt) everything separately until they loose moisture.
Grind to a fine powder. Let cool and store in air tight container.

Serving suggestion:

Gracefully serve a big spoon of piping hot rice in a serving plate / banana leaf and pour a generous spoon of molten ghee over it. Top it with few tsp of this paruppu podi , mix and enjoy.

Paruppu podi should be served over rice before serving the sambar rice.
Usually a little portion of rice is allocated for this paruppu podi + ghee before serving the sambar.

Pappad and pickles make good combo for the above rice.
This can be kept handy for lazy cooking days.
Paruppu podi is a good backup plan for bachelors and students who stay away from home.
Long distance pilgrimage people can keep it as travel food, if they can make some rice using electric cooker.

Mango pickle

Nowadays many of us are not including pickles in the daily menu. But there were days when we wanted to have some pickle everyday along with that paruppu kulambu and rice:) In such situation homemade pickles are better. My mom used to make these mango pickles during the mango season in smaller batches and it would always vanish in a day or two:) she would keep a small piece of some kind of pickle in our everyday lunch boxes, so that we consume the rice without any hesitation. Those were very little incidents but her care and thoughtfulness always amazes me.

Here is an instant mango pickle for those picky eaters:)

Ingredients:

Unripe mango - 1 (1/2 kg)
red chilly powder - 4 tbsp
mustard seed - 1 tsp
fenugreek seed (methi/venthayam) - 1 tsp
turmeric - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
sesame oil - 1/4 cup
hing / asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Select unripe mango with lesser sour taste (like pacharisi maangai or kilimookku - Tamil).
Finely chop the mango.
Heat oil in a kadai.
Add the mustard and fenugreek and wait till mustard finishes popping.
Slide in the chopped mango with enough salt and turmeric.
Add the hing powder too.
Stir continuously and wait till the mango gets cooked.
Then put the red chilly powder and let it cook in low heat till the oil oozes.
Instant mango pickle is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with curd rice, sambar rice or paratha.

Tips:
To increase the shelf-life add 2 tbsp of vinegar or juice of 1 lemon after the pickle cools and store in a dry jar. If handled with a clean dry spoon and care, this pickle can stay for a week in room temperature.
If refrigerated, this lasts longer even without vinegar or lemon.