DOSA MILAGAI PODI ( CHUTNEY POWDER )

South India is famous for its breakfast items like idli, dosa etc. These breakfasts are not complete without the milagai podi. This podi comes in handy when we have sudden guests. It is also ideal to carry with us while travelling. Each of the Southern states has its own version of milagai podi. My recipe is from Tamil Nadu.

Preparation Time: 10 mts Cooking Time: 20 mts

Ingredients:

Broken urud dal (black gram dal) - 1 cup

Channa dal (kadalai paruppu/ bengal gram dal) - 1 cup

Dried red chilies - 1 1/2 cups

Refined oil - 1 tsp

Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

Heat a pan & dry fry the urud dal & channa dal separately, till they are brown in colour. Pour the oil & fry the asafoetida powder. Add the red chilies & fry till it turns brown. Allow it all to cool down. Then powder it all together in a mixer adding enough salt. Milagai podi is ready. We can have it with dosai, idli, adai etc. Store it in an air tight container & use it when needed. This podi can be stored for a long time.

Variations:

We can fry a little raw rice & powder it along with the dals. We can also add some Til (ellu) to the powder. Wash & fry the til till the water evaporates. Add it finally to the ground dals & powder it. For the above mentioned ingredients we can add 1 tbsp of til.

Tips:

1. While powdering the dals, powder the red chilies first. Then add the channa dal & when it is half ground, add the urud dal & grind.
2. Before adding the salt, dry fry it in the pan so that the moisture evaporates & then add it to the powder. This will help to keep the podi crisp.

Taste it & enjoy.