Akki Sandige (Rice sandige) - home made and a pictorial

Hope all my friends in the US had a good 4th of July weekend and watched fireworks or did other fun activities. Happy 4th to all!

It has been a roller coaster 2 weeks since coming back from the short and exhilarating week in India. Flora has seen enough bags being packed and people travelling all around her, I am sure she is hoping it ends soon and things return to normal. She doesn't know there is a new normal awaiting to happen once our little girl and her big sister goes off to college in 2 months, and this is a trial period for what is coming :-(. We finished the graduation, grandparents left for India after 5 months of stay which jerked us to reality a little and then the next day, DD was travelling on her first 'by herself' India trip without parents. She has been dreaming of this for a while now and we didn't have the heart to stop her. So she packed her bags and was on the flight before we even settled down to the home without the grandparents. The nest seems so quiet and still without her chirping all over, I miss the grunts, whines, complaints, fights and most of all the hugs :-). It has been a little over 10 days and we are already counting the days to her return.

We knew as every parent inherently does that the baby will grow up and will have to find her own way in this world. Ever since she started high school 4 years ago, I have thought about this almost every moment with a tinge of dread but mostly pride at how she has been growing up. But no preparation is enough in these matters of heart. It is not easy to hold back the tears when she calls and says, "Amma, we went to eat this thali meal today and I thought you would have enjoyed all the powders and pickles they put out as part of the meal" but I am happy that the child is thoughtful and the gesture makes me all warm inside. I can tell she is having a good time in India, I am proud of her enthusiasm, courage to go on this trip but we also see the vulnerable little girl as she ends every call with, "Love you guys, miss you too".

With DD out, the long weekend did look really long and threatening to begin with. It is also made by the reality that we have never had a vacation for the last 17 years which DD has not been a part of. We had no plans and with the jet lag worn off, it wasn't like we would sleep the entire weekend either. Didn't feel ready to entertain and when we called up a few places, everything was already booked and not a decent hotel was available. So we resigned to stay home and thought of finishing up the errands that always get piled up on the list but we never get to :-). Good plan but then life has a way of playing tricks on the best laid plans right? First it was the sun, did I tell you he has been shining way too much and too bright & hot that is unusual for this part of the world? It has already gone way above the tolerance limits of most locals here. Sky continues to look completely clear and temperatures stay put at a steady 80+F even after a week now. There is no sign of rains anywhere on the weather map. So with the unexpected extra dose of sun and hot weather, I decided to make some sandiges. Oh, I have already shown you how to make the most popular and tastiest of all sandiges here. What I have today is an equally tasty sandige variety made from rice flour. Very simple ingredients and a little bit of patience, you get to eat these home made delicacies and enjoy them over a year.

Nammamma and doddamma (my mom's older sister) are experts in making these summer condiments. Though a little labor intensive, these are fun activities for the entire family and foster bonding time. I love making them whenever I can. BH chips in too and takes care of all the set up process while I run the cooking side of the job. This dish is an inbetween for a papad (a flat, thin and wide wafer) and a sandige (more rounded, glops) and since there is a rice papad (akki happala) recipe that is different (will feature on the blog sometime), we called this as rice sandige.

With my sandige project occupying the early morning of Friday, I had a good surge of dopamine in the system and we were ready to get out and have some fun :-). Believe me when I say outdoors, fresh air and sun shine can solve most problems in life, the ones that are left behind will be solved with family, love and good food :-). While my sandiges were out drying, I had a very unexpected call from classmates I had not met in over 2 decades. The couple called up to say they were in the area and would like to visit, so we met late at night and that made a perfect ending for a day which had already started off promising.

We did go out for the rest of the weekend to some picturesque mountains, did some hiking and came back home feeling wonderful. Also watched the new Pixar movie, "Inside out" - well made movie about relocations, uprooting - sounded all so familiar to us. Pixar continues to amaze me with their animation skills with every one of their movies, I think their characters emote so much better than some of the human actors/actresses. It  all started with a simple sandige and the positive vibes continued and flowed through the weekend. Now I am ready to get back to work tomorrow. Ah, that reminds me there is a heat advisory in the area with temperatures soaring at 92F tomorrow but it should be alright :-). But I am done with sandiges for this year, rather BH has made it clear he is done. So until next year..

Here is the recipe for the delicious akki sandige, if your weather is still hot, go ahead and make them, store them away for a cooler day later in the year. We brought all the sandiges (yes, I made more than the akki sandige but a couple of recipes are already on the blog - aralu sandige, baalaka)inside today, stored them in separate boxes for each variety. With the heat wave, we are mostly eating drinking buttermilk and salads for our meals at home but since I made a quick vegetable uppittu for the visiting friends, I also fried some of the freshly dried sandiges to go with the leftover uppittu the next day. It was delicious, more than delicious! Rest of them are now stored away until the weather cools down to bearable temperatures (may be in November or December). Stay happy, stay positive, enjoy what life gives you.

What do you need to make akki sandige? 
1 cup rice flour
7 cups water
1 Tsp asafoetida
8-10 green chilies
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp oil

Other requisites:
Bright, hot sun for atleast 30 hours (think 80F & above)
a place to dry sandiges (without intruding birds, rabbits or other curious animals :-))
clean plastic sheets or wraps to spread
2-3 Tbsp buttermilk

How do you make akki sandige? 

• First get the place you are going to dry sandiges clean, make sure it has a continuous supply of hot sun for an entire day and half. 
• Spread plastic sheets and secure them at ends from flying or folding off.
• Cut green chilies into half, blend them into a paste along with cumin and keep aside.

• In a wide bowl/pan, heat 1 cup of water with 1/2 Tsp oil, salt until it comes to a gentle boil. 
• Take the remaining 6 cups of water in a big bowl, add rice flour to it and using your fingers, mix it well until it is a watery liquid without any lumps. 
• Once the water starts to boil, add green chilies paste and asafoetida. 
• Add the rice flour mixed in water slowly into the boiling water while constantly stirring the mixture. 

• Lower heat to medium and keep stirring for about 10 minutes until the mixture thickens up. It should be pouring (between flowy and dropping). 
• Switch off. 

• Sprinkle spoonfulls of buttermilk all over the sheets and using a spoon, scoop out the rice mixture on to the sheet. Leave a mm gap between 2 sandiges. 
• Once you drop the mixture on to the sheep, flatten them slightly with the back of spoon.

• Let it dry until the edges start to fold upwards. 
• Flip them over and let the other side dry completely before storing them in airtight containers. 

• Once dry, the sandiges become almost half their original size. 

How to use sandiges: 

• Once the sandiges are completely dry, heat up enough oil in a pan to deep fry them. 

• On medium heat, check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small piece of sandige, if it comes bubbling up to the surface immediately, you can start to fry the rest. 

• Always fry sandiges in batches dropping only a few at a time into the pan so they have space to expand, they usually become double to 2.5 times their dried size. 

• Enjoy as a side for any meal. 

Notes: 

• I always remember the flour to water proportion as the # of week days - 1 cup flour to 7 cups water. It is important to start the liquid thin and let it cook to a thicker consistency. 
• If you like the sandige plain, skip green chilies.
• For a different flavor, use red chili flakes instead of green chilies.  
• Stored in dry containers in moisture free, cool places, sandiges stay good for an entire year. 
• Always take a wide pan to heat oil and enough oil to provide free space for sandiges while deep frying them. 
• Tip of the day: Put a small amount (1/4 Tsp) of asafoetida in a plastic bag and put it in the sandige container to keep it fresh for longer. 

Lemon Pickle - jump start those lost taste buds after a bout of seasonal cold, cough, flu and blah, blah, blah

I refuse to indulge in self pity today, so I am not going to tell you how bad my sinus infection was this past week or how I am still sniffling :-(. But I did have a bad one which mercilessly brought me down for most of last week. I am slowly getting back into routine and my constant pig like snorts have thankfully become occasional and my co workers who found excuses to run away from me last week are finally considering me harmless to talk to. Here is my golden rule for sinus infections, it is an inseparable pal in my life who loves to visit me every so often and all I can do to return that love is to surround myself with boxes of tissues (softer the better, ah my poor nose :-)), steam, steam and steam some more, drink lots of kashaya and keep chanting the eternal truth "this too shall pass". But on the brighter side, the more frequent bouts of cold and sinus seem to make BH the better kashaya maker :-), the man turns dry spices and herbs into magically soothing drink now. Ahem, very proud of my own coaching.

Did I say I won't tell you the gory details of the past week? And you believed it? You should know better than that after more than 2 years of reading my blog. Yap, yap and yapping is what I do best and any subject will work, even a sinus infection :-)

The worst part of last week was that my taste buds took the worst beating and have been totally lifeless. Everything I eat tastes bitter or absolutely tasteless. I tried eating lotsa different stuff just to jump start those taste buds but to no avail and that is when I started craving for those aged, ripe, lemon pickle nammamma made :-(. When I was whining about my cold & infection with a colleague and told her about my immediate need to eat lemon pickle, she looked at me quizzically to ask the very obvious question everyone seems to think of (apparently). So I had to explain to her that I was not an expectant mother but just had this unexplainable urge to eat some of those lemon pickle from my mom's jaadi (porcelain pickle container) which was perfectly normal (for people like me who were not pregnant either) :-). I am not sure she bought it though she offered a suggestion and asked if I could have BH prepare some for me since I looked too sick to make anything. Not a bad idea but I didn't have the energy to teach and bring BH upto speed on making lemon pickles.

Normally, I have a whole stack of pickles in the refrigerator and most of them are Andhra pickles and mostly imported from India, while I make small quantities of the Karnataka variety and my other unusual pickles here. But just last month, we cleaned up the fridge, gave away some and threw away some really old stock and I didn't have any lemon pickles at my reach. And I don't have hopes of getting nammamma to make me a batch of lemon pickles urgently to quench my urge either. So, I had to get to the kitchen myself and make a small batch, I had everything I needed - juicy, yellow lemons, rich, red chili powder, kosher salt, mustard, fenugreek and good quality asafoetida. Yes, necessity is the only motivation needed here.

Karnataka pickles differ from Andhra pickles in a couple of ways. The former uses salt as preservative while the latter relies on a combination of salt and oil. Also, the former uses mainly powdered fenugreek and mustard is used as seasoning but you will find a substantial quantity of mustard powder (raw or roasted depending on the pickle variety) in the Andhra pickles. But both are yummy and irreplaceable accompaniments in any proper Indian meal :-). While I am at it, let me also tell you that amma makes lemon pickle differently by drying out the salted lemon pieces in sun before adding the spices, it tastes very different from what I am going to show you today and is usually mixed with hot, white rice along with a spoon of ghee. Yumm..

Back to nammamma's lemon pickle or nimbe hannina uppinakayi as it is called in Kannada, as far as I can remember, hers was the best tasting pickle. She had these tall porcelain containers called jaadis which held pickles year long (lemons, gooseberries, mangoes were the common varieties) and the older stock used to get put into smaller containers to make way for the new and fresh pickles every season. As far as lemon pickle went, I loved the oldest. As she used rock salt (which is the preferred salt in pickling), over time the salt would get crystallized and form into small, white, crunchy bites which tasted heavenly while the lemon slices would be so soft after marinating in the salt and juices for months that they would simply dissolve & disappear if you licked them a couple of times. That kind of ripe pickle with a bowl of yogurt rice is the ultimate comfort meal. If you had a cup of saaru on the side, you could consider yourself the luckiest person in this universe.

I made a small batch (just 2 lemons) of lemon pickle and waited only 3 days (since I couldn't wait any longer) but one lick of that lemon pickle and a long distance phone call to nammamma made me get back to my bouncy self again in no time :-), the power of pickle is such. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of cut lemon or the layers of salt & lemon - you see, I was too sick to take pictures the first day and my goal was to make the pickle. And I do not have pictures of the really ripe, almost dry pickle either. I will try and update the post next time and make them.

Pickling is a really simple process and gives you many days of joy if you just keep in mind a few things. So, if you are new to making pickles, please pay attention to the notes below and internalize these as the cardinal rules of pickle making (if you don't want to end up with bottles of rotten pickles - been there, done that, so take my tips seriously).

What do you need to make lemon pickle? 
2 big, fresh lemons (see notes below)
1/4 cup kosher salt (see notes below)
1 Tbsp red chili powder
1 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp oil
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
3/4 Tsp mustard

How do you make Lemon pickle? 

• Wash and thoroughly wipe the lemons to rid of all moisture from outside. 
• Get the gadgets out - clean dry cutting board, knife, spoon and jars to hold the pickles. 
• Remove the tips from the lemon (only if they are hard and sticking out), cut them in half and cut each half into bite sized pieces. 
• Put 1/2 Tsp of salt as the first layer in the container. 
• Now add the lemon pieces in a layer on top, add more salt on top. 
• Keep repeating until all lemon pieces are used up. End it with a top layer of salt. 
• Close the lid (if the lid is pressing down on the lemon pieces, use a thin cheese cloth to tie up the top instead of the lid). You want to avoid all metal contacts to the acidic juice. After a couple of days, the volume reduces and you will have space on top to easily use the lid. 
• Keep aside in a cool, dark place. 
• For the next 4-5 days (depends on the quality and quantity of lemons) or until the volume decreases by about 1/8th, every day using a clean spoon, mix the lemon pieces well so that salt gets to all of them. 
• By the 5th day, the pieces would have softened quite a bit. 
• First add the dry red chili powder. 
• Dry roast the fenugreek seeds stirring constantly until they turn light brown and fragrant. 

• Once cool, make a fine powder and add it to the pickle. 
• Heat oil in a pan, add asafoetida and mustard. When mustard pops, switch off and keep aside to cool. 
• When the seasoning has cooled down completely, add it to the pickle. 

• Mix well, and let it ripen for a couple of days or if you can't resist, go ahead and eat a slice or two (or more) of the fresh pickle like I did :-)
• Lemon pickle turns darker in color as it ages and mellows down considerably in terms of the tanginess. 

Notes: 

• I used big lemons I get here (almost tennis ball size), it made 4 cups of bite sized pieces
• I prefer kosher salt in pickles as it is closer to the rock salt used in India. Kosher salt is about half as salty as table salt. So adjust the quantity of salt if you are using other varieties. 
• I prefer using sunflower oil as Nammamma used it, you can use the mustard oil but beware that it will leave its own flavor which I don't like much in the lemon pickle. 

• Pickle rule 1: Use porcelain containers or glass bottles to store pickles for longer storage. No plastic or steel containers please. 
• Pickle rule 2: Dry out the containers before using them, here is how I do it - I wash the containers along with lids in soapy water and rinse them multiple times until all soap runs out. Air dry it completely (if you have bright sun and a clean space to keep containers, it works best). Once all the water is gone, use a dry towel to remove any moisture from the nook & cranny of the container and the lid. Finally if it is a glass jar, put it in the microwave for a 30secs to 1 min zap. The idea is that there should ABSOLUTELY no water content anywhere in the container. 
• Pickle rule 3: Use clean, dry spoons, knife and cutting board to mix, cut and serve pickles. 
• Pickle rule 4: Keep them in a cool corner (away from hot stoves, grinders etc) and store in refrigerator for longer storage. 
• Pickle rule 5: Add the seasoning only after the oil cools down to room temperature. 

Variations: 

• Nammamma made a mixed veggie pickle using slices of lemon, bitter gourd, carrots and green chilies. Tastes delicious but you need to make sure your vegetables are very fresh and cleaned and dried properly. This will have a shorter shelf life compared to the traditional lemon pickle. 

Menthya Hittu (Fenugreek powder)- nothing bitter about this delicious condiment

Let me start with, "I love this pudi (powder)" which I hope will give you the confidence to read through the rest of the post and may be try it and become addicts just like me. I have seen many people turning their noses up the moment someone mentions fenugreek (including my own DD) because of the inherent bitterness of these seeds. Though this powder is made with a substantial quantity of fenugreek, bitterness is not in its elements, it just lends the powder a distinct aroma of roasted fenugreek and the rest of the ingredients bring down the bitterness. So if you have never had it, now is the perfect time to give it a taste. I will show you two super delicious ways of consuming this powder once ready, choose the one that calls out to you more intimately.

When Nammamma made this powder back in the days, it was always a treat in the evening once all the powders got done and stored in the larger containers for long term storage and smaller containers for table use. I didn't care if she had any other side dish to go with rice at all as long as there was fresh menthya hittu on the table. Amma would make the seasoning with dals & mustard seeds to add to the rice (we called it khat-khata because of the sounds the roasted dals made when you took the bites :-)). A dash of lemon on the hot rice would immediately emit the unmistakable flavor of freshness and elevate the simple dish miles higher. I honestly did not need anything else for dinner. It is great to keep the dinner simple (not necessarily light though) without elaborate cooking sometimes.

One of my little nieces loves this menthya hittu. A couple of years back when I was in India and was visiting them for the 2nd time since she was born, she was really not open to talking with this atte (aunt) whom she didn't remember. I tried all the tricks I knew to make her talk to me for a couple of hours without much progress, she definitely moved from hiding completely behind her mom's dress to peeking at me when I was not looking (or so she thought) at her and whisper something in her mom's ears :-). Then we sat down for dinner. Most everybody in my family knows my love for all things spicy and chikkamma (my aunt) offered me her home made Menthya hittu. As I put heaps of it in my plate, little V's eyes widened and she became interested suddenly and said, "Menthittu, tuppa anna tumba chennagiratte (Menthya powder, ghee and rice tastes very yummy)" :-). So as I mixed it in, she slowly inched her way from her mother's lap to stand next to me and then sit in my lap in no time to enjoy the delicious morsels with her newly acquainted atte. We had a great dinner, eating multiple rounds of menthittu(as V calls it) , tuppa and rice. I was happy, little V was happy and every one around was smiling while chikkamma was complaining that she never should have shown us the powder since all her other side dishes were being completely ignored :-). This delicious powder was instrumental in our bonding and after dinner she stuck to me like glue and chatted away to glory. Here is my home made menthittu for putani V.

We call it Menthya hittu (as the powder is really fine unlike the coarsely ground chutney pudi) and not Menthya pudi. Nammamma used dried turmeric roots in all the powder preparations and not the turmeric powder which gave her pudis a better fragrance and color. I use store bought powder since I don't anyway get good quality turmeric root and my blender seems to have hiccups if I put in too much hard ingredients for it to break :-).

This powder is not something we use with idli or Dose (Dosa) generally but if you are like me and really fall in love with it, you can just about eat it in any form. The list of ingredients may seem a little daunting but they are all in ordinary Indian kitchens every day and is very easy to procure from your local grocery store if you do not have them. When I had asked Nammamma for the recipe of Menthya hittu the first time I made it, she had said that almost every spice in the kitchen goes in :-) which is pretty much true. She used whole wheat kernels instead of the upma rava I have below and it is a substitution she recommended.

What do you need to make Menthya Hittu?
1/2 cup Toor Dal
1/2 cup Chana dal
1/2 cup Moong dal
1/4 cup Urad dal
1 Tbsp Dhania/coriander seeds
2 Tsp menthya/fenugreek seeds
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
2 dry red chilies
1/2-3/4 Tsp black pepper
1 inch cinnamon
2 cloves
1 Tbsp Upma rava (in place of whole wheat)
1 Tsp rice
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder
salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Menthya hittu?

• Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium heat. 
• Dry roast the 4 dals one by one stirring frequently until they turn crunchy and a deep pink in color. Do not burn any ingredients. 
• As they get toasted, put them aside on a plate to cool down. 
• Warm coriander seeds for a minute or two until you get the aroma and it heats up nicely, this doesn't have to change color. Keep aside to cool. 
• Roast rava until it turns light pink. 
• Roast rice until it turns brittle and transparent. 

• Roast the remaining ingredients except red chilies until fragrant. Add red chilies, salt and turmeric powder at the end, switch off the stove. 
• Once everything has cooled down completely, make a fine powder in the mixer or coffee grinder. 
• I use the small sieve to sieve the powder, return it back to the mixer for another round of grinding to get a fine powder. 
• Store in a dry, air tight container for upto 2 weeks, the freshness reduces  over time and I prefer to make small quantities. You can refrigerate it for longer shelf life. 

Now that we have the menthya hittu, how do we consume it? Here are a couple of delicious ways to eat this yummy condiment. 

Menthya hittu anna(rice): 

• Mix 2 Tsp of the powder into a bowl of warm, cooked rice (cook rice so the grains are separate, tastes better than using mushy rice) along with 1/2 Tsp of ghee or oil. 
• Make a seasoning of Tsp of oil, mustard, urad dal, chana dal and a few small pieces of dry red chili (Byadagi variety works best as it is not too hot and you can bite into the crunchy bits :-)). 

• Pour a Tsp (or more to taste) of the seasoning on top of the rice.
• Add 1/2 Tsp of lemon juice and a Tsp of finely chopped onions. 
• Mix everything together with light fingers (very important not to mush up the rice), adjust salt or powder as needed and enjoy :-)

And here is an extremely easy gojju that is a favorite with akki rotti in our home. It is equally tasty when mixed with rice. 

Menthya hittu gojju: 

• Soak a gooseberry sized tamarind in 1/2 cup water for 20 minutes and extract the juice. 
• Make a seasoning of 1/2 Tsp mustard, pinch of asafoetida, a few dry red chilies and a couple of curry leaves. 
• Take 2 heaped Tbsp of Menthya hittu in a bowl, add seasoning it to the bowl along with a Tbsp finely chopped onions, mix well. 

• Add the tamarind extract, 1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery or brown sugar. 
• Adjust salt, jaggery or consistency of the gravy (it is slightly runny than a dip but not flowing). 

Notes: 

• Seasoned cast iron pans work best for all powder making as they spread heat evenly, you get a heavy airplane body material pan in India which works very well too, do not preferably use non stick pans.
• Nammamma has gained the experience over years of making the powders to mix and roast ingredients as she understands which 2 (or more) take the same roasting time, Given my heavily multi tasking nature, I prefer to roast the ingredients one by one and give the passing attention they need :-), choose whichever method works for you. Bottom line is to roast them well and never burn any of them. 

Saaru pudi(Rasam powder) and (Mysore) Saaru - quintessential South Indian broth

Hope everyone had a great start to the new Year. My best wishes for many wonderful days and months.

I am going to start off this New year with a recipe that is so common and popular in South India that it doesn't need any introduction to people who have even a tiny bit of exposure to Indian cuisine. However it is special as this recipe comes from my favoritest most favorite (before my grammar addict DD catches me on this) kitchen in the entire world. Well, it is nammamma's recipe and I have literally grown up on this dish. I have had multiple requests for home made powders since I started blogging 2 years back and while I posted some of them already, some are still to see the light of day on this blog. Not to worry, they will all be here in due course.

Before I write anything about the recipe, I want to unload something with you guys. It is a pet peeve of mine to see something labelled as 'Mysore Rasam'. I am born and grew up for the first 20 years of my life in this beautiful city and never once heard a fellow Mysorean say, "I had Mysore Rasam for lunch today" :-) simply because it doesn't exist. The MTR mixes of this Universe coined the term Mysore Rasam to differentiate it from another similar powder recipe from the neighboring state - is there a Madras Rasam really? Any Chennaites out there that can enlighten me on this topic? For starters, we don't call it Rasam in Mysore, it is a Saaru and it will always stay so for me. And believe me that Saaru tastes different from kitchen to kitchen even within the bounds of Mysore, so I think calling something as Mysore Rasam is nothing short of gross misnomer. Since the name seems to be stuck, I will indulge you though albeit unwillingly. Whew, now that I have it off my chest, I am back to my happy self and can chit chat easily with you guys for the rest of this post :-).

Saaru like I mentioned tastes different in different houses as it gets morphed to suit individual family's tastes and preferences. But a general definition can be, "it is a liquidy broth made with or without lentils, flavored with fresh ground or powdered spices in which vegetables are notably absent". Having said that, there are varieties of different Saaru and they are all made in Mysore too :-). When I was writing this post (for the second time that is as I lost the entire draft for some unknown reason, I am still seething with anger at Blogger but I want to write this down while it is still fresh in my mind), I was toying with the idea of presenting different varieties of Saaru and used some of my professional skills to draw the below. It is a free hand drawing and so the straight lines are not so straight :-). But a picture is worth a thousand words and I very efficiently cut down the number of paragraphs I would have written otherwise to explain the same thing, how do you like my neat little picture? In case you didn't know, you just read a basic flow chart :-).

Saaru pudi or Rasam powder recipes are typically handed down generations, when I say handed down, it need not be on paper but you learn by watching your moms and grandmoms in their kitchens. Saaru pudi making in Nammamma's kitchen was a special day, she would start by making sure there were no other events on that day and it was relatively free day with kids out of the house (you don't want them sneezing on you the entire time or tugging at your sleeves for snacks), she would finish the daily breakfast, lunch etc, get the mundane stuff out of the way and clean the kitchen. The 2 burner gas stove would come down from the kitchen counter to the floor which is where she sat down roasting huge quantities of ingredients patiently. The powder making day always resulted in multiple different powders and the quantities would be big to support the family's needs for a month or so before the cycle got repeated.

We were kids in an age when things had moved from being very manual to machine dependent. Given the quantity of powders Nammamma made, grinding them in the kitchen mixer was out of question, so we went to the neighborhood flour mill. Infact, one of us kids went there the previous evening as a messenger to let the owner know that we would come back the next day so he could plan in advance. Plan for grinding some powders, you ask? If you have not seen these flour mills, here is how they work. 2 or 3 machines are housed in a small, low ceilinged room, each machine has a feeder at the top where you pour the grains, lentils, spices etc. It passes through while the machine works and comes out of a small tube, actually a stump which is extended by an attached stitched cloth that looks exactly like a loose trouser leg. The problem with this design is that the powder passing through that outlet will invariably get stuck and will cross contaminate flavors between different powders. Every time before a new feed was put in, the cloth was inverted, dusted off to rid of any attached particles, in the process making everyone in the room sneeze and cough synchronously. So the advance notice of the previous evening was for the machine operator to plan what powders he would allow in which of his 3 machines to minimize the cross contamination :-). Standing in that small room that felt like an over heated sauna with all the machines humming around you and the surrounding spices was no less than an adventure sport.

After all this effort, the powders would come back home in their respective containers and the whole house would smell wonderful. We would go to sleep dreaming of mouth watering chutney pudi, slurpy saarus for the next day :-). I had not tried making saaru pudi at home for a long time, used MTR Rasam powder as back up when my imported from India powders were running low. A few months back when I was flipping through my recipe books, a small piece of paper fell off and it had the saaru pudi recipe in nammamma's writing from 6 years or so ago when she was visiting us here. I hit the jackpot and marched straight to the kitchen to make my own saaru pudi. Saaru is a regular affair in my home and both BH & DD are connoisseurs of  saaru. They both whole heartedly put their stamp of approval on my home made powder that it did taste like Ajji's saaru, so now I have no need for MTR packets. I make small quantities of the saaru pudi to last me for a couple of weeks and use my mixer to grind it.

As you can imagine, this is a personal favorite recipe. I would love to hear back from you if you tried it whether or not you liked it. Looking forward.

What do you need to make Saaru Pudi?
1 cup coriander seeds
2 cups broken dry red chilies - use a mix of Guntur and Byadigi varieties, see notes below
1 cup curry leaves
1/4 cup fenugreek seeds
1/4 cup cumin seeds
1/4 cup black pepper
1 Tblsp mustard seeds
1/4 Tsp asafetida - I like to use the non-powder variety (SSP brand has good asafetida), if not available use the powder
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder or a small piece of dried turmeric root
1/2 Tsp ghee
2 Tsp oil

How do you make Saaru pudi?

• Heat a heavy gauge skillet/pan on medium heat until warm. Add the fenugreek seeds and stirring continuously, roast them until they turn light pink. Keep aside on a wide plate.
• Add the cumin and roast until they are fragrant and start to pop. Take care not to burn or smoke them. Keep them aside.
• Add mustard and roast until they start to pop. Keep aside.
• Add ghee to the pan followed by black pepper and roast stirring continuously until pepper is fragrant and starts to pop. Some black peppers do not pop, watch them and take care not to burn them. Keep aside.
• Add oil to the pan and roast the broken red chilies until they turn crisp. Take care not to blacken them. Keep aside. 
• Add curry leaves and roast until they turn crisp, keep aside.
• Add the coriander seeds and roast them until they warm up completely and become fragrant. Add turmeric powder, asafetida and mix to coat. Keep aside to cool.
• Once the spices cool down completely, grind them to a very fine powder.
• Store in dry, air tight containers. This stays fresh upto 3-4 weeks outside. If you are making large batches, store them in refrigerator for longer storage.

Now that we made the Saaru pudi, I will show you how to use it in a Saaru. This is just one of the ways I make saaru but it is also one of the popular versions and is very delicious. The key to a good saaru is a good saaru powder. If your powder is not upto the mark, it can turn a possible masterpiece into a disaster of sorts very quickly. So now that you have a good powder, add a little bit of jiggery (for that Mysore touch) and a spoon full of milk (Nammamma's tip for the beautiful hue of the saaru) and you are all set to enjoy a heavenly ambrosia in a cup.

What do you need to make Tomato Saaru?
1/4 cup toor dal
2 medium tomatoes
2 Tsp Saaru pudi
1 tsp salt (adjust to taste)
4-5 curry leaves
2-3 twigs of cilantro
small piece of tamarind (adjust based on the tartness of tomatoes)
1 Tsp crushed jiggery
1 Tblsp shredded coconut
1 Tblsp milk
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
Seasoning:
1 Tsp ghee
3/4 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin
pinch of asafetida

How do you make Tomato Saaru?

• Wash, pick Toor dal and take it to pressure cooker along with 1 and 1/2 tomatoes, 1 cup of water and curry leaves. Cook until soft.
• I bring the heat to simmer completely after the first whistle and cook for 15 minutes. This works perfectly for me. It depends on the quality of lentils, your pressure cooker, stove, so adjust accordingly. Idea is to cook lentils until soft.
• Chop the remaining half of the tomato into small pieces and keep aside for later use.
• Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker, take the cooked tomatoes out and let it cool.
• Mash the lentils with a whisk, add 2 cups of water and bring it to boil.
• Remove the skin of tomatoes and take them to a blender along with shredded coconut, tamarind, salt and saaru pudi and grind it to a very fine paste.
• Add the ground paste to the cooked lentils and bring it to boil.
• Add jaggery, milk, chopped tomatoes and cilantro and let it boil for 5 minutes on medium heat.
• Taste and adjust as needed.
• Heat ghee in a small pan (preferably iron/cast iron pan) add mustard and cumin. Once mustard pops, add asafetida and switch off.
• Pour the seasoning over the saaru and switch off.
• Serve hot Saaru with cooked rice and a drop of ghee or enjoy a hot cup of saaru as an excellent appetizer.

Notes:
Saaru pudi wisdom:

• Make sure you do not burn or blacken any of the spices while roasting them.
• Nammamma has a technique of combining various ingredients together as she understands their roasting time very well, I take a short cut and roast them individually. The order of roasting given above takes into consideration the oily fry from the dry roasts and uses the ghee and oil intelligently, so follow the same order for best results.
• Use good quality spices especially black pepper and asafetida for most flavor.

Saaru wisdom:

• Adding tender cilantro stalks provides flavor and crunch to the saaru. This is how it is typically served in Karnataka weddings, so go for it.
• You can skip the tomato in this saaru and replace it entirely with tamarind for a different variation.
• You can skip grinding the saaru pudi with the coconut and directly add the powder to the boiling liquid.

Saaru pudi(Rasam powder) & (Mysore) Saaru - a sought after recipe for a home made Rasam powder

Hope everyone started their New Year on a great note. My wishes to all of you. I am going to start this year's blogging with a recipe so common, so popular that it needs no introduction to anyone with even a tiny bit of exposure to Indian cuisine. It is special because it comes from my favoritest most favorite (before my grammar addict DD catches me on this) kitchen in the entire world. This is what I grew up on literally.

Before I start talking about anything else today, I want to unload something with you guys. It is a pet peeve of mine to see something called 'Mysore Rasam' because as far as I know, there is no such thing as Mysore Rasam. I was born and raised in Mysore and spent the first 20 years of my life in this beautiful city but have never heard another Mysorean say, "I made Mysore Rasam for lunch today" :-) simply because it doesn't exist. I think it was the MTR quick mixes of the world that coined the name to distinguish it from the neighboring Madras Rasam(is there a Madras Rasam BTW, any Chennaites?) and the name some how stuck. For one, we don't call it Rasam in Mysore, it is a 'saaru' and saaru tastes different from kitchen to kitchen within the boundary of Mysore depending on the individual tastes and preferences of each family, so generalizing something as Mysore Rasam is a gross understatement. Since the rest of the world has gotten used to this misnomer, I will indulge everyone with it albeit unwillingly. But for a hard core Mysorean, it will always remain 'Saaru'. Whew, now that I took it off my chest, I am back to my happy self and we can continue our talk in a much lighter vein for the rest of the post.

Since I started this blog 2 years back, I have had many requests for home made powders, while I do post them from time to time, there are some I still haven't brought to the blog. Saaru pudi is such a quintessential condiment in a South Indian home that each of us learn it by watching moms and grandmoms in the kitchen. Saaru fares regularly in our menu and I used to stock my pantry with MTR Mysore Rasam powder for a long time whenever my imported pudi from Nammamma's kitchen got over. Though I knew the ingredients that went in to making the pudi, I had never attempted it on my own until recently. One day when I was picking through my recipe books including the hand written one I have, a piece of paper fell down that had saarina pudi recipe. It is from some 6 years back when nammamma was here visiting us. Having hit the jackpot, I went to the kitchen and made it that day and then a week later and again 2 weeks later. This here is nammamma's saaru pudi and I don't find the need to buy MTR anymore :-)

Since I said saaru tastes different in different kitchens, let me also state that nammamma made one of the best saarus I have ever had though she didn't ever think so and has never been a big fan of her own saaru, she prefers Huli (which is known as sambar in Indian culinary dictionary). Basic definition of saaru is a spiced liquid with or without lentils in which vegetables are most notably absent except for tomatoes and in some special cases onions. The saaru usually has a much thinner consistency compared to a Huli/sambar and is served as either an appetizer or as the second course to be mixed with rice in a meal or more famously to dunk deep fried vadas in. While I was writing this post and thinking about the different varieties of saaru made at home, it occurred to me that a picture might be more useful to show you what I had in mind instead of writing sentences. So I applied a little bit of my professional skills to draw the below, it is hand drawn so pardon the 'unstraight' straight lines. Hope you guys enjoy the neat picture and if you didn't know, you just read a basic flow chart :-)

Making saaru pudi is an art, while you may get the list of ingredients and the proportions from a recipe, the major trick is in roasting those ingredients. Under roasted or over roasted spices turn a possible master piece into a failure very quickly. In Nammamma's kitchen, pudi making days were actually marked on the calendar, she would make sure there were no other events happening on that day, ingredients were purchased and kept ready, kids were at school (you don't want them either sneezing on you the whole time or tugging you at arm for snacks, so they had to be out) and she would also plan the breakfast & lunch for the day ahead so she can get it out of the way and clear the kitchen area. Once the daily cooking was done, the kitchen would get a round of cleaning, the gas stove with 2 burners would come down to the floor and she would sit there roasting all the spices. All this was essential since she made big batches of the powders and usually made 3 or more different spice powders on the same day and in quantities big enough to sustain the family for atleast a month and half before the cycle repeated.

Once the spices are roasted, you take them to the flour mill in the neighborhood. These mills were small rooms, low ceilinged and housed 2 or 3 huge machines that ran continuously and generated so much heat that standing inside that room was no less than an adventure sport. Nammamma would send one of us kids as messengers the previous evening to let the mill owner know we had a batch of powders to be ground so he could plan ahead. What planning, you ask? Here is the deal - the machine has a wide feeder on top from where the roasted lentils/spices would be fed and the ground powder would come out through a much narrower pipe - it was actually a stump that was extended longer with a stitched cloth, imagine a leg of trousers. We would keep a container at the end of it to collect the powder. Pretty ingenuous, huh? But the problem with this is the powder invariably gets attached to the inside of the cloth and if you didn't want multiple flavors mixed up in your powder, you had to invert that trousery thingy and make sure all attached powder got detached/dusted off :-) and would sneeze and cough laboriously in the process. And then the blander powders (like Menthya hittu - recipe coming up sometime soon for this favorite powder of mine) had to be ground first before you would start on the spicier powders. After a strong flavored powder was done, the cloth tied to the output tube would be flipped reverse and any powder sticking to the inside would be dusted off completely before starting the machine again. On top of all this, the machine was controlled by request to produce fine powder (as in saaru pudi) and coarse powder (as in Chutney pudi).

The powders would get home by evening and the next day would be a sort of celebration trying out the various powders. I made small quantities and used my mixer to grind the powder.

What do you need to make Saaru pudi (Rasam Powder)?
1 cup coriander seeds/dhania
2 cups broken red chilies - preferably a mixture of Byadigi & Guntur, see notes below.
1 cup picked curry leaves
1/4 cup black pepper/menasu
1/4 cup fenugreek seeds/menthya
1/4 cup cumin/jeerige
1 Tblsp mustard/saasive
1/2 Tsp ghee
2 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp asafetida - I like to use the non powder form (SSP brand has good asafetida), if not available, use the powder
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder or a small piece of dried turmeric root if you can get it

How do you make Saaru pudi?

• Heat the skillet on medium heat until warm, add fenugreek seeds. Roast them by continuously stirring until they turn light pink. Keep them aside in a wide plate.
• Add cumin to the pan and fry until light brown. Take care not to smoke cumin. Keep aside.
• Add mustard and stir them to roast until they pop, keep aside.
• Add ghee to the pan followed by black pepper and roast them until fragrant and start to pop. Do not smoke the black pepper. Some black peppers do not pop, so watch while roasting and take them aside as soon as they become fragrant.
• Add oil to the pan, add the broken pieces of chilies (get your exhaust fan going and open a couple of windows to help air circulation) and roast by stirring continuously until chilies turn crisp. Take care not to blacken them. Keep aside.
• Add the curry leaves to the pan and roast until they are crisp. Keep aside.
• Add coriander seeds and roast them until they heat up and become warm completely, add turmeric powder and asafetida just before taking the seeds out of the pan and stir them to get coated.
• Let the roasted spices cool completely before grinding them to a very fine powder.
• Store in air tight containers. This will stay fresh for atleast 3-4 weeks when kept outside. If you are making large quantities, put it in the refrigerator for longer storage.

Once you have made saaru pudi, next logical step is to make the saaru or Rasam. So I combined both in this post. The saaru I have here is just one of the ways of preparing it and is delicious. You can skip tomatoes completely, use tamarind instead for a different variation. If you have had a taste of this heavenly broth and want to recreate it at home, remember a good saaru starts with a good pudi, add a pinch of jaggery (Mysore touch) and a spoon of milk (to get that beautiful hue, nammamma's wisdom), you are all set to go :-).

What do you need to make Tomato Saaru?
1/3 cup toor dal
2 medium tomatoes
3-4 curry leaves
2 Tsp saaru pudi
small piece of tamarind (adjust this based on the sourness of your tomatoes)
3/4 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/8 Tsp turmeric
1/2 Tsp jaggery
2-3 twigs of cilantro
1 Tsp shredded coconut
1 Tblsp milk
Seasoning:
1/2 Tsp ghee
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin
pinch of asafetida

How do you make Tomato Saaru?

• Wash, pick and cook toor dal along with the curry leaves and 1 whole tomato and another 1/2 of it in pressure cooker until soft.
• Chop the remaining 1/2 tomato into small pieces and keep it aside for later use.
• After the first whistle, I simmer the heat down completely and let it cook for 15 minutes. This works perfectly for me. Depending on your stove, lentils quality and the pressure cooker itself, you may need to adjust this time. Idea is to cook until soft.
• Let pressure subside, take out the cooked tomatoes onto a plate and whisk the dal to form a homogeneous puree.
• Once the tomatoes cool down, remove the skin, take it into a blender jar along with salt, saaru pudi, grated coconut, tamarind and grind it into a smooth paste.
• Bring the mashed lentils to a boil with turmeric, jaggery and the ground paste along with chopped tomatoes.
• Once it starts to form bubbles, add finely chopped cilantro (use the cleaned stalks along with the leaves), milk and let it boil on medium heat.
• Heat ghee in a small seasoning pan (preferably iron/cast iron), add mustard and cumin. Once the mustard pops, add hing and pour the seasoning into the saaru.
• Serve delicious saaru with steaming white rice and a drop of ghee or drink it up as an appetizer.

Notes:
Saaru Pudi wisdom:

• Really important to remember while making this powder is to get good quality ingredients especially asafetida and roast them with love and patience. Nammamma has a technique of combining different ingredients while roasting as she knows the combinations that need the same roasting time but I go for an easier technique (to remember that is) and roast each of them separately until done. Follow the order I have above to keep dry & oil roasting separate.
• Use a heavy gauge skillet or cast iron pan to roast the ingredients as it helps distribute heat evenly and adds flavor.
• Thumb rule for mixing red chilies - Guntur variety gives heat and Byadigi variety gives the color. Adjust according to your preference. Amma's recipe calls for 1 cup coriander seeds to 2 cups broken red chilies.  

Saaru wisdom:

• Add 2 drops of oil to the pressure cooker so lentils cook well.
• Saaru should boil but not spill over for best taste, adjust the heat.  
• This saaru is not too sour, if your tomatoes have sourness, skip the tamarind.
• Adding a little bit of tomato pieces to the saaru enhances its texture. Same with cilantro stalks. If you have had this saaru in any Karnataka wedding, you will see that they use cilantro along with stalks liberally, so go for it.

This is a really special recipe for me because all my guests & friends that have tasted this saaru always like it. If you try this at home, I would love to hear back from you whether you liked it or otherwise. Enjoy!!