Sambar Powder - Aromatically Mesmerising Spice Mix

சாம்பார் போடி  - Sambar Powder - Authentic, Aromatic and Awesome

For the last two generations in our family, sambar powder means, dry red chilli powder and coriander powder in equal ratio by weight.
No other ingredient dared to get into this. Since i grew up eating this simple sambar podi sambar, i couldnt avoid this sambar podi. but, i always wondered about others' sambar podi in different colour and more aromatic with more spices. 

I became very curious and tried to get the recipe from those whose sambar podi had more than 2 ingredients. but i found that each of them had different recipes for sambar podi and more surprising was that they had more of eyeball measurements for the ingredients. And sometimes, ladies of my generation did not have proper recipe too for the sambar podi as it was prepared by their mother or mother-in-law and given to them. How cool is that !!!

Later i started making small quantity sambar podi instantly for tiffin sambar. After many trial and errors.. i have my own recipe for sambar podi. Now a days i make 1kg sambar podi and store it. i also have that 2-ingredients-sambar podi in stock as some recipes are better with this 2-ingredient-sambar podi only. 

I do make sambars with these 2 sambar podies. we can make sambar, sambar rice, roasts, veg and non-veg gravies with this sambar podi. 

The recipe of sambar rice click the link Sambar sadham/rice

let me show you my recipe for the aromatic sambar podi.

Ingredients:

• dry red chillies - 250 grams
• coriander seeds (native variety) - 400 grams
• cumin seeds - 75 grams
• pepper - 40-50 grams
• fenugreek seeds - 20 grams (~3 tea spoons)
• bengal gram dhal - 50 grams 
• rice (boiled rice variety) - 50 grams
• turmeric - 2 sticks
• rock salt - 1 tablespoon
• asafoetida - 20 grams
• curry leaves - one cup pressed (its okay if you have lesser than that too)

• About the ingredients: the quality of the ingredients is very important. So, do not compromise on it.
• i buy the round variety of red chillies as the long dry red chilli causes more heat in body than the round ones (குண்டு மிளகாய்). 
• i choose the native variety (நாட்டு தனியா/மல்லி) of coriander seeds (which are comparatively costlier than the regular variety) as they are more aromatic than the regular ones. i use more coriander than dry red chilli because this ratio gives better flavour to sambar. you can add lesser coriander seeds too.
• i also use only the compound asafoetida (கட்டி பெருங்காயம்) and not the powdered one. 
• use the dry whole turmeric ( விரலி மஞ்சள் ) for the recipe.
• buy the buy the other ingredients and remove any sand or stone or clay in it. 

Procedure:

• gently dry roast the ingredients separately except red chillies. 
• break the turmeric into two or three pieces and roast them.
• pull apart the asafoetida into bits and dry roast them till crisp.
• sun dry the red chillies till crisp and then use it. if it is not sunny enough, just dry roast the dry red chillies very gently till slightly hot. The reason why i am insisting on well dried red chillies is because, if they are not well dried and crisp, the machine wont grind fine. so the person in the flour mill will run it again to make it fine. And because of the heat produced during grinding, the powder will be heated or sort of roasted more in that heat and will become darker in colour and will have a different taste and flavour.
• sun dry or gently roast the curry leaves too till crisp.
• The important tip here is that never over-roast the ingredients. All we need is to slightly roast so the oils in the spices comes back to life. 
• now grind them in your mixer or coffee grinder at home or give it in a flour mill if you are making in bulk. 
• store it in air tight container. transfer little to a small box for daily use.

This is one of the aromatic sambar podi I made hence I am saving the recipe for my daughter in this blog as well as in my recipe diary.

Happy cooking !!