I know that we all eat idlis and dosas with various chutneys and sambars but along with this idli molagai podi is also a must to be served along with chutneys in my house hold. So this is one thing that has always been around forever as long as I can remember. I always used to breakfast idlis only with podi in the mornings when I rushed to work. This will always come in handy when you don’t have the time to prepare chutneys during the morning madness.
As this have always been around in my home I guess I took it for granted and never learned how to make this and it came across to me only after I got married and found myself rushing about in the mornings. So one fine day when I thought enough was enough I rang her up and asked for all the ingredients that should go in to its making. This is one recipe that I tried by myself just by listening to the ingredients over phone but which turned out to be too good as I remembered and tasted.
You'll Need:
Kadala parupu (channa dal) – 100 gm or ½ cup
Thuvaram parupu (tur dal) – 50 gm or ¼ cup
Black Pepper corns – 2 tbsp
Coriander seeds – 2 tbsp
Red long chillies – 25 to 30
Salt to taste.
Oil – for roasting
Method:
In a kadai dry roast all the dals separately till they turn color slightly. See to that they don’t get burned. Both my Mom and Mil usually dry roast the dals but I roast with 4-5 drops of oil so that they don’t get that burned smell. With little oil roast the pepper corns, coriander seeds and chillies separately. Keep them aside and let it cool. Now grind them all together after adding salt in a mixie jar coarsely. Store it an air tight container. Idli molagaipodi is ready.
Variations: If you want you can also add a ¼ cup of groundnuts and also 1 tbsp of black sesame seeds (Ellu in tamil) after roasting them in little oil.
How to serve:
Put a tsp of this powder in a small katori and add 1 to 1 ½ tsp either melted ghee or gingili oil to it and mix it together. It is now ready to serve with hot idlis or dosas. You can also eat it with adais.
My MIL makes delicious podi dosais. She just pours a ladle full of batter in the tawa and spreads it around. Wait for the spots to appear on the surface and sprinkle almost one tsp of the podi all over the dosai . At this stage pour oil all around the dosai and when cooked just fold it and take it away from the tawa. No need to flip it over. This tastes well when cooked on a slow flame so that the dosas come out crisp. Serve this hot podi dosai with coconut chutney and I can bet that you will be enslaved forever.