Chutney Powders (Podis) the concept of Instant and Portable food: The Abandoned Husband...

McDonalds, KFC, Udipi Hotels, Haldiram’s, MTR, - we in Bangalore are very familiar with all these food brands. In today’s IT-powered, fast paced city, more food seems to be bought than cooked at home.

Udipi and darshini hotels can serve your order in a few minutes. So too, Mcdonalds and KFC, if your taste is more occidental. Haldiram’s and MTR provide a wide range of munchies and crunches – indispensible in this metropolis of confirmed boozers.

Leads one to presume that these are all necessary innovations of the 21^st. Century. You could not be more wrong – for this we go back to mythology and the 5,000 year old Mahabharatha epic.

To the uneducated in Hindu lore, Krishna and Sudhama were boyhood friends in Brindavan, when Krishna was just a cowherd, brought up by his foster mother, Yashoda.

Sudhama was always by Krishna’s side. As “makhan chor”, when they stole butter. As “Madhura Venugopala”, when he enticed the local village girls with his silver flute. As “Navaneetakrishnan” when he frolicked with nine nubile partners in His “Rasleela”.

And Krishna’s favorite snack was “Poha” – made from roasted or sun-dried flattened rice.

The years flew by … while Sudhama, his wife and family lived in the piety and poverty of a Brahmin household in Brindavan, Krishna had become the king of the Yadavas, married to Rukmani, the goddess of wealth herself.

Sudhama’s wife persuaded her husband to go on a trip and visit Krishna. When he was leaving, she tied a bag of “poha” to his waist. After a long tiring journey, Sudhama reached Dwaraka where he was very warmly received by Krishna and his Queen. Sudhama was so overwhelmed he felt shy to offer the “Poha” to Krishna, but Krishna had already sensed it. He grabbed the bag of “Poha” from his old friend’s waist and started gobbling mouthfuls of it, till his Queen, the goddess of wealth had to restrain him. She knew that with each mouthful, the wealth would shower on Sudhama and his family.

Sure enough, when Sudhama reached back his home in Brindavan, he found his humble hut had been replaced by a Palace and his family in luxurious wealth.

So, the concept of pre-cooking food by roasting or sun-drying giving “Portable” food is as old as the hills. Dals, Rice, other grains could be converted to light weight portable rations for – say – a highly mobile army.

The Pindaris feature in Indian History during the Third Maratha War (1815-1828). They were engaged by Bentick, the Governor General and Col. Sleeman, who also went after the “Thugees”. The Pindaris were the remnants of a loose confederation of guerilla cavalry groups which the great Shivaji had put together over 150 years before. Over this period, the Maratha State had fragmented into five major and several smaller satrapies. In 1761 Maratha might was decimated in the Third Battle of Panipat. After liquidating Tippu Sultan of Mysore in 1799, the British Raj neutralized the bigger Maratha fiefdoms – Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsale, Gaekwad and the Peshwa. The Maratha army was managed by the individual entrepreneurship of local warlords. The cavalry was mounted on ponies, their riding armor was light and they were very mobile – sometimes living and sleeping too on their horses. Basically, these Maratha Chieftains were quite violent and harsh on their local subjects – descending on them demanding “Chouth” – a Tax of one fourth of their produce or profits – which they would extract by force, if necessary. They would then retreat to their hill-top fortresses or continue marauding further parts of the countryside. There were both Hindu Rajas / Desais / and Muslim Nawabs. By 1828, most of these groups of “Predatory Horse” had been neutralized or absorbed into the British orbit. A few of them also rose up in the great mutiny or first war of independence in 1857.

Gram – Black, green and other pulses – Arhar, Moong, Masoor dals are the staple source of Proteins – especially for vegetarians. Rice, Wheat and millets provide carbohydrates. In parts of North Karnataka and the Marathwada and Vidharbha regions, it is common to find puffed rice, roasted dals, sun-dried pappads and many, many varieties of masala powders which offer quick and easy to prepare readymade food for a person on the move.

We Indians love our curries and chutneys. The English have now acquired this habit – perhaps to better their sluggish bowel movements. And curries mean Chillies. Now we have almost as many varieties- as there are from where chillies originally came – the New World. Green, Red, Yellow, multi-hued, big, small, thin, fat, round, long, square etc.   It is an amazing fact that we have been eating chillies only for about 350 years! When I told a staunch “Andhravaadu” this he wanted to kill me!

“Podis” or Chutney powders are dried versions of messy curries. They are portable and have good shelf livces. They can be added to cooked hot rice and with a little ghee you have a complete dish. The powder can be used as a “Dip” – Thottukarruku (For “Touching”) with Chapathis, Dosas, Idlis etc.

PODIS are an absolute must for the ABANDONED HUSBAND, especially if he is a bit of a lazy cook.

Kothumalli and Karvep yellai – Coriander and curry leaves – usually you buy them in bunches. Even as little as you can get, for the typical ABANDOINED HUSBAND living alone, will always be left with this thing drying up in the fridge our outside it. After I’ve collected enough of surplus curry leaves I usually make my favorite dry Chutney powder or “Podi” – Kavep Yellai Parruppu Podi: You will of course need a mixer, or if you’re in the middle of the forest, a flat grinding stone – I’ve been using for 40 years, a 100 year old sandstone grinding sill, originally used to prepare Bhang – an intoxicant from Marijuana.

Condiments in this ratio:

Arhar Dal – 3 Tablespoons, White Urud Dal- 1 Tablespoon, Channa / Kadalai Dal – 1 Table spoon, Black Pepper – 1 Tablespoon, Methi/ Fenugreek seeds – ½ Teaspoon, Mustard Seed – ½ Teaspoon, Dried Red Chillies – 5 nos.(Guntur or other Andhra Variety – one is crinkled and one is smooth – for best taste add half of each in any preparation), Asafetida – bit of a generous pinch, Salt – 1 teaspoon (Rock Salt is better).

Put all this in a dry pan and roast them slowly. Keep stirring constantly moving the ingredients around the pan evenly. The Arhar Dal should get reddish on roasting, but don’t let the Urud Dal get too black – it should just be a light grey. The Asafetida should puff up and the Mustard and Methi should crackle. When you see it getting done, pour on the Curry Leaves, stirring them around the contents. The leaves should get crispy dry, but not lose their green color.

Take it all off and after it cools, grind it in the mixer’s dry grinding container to a fairly fine powder – with a trace of graininess. (If you got to use the sill it will take about an hour!).

Dosai Molluga Podi – A fiery hot Chutney powder for “Thottufying” (using as a dip), with Dosas or Idlis is a specialty item carrying our Iyengar Brand.

Here, to get it perfectly right, I was given the secret from my Grand-mother. All items must be roasted separately:

Channa / Kadalai Dal: 2 Tablespoons, Urud Dal: 1 Tablespoon, Yellu / Til seeds – 1 Tablespoon, (there are black and white varieties – one way is to use both, but the black seeds are more “Iyengarish”), Full Dhania / Coriander seeds – 1 Tablespoon, Black Pepper – 1 Teaspoon, Red Chillies – 7 to 15, depending on the size and how much you would like your back-side to burn the next day. Also roast ½ teaspoon of Mustard seeds, a dozen curry leaves, a pinch of asafetida, a small 1 cm. ball of tamarind. This last lot can be done together.

After all roasted ingredients have cooled grind them in the mixer adding 1 teaspoon of salt. This time grind it fairly coarse – Individual broken dal grains, coriander and til seeds should be visible.

If you’ve gone to an Andhra Restaurant – you’ve probably gone only for their “Podi”. Different from our Parruppu Podi’s, these are made with garlic added and more red chillies than pepper. The hottest chutney powder I’ve tasted is in North Karnataka and Maharashtra – The main (and seemingly only) ingredient seems to be the fieriest red chillies. One dab on your tongue and all other tastes are blasted out by a fiery sword cutting into your tongue.

Chutneys are fiery curries which come as a paste. They can be used as “Dips” for “thottufying” or mixed with hot rice and a bit of ghee or oil. The trouble is most chutneys are coconut based and have a very short shelf life – the must be consumed fresh. Coconuts come in all sizes – big or small, but even with half a small coconut you can get enough chutney for more than two people to eat with Idli, dosa or vadais.

For as nice “Thengai” or coconut chutney, soak the following for about ½ hour :

One half coconut – grated or cut up in small bits. “Pottu Kadalai” –  3 Tablespoons (this is roasted channa dal – one of the wonder foods of the Pindaris), A small bunch of Corriander leaves. Jeera – 1 tablespoon, Ginger – 3 cu.cm., Green chillies – 3 to 6 depending again on size of coconut and how fiery you want your chutney, a 1cm ball of tamarind and salt - ½ Teaspoon.

If you want your chutney with a mint flavor, add a small bunch of Podhina (mint leaves).

Grind all the ingredients after soaking in the wet-grinder vessel of the mixer, adding water till it is all the consistency of a thick batter. Pour out of the mixer and prepare the seasoning:

For the seasoning – heat 2 tablespoons of Til / Gingili Oil  in an iron seasoning ladle or pan. Put in the Channa & Urud Seasoning dals – not more than ½ teaspoon each with a pinch of asafetida.

When the dals have browned add ½ teaspoon each of Jeera and Mustard and a couple of dried red chillies broken up. As the mustard and jeera crackle, put in a few curry leaves and immediately plunge the seasoning ladle into the chutney and mix.

“Thogail”, is another Iyengar specialty. It is as good with Chapattis as with rice. It is made from Arhar / Tur Dal and grated coconut.

Roast dry 3 tablespoons Arhar / Tur Dal, ½ teaspoon each Channa and Urud dal, ½ teaspoon Methi / Fenugreek, a generous pinch of Asafetida, ½ teaspoon Mustard seeds, a few curry leaves.

Take the pan off when the Arhar /Tur Dal turns reddish and the mustard and fenugreek crackle.

As it cools, soak a 3 cu.cm ball of tamarind in 1 cup of water for half an hour and squeeze out the juice from the pulp.

Grind all the dry and roasted powders in the WET GRINDER of the mixer, adding the Tamarind water. Add about ½ of a grated small coconut – dried coconut (Copra) can also be used. Add 4 to 6 dried red chillies and ½ teaspoon of Salt while grinding. Grind to a very thick, almost dry paste - still quite coarse and granular.

Pappads, Vaththals, Vadaams, Applams, papadams etc. – these are pre cooked and almost completely sun-cooked portable foods. Today, we have given to industry what was once an item manufactured at home. Sadly nobody makes them at home anywhere as the mass produced stuff is on all the store shelves.

I have been privileged to have seen home production of these in my Grandmother’s home as a young boy. My cousins and I would wait for the days when my Grandmother and Sriramji – the cook I had told you about would prepare the mix, half-cooked rice with all the salts and spices in large vessels. These would be taken to the roof and on old dhotis or saris, the semi liquid paste would be spread out into thin pancakes or sometimes extruded through a hand press in various shapes, thickness and cross sections. These would generally dry out in a couple of sunny days and then stored away to be roasted and served with the meals. These would keep for a year too.

We kids were, usually on such occasions, allowed to play on the roof top – ostensibly to guard the drying delicacies from the crows and sparrows, but invariably we would pilfer bits of the yet raw and drying vaththals and vaadams. The half dry – still pasty inside bits were quite irresistible.

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