Kongu Style Sambar Powder

Here is the steps to prepare your own “Kongu Style Sambar Powder”, which will spread the aroma in your kitchen throughout the year. “All the credit to Karthi Amma” for these wonderful recipes.

Usage:

• All kinds of Tamil style sambar except pachapayiru
• Substitute to chillies in Avaraikai, Kothavarangai poreal 

Ingredients:

Ingredients	Quantity Cup Size – 100 ml
Natty Coriander Seeds	¾ kg
Red chilli dried	¾ kg (add upto 1.25 kg if you want spicy
Boiled Rice	1 cup
Nattu Kambu or Natty Bajra	½ cup
Urad Dhal (round)	1 cup
Channa Dhal (without husk)	1 cup
Thoor Dhal	1 cup
Black Pepper	½ cup
Methi seeds	¼ cup
Mustard	¼ cup
Jeera	½ cup
Dried Curry Leaves	3 cups
Castrol Oil	250ml

Procedure

Roasting:

·       Clean the ingredients from dust or other impurities, if any, before roasting.

·       Dry roast all the ingredients independently one by one except Curry Leaves, Natty Coriander Seeds and Red Chilli and spread them on wide steel plates or newspaper so that it cools down without sweat due to heat.

·       While roasting mustard, ensure that it pops up.

·       Add little rock salt and few drops of ground nut oil while roasting red chilli. Later add the roasted red chilli’s to above mixture and let it cool.

·       Add few drops of ground nut oil to roast curry leaves and keep it separately.

·       After they are completely cooled, pack them in air-tight container.
Note: Curry leaves to be kept separately here too.

Caution: Keep medium or low flame while roasting so that the ingredients do not turn black or over burnt.

Sun Drying:

·       On a Sunny day, spread all the ingredients evenly in a newspaper or wide steel plates and let it dry for couple of hours.

·       Pack all the ingredients together but don’t close the lid as it will start sweating due to heat.

·       Ideally better to grind immediately after sun drying.

Grinding:

·       Soon after sun drying, take it to the flour mill and grid it. Put the ingredients couple of times to get fine powder. Now the ‘Sambar Powder’ is ready but few more steps to go.

·       Take some extra Thoor Dhal to the flour mill, ask the flour mill attendant to put them in grinder without grinding and take it out. This will take out the sambar powder remains which stays in the machine.

·       If you stay close to the flour mill, take it home and spread it over newspaper or wide steel plates and let it cool. If you stay far-off, then cool it down in the mill itself and take it home.
Caution: If the hot powder is left stuffed in box for long time, the powder will become black.

Storage Measures:

·       Sieve the sambar powder along with Thoor Dhal and add it back to the other powder.

·       Add the Castrol Oil slowly and mix the sambar powder well without lumps. You may not need entire 250ml of Castrol oil but add them slowly as needed so that you can make balls (this need not be rigid) out of the powder.

·       Pack it air-tight container, ideally steel or Tupper ware, which will stay fresh for a year.
In olden days, these were stored in earthen pots.