Podi- A versatile condiment

Podi is a course powder which has many uses.

When I was living in Sunnyvale, California, my neighbor aunt would sometimes give me some podi with Idli or Dosa, I liked the idea of this powder, which could compliment almost any Indian food. Finally, when I was in Bangalore I got to explore more types of podi. I used to ask people of the different types of podi they knew. Their answers didn't earn me much, but once, I was thinking about how curry leaves are very beneficial to our health and so we should eat it more often. But chewing curry leaves are hard so then I remembered of when I heard of podi made of curry leaves. My neighbor  told me how to make the basic one. Based on that, I made my version of it and it was delicious. Everyone loved it, especially my husband, and that's saying something considering what a food  critic he is. :)

I was sold to the benefits of podi 

-Its nice way of eating herbs

-Its protein rich and almost fat-free

-It can add flavor to the food or on the side as well 

Then I started creating each type of podi I can think of or I heard from friend. Here is probably what is the biggest collection of podi I have available.

Here are some guidelines how you can eat podi :

*Traditionally it can be mixed with ghee or sesame oil and can be eaten with rice,  Idli, Dosa, Appam etc. but podi means powder so masalas also call podi

*Sprinkle while making dosa or appam, it releases nice aroma

*Since I follow a low-fat diet, I mix it with water or eat dry. The taste remains equally good.

*Add it in Raita, make fresh Pickle, or make Chatnee by adding yoghurt with Podi.

*after you are done making simplest curry sprinkle 1 tablespoon or 2, everyone will  love it.

*use it for stuffing vegetables to make stuffed vegetables.

*for roasting you don't need oil but oil makes it look appealing and bright  and gives out more aroma.

*Mix 1 tbs of flavored podi into to make desired flavored RASAM.(e.g. garlic rasam, tamarind rasam, mint rasam)

*Sprinkle 2 tbs of podi to make flavored idly fry. (Like garlic idly fry, mint idly fry) => For multiplying recipe you don't need extra oil unless it's very large batch.

1. Parrupu Podi - Dal Powder
2. Ullutham Milagai Podi - Urad Dal Powder.

3. Mix Dal Powder

4. Phutana Powder

5. Curry Leaves Powder (Karivepillai Podi)
6. Peanut Powder
7. sweet ellu podi -sweet sesame powder
8. Sesame seeds powder - Ellu podi
9. Fennel Seeds Powder - Sombu podi
10. Jeera Powder

11. Thengai podi - Coconut powder

12. Garlic Powder - Poondu podi
13. Mint Powder - Pudina karam podi
14. Dry Ginger powder - Soonthi podi
15. Neem powder

Introduction to my culinary journey

Pull up a chair, take a taste.  Come join us.  Life is so endlessly delicious.
                                       -Ruth Reichl

To me, cooking is a  perfect combination of art and science, all wrapped together with love and passion.
One day, when I was 17 years old, I was with my friend Bina, who learned to cook quite early.  She was cutting some potato with much precision so I told her I also prefer cutting  vegetables neatly and of the same size. She laughed  and  replied, "If I won't cut it all same size, it won't cook evenly. Some will be over cooked and some will be under cooked." That was the first cooking lesson I ever learned.

 I began to actually cook when I was 20. It was occasional, but when I did cook, a  sweet aroma would spread around the house and the neighbors would ask me to make those dishes for them too. (I still remember the Gujarati dal, stuffed bitter melon curry and stuffed bottle guard  curry). But I never felt like I loved cooking. I would always be busy with my reading, and rarely tried anything beyond that.

Then, when I got married, I was from a strict Jain family (who doesn't eat roots), and my husband liked onion, garlic, potato etc. In the beginning, it created a few situations which left me upset, but now it's just a funny story for me to look back to.

Once I made puris for pani puri for the next day and made aloo paratha with tomato chatnee that day. When my husband came home he could make out the smell (his smell senses are very good). He asked me to make sweet chatnee. Since we had no fridge back then, I tried making an unsuccessful attempt at convincing him to eat paratha for that day. Then, he ate some puri with tomato chatnee. The next day, when he was having dinner, he asked me for some onion. I had absolutely no idea that pani puri contained onion in it, but, anyway I cut the onion and gave it to him.  Then next question was "where is garlic chatnee?" - and it was the same case as with the onion - I had no idea of having  pani puri . I started to feel sensitive but then he said that it was okay and to give him chana. I told him that I love papadi puri, so I can makes some ragda which I thought would go well with pani puri as well.  Then he asked have you ever seen pani puri without channa, and I began to cry.

Once my husband was joking about how finely he can cut onion. Since this was new to me, we had competition and a friend was judge,  with minor difference I won. Now it feels so funny.

The journey progressed, and I used to make many new dishes without even realizing that I had any passion or love for cooking. Soon, we came to USA and had twins. At this point I felt  that I started liking other cuisines more than our usual food roti, sabji, dal(my husband used to eat rice only once in a while)and my naughty twins leaving no time for extensive cooking and if food wont be good my husband will tell its ok let's just eat outside which I wont like it! But anyway  I made Thai food once and he told me that its awesome so once I made it when my friends came over my place and my friend told me that it's better than restaurant so then I knew that I can make good Thai food then again I came to know I can make very good Mexican food too but couldn't find love of cooking. 

 Meanwhile kids grew older and they started telling me that I make good food but still I was away from love of cooking it was just love for my husband( cause my kids love most of my food so I only have to worry for my husband,  he won't accept anything less than perfect).  My husband some times jokes I taught you  cooking, I agree that his tough measurements made me cook better.  Now if my husband criticize I don't feel like crying but I feel like a challenge to conquer,  I feel like I am improving my skills.  
After all, according to an African proverb, Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
      
Then we went to Bangalore, the garden city of India. Now I was getting more time so was feeling urge to do something on my own, so my husband suggested that I was good at art so I should start painting, that's when I started feeling that probably I love cooking more than painting.  

 Then we came back to California, now  feeling that I love cooking grew stronger and stronger so I thought of creating a blog to share that love.