All-purpose Spice Powder/Curry Powder/Sambar Powder
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We need that one spice powder which we can use for our curries , sambar, veththakkuzhambu and rasam, that we can make easily and quickly and make whenever we want. Here is one such powder. I use this powder mainly for curries. When I make sambar I add the powder, and either season it with fenugreek seeds along with mustard seeds and some red chillies or add the fenugreek powder at the end. For rasam, I use the powder and when I do the tempering, I use, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and a bit of crushed pepper with asafoetida. You can even coarsely powder pepper and cumin in 1:3 proportion and temper along with mustard seeds.For veththakkuzhambu, I add the powder and when tempering, I use some fenugreek seeds and a few red chillies along with the mustard seeds and asafoetida. For making koottu without coconut, you can use this powder .For pulikkoottu, you can add the powder and some grated coconut, if you don’t have the time to grind coconut and other spices. Let us see how to make this versatile powder. The spice level will be medium for this powder.
Ingredients:
25 -Kashmiri chillies ( about 75 long stemmed Kashmiri chillies make 100 gms )
25-Red chillies (about 50 to 55 de-stemmed long red chillies make 2 cups/ or 50 gms )
1/3 cup- (Bengal Gram Lentils (chana dhal/kadalaip paruppu)
2/3 cup- Coriander seeds (whole dhania/koththamalli) (50 gms)
1 tbsp- black pepper
1+ tsp-coconut oil or any cooking oil
Optional:
1 tsp- fenugreek seeds(methi)
1 tsp- cumin seeds
Steps:
Remove stems from the chillies. Coat the chillies with a bit of oil with your hand. Spread them in a microwave safe plate, and keep the plate towards the edge of the microwave glass base and microwave for 1 minute. Leave it to rest for a minute. Mix and microwave for up to one more minute in 30 seconds increment, checking and turning the chillies. Leave it again to rest, so that it puffs up and gets crisp.
If you do not use microwave, add a few drops of cooking oil in a pan and roast the chillies till they puff and the aroma comes out. Sprinkle ¼ tsp of salt on chillies so that you don’t cough while roasting. Salt settles the chillies. But, fry the chillies at the end after you roast the lentils and the coriander seeds, if frying in a pan.
Use medium flame. In a fry pan, add a few drops of oil and roast the Bengal gram lentils, till they are golden brown. Remove from pan and spread on a plate. Add few drops of oil or without oil, add the coriander seeds and roast till the aroma comes and the seeds are hot. Don’t let them burn. Turn off the stove and add the pepper and cumin to the coriander seeds and stir and mix together and promptly remove and transfer to a plate. Dry roast the fenugreek seeds till they are dark golden and gives aroma. Let all the ingredients to cool.
In a mixie jar, add the chillies and grind to a coarse powder. Now add the coriander seeds and pepper and grind. Check in between after a few seconds of grinding, to mix the ingredients for uniform grinding.
When it is powdered well without the coriander seeds being gritty, add the Bengal gram lentils and grind. Bengal gram can be coarse if you prefer. It gets powdered very quickly, so watch out. Mix well the powder and store in air tight bottle. The total yield will be about 1+ cups of powder.
You can make the all-purpose spice powder at home wherever you are in the world. When you live far away, either you are dependent of the local Indian store’s powder or on the sambar powder that you bring or someone brings from India. After a while, they go bland. So, make this powder and see how your cooking smells and tastes good.
Brindha’s Notes:
You can always adjust the chillies quantity to suit your needs. Remember to add turmeric powder while cooking. Sometimes you may just want to use this powder without the turmeric. eg: eggplant curry
For a higher spice level powder that can be used for sambar or veththak kuzhambu as such, use 30 red chillies and 30 Kashmiri chillies .You can do this if your spice level is very high. Otherwise, this is spicy enough for most of the people especially in a household with children. You can reduce the bengal gram a bit and increase the quantity of coriander seeds to suit your taste while making it exclusively for sambar powder.
Kashmiri chillies are less spicy and they add colour to the powder.
Adjust the chillies to suit your needs.
Use it for koottu and soup too.
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