Thengai podi recipe, coconut podi

Thengai podi recipe with step by step pictures and video.
Thengai podi is a simple recipe, quite popular in Tamil brahmin houses, made with roasted urad dal, red chili and coconut as main ingredients. Coconut podi is generally mixed with hot rice, smeared with ghee or sesame oil. In our house we all love Thengai podi. In fact we love all podi varieties and i have posted  Andhra style paruppu podi, Angaya podi, Karuveppilai podi, Kothamalli podi and many more.
Some times on a lazy day or when you are pressed out of time for cooking, podis come so handy. They pair well with any curry and kootu. A simple appalam will be a perfect for podi rice. I still remember my grandmother makes this thengai podi in bulk and store in the refrigerator. Also she makes Thenga milagai podi too. And those days we don't have any machine to grate coconut, she grates them manually with hands and makes these podis in bulk. Now i use the grinder attachment for grating the coconut, but i always make podis in small quantities.

Thengai podi recipe

• Recipe Cusine: Indian
• Prep Time: 10 Minutes
• Cook time: 20 Minutes
• Serves: 1 and 1/4 cup
• Author: Jeyashri
• Recipe Category: Lunch | Dinner
• Description: Thengai podi is a simple recipe, quite popular in Tamil brahmin houses, made with roasted urad dal, red chili and coconut as main ingredients.

     Coconut 1 cup       
     Urad dal  1/4 cup
     Red chilli 7-8
     Salt  as needed
     Asafoetida  a pinch
    Oil  2 tsp
   
                                                        Video of how to make thengai podi

Method with step by step pictures :

• In a pan add oil and add in the urad dal and roast it till it becomes golden brown.
• Be careful not to get it burnt.

• Transfer it to a plate when done. 
• Add in the red chillies and nicely roast them. 

• Dry roast the scrapped coconut till it gets evenly  golden brown color.

• Keep it aside and switch off the flame and saute the salt and asafoetida in the same pan for few seconds. This removes the moisture from salt and asafoetida. 
• Allow everything to cool and grind it into a fine powder. 

• Spread this in a plate for 20 minutes, let this cool and store this in a clean dry airtight container. 
• The heat of the mixie will be there so if we transfer to a box immediately, it will ooze out moisture.
• Mix with hot rice along with ghee or sesame oil. A simple sutta applam (fire roasted papad) will be a great combo for this.         

Notes:

• Always roast the dal and coconut nicely. Else it will not stay fresh longer.
• This can be kept in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Always clean dry spoon to take the podi.
• My mil makes Thengai podi with chana dal instead of urad dal.