Masala Powder (Palya pudi)

This spicy mixture is my go to powder/pudi as we call in Kannada, I use this every day in my dishes like palya(dry veggi curry), sambar/huli(along with mom made sambar pudi), upma and for some rice dishes like Besibele Bath. Just adding a spoon of this Pudi makes the dish very flavourful.

Ingredients for Spicy Powder

Channa dal//kadalebele - 1 cup

Urad dal/ uddinabele- 1cup

Corriender seeds/ dhania- 2 tbsp

Methiseeds/menthia- 1tbsp

Cumin seeds/ jeerige- 1tbsp

Black pepper seeds/ menasu- 1 tbsp

Cinnamom-cloves/chekke-lavanga-2-3 each

Red chillies- 10 (for medium Spice)

Few curry leaves

Oil - 2tbsp for roasting all the above ingredients.

Roast all the above ingredients with 2 tbsp of oil one by one and when it cool enough, grind it to a fine powder.

*Using Badage chilli , adds more colour(redness) to the powder and dish.

I have used a tbsp of the above powder to make Chayote squash/semebadane kaayi palya/curry.



Recipe for Palya:

1. Heat a table spoon of oil in a vessel, when hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, channdal and urad dal.



2. When dals start to change colour add chopped squash and salt, cover and cook for 10 min on medium heat.



3. Once squash is soft add 1 tbsp of spicy powder and 1 tbsp of grated coconut and squeeze 1 tbsp of lime juice. Add fresh cilantro/correinder leaves for garnish.

Enjoy !