Avalose Podi

Recipe No: 200
This is another one of my Mother's recipe. Usually served with Banana and Sugar, this is one of the traditional teatime/ after school favorites. Another fact that has to be mentioned is that, this is the base for Avalose Unda/ Mavunda (made into a ball with Jaggery) and Churuttu (I hope to publish the recipes soon).

Ingredients                                           Makes around 2 ½ cups

• Raw Rice Flour…………………2 Cups (Coarsely ground)
• Freshly grated Coconut…....1 Cup
• Whole Cumin Seeds……….…1 Teaspoon
• Whole Sesame Seeds………..1 Teaspoon
• Salt…………………………….….1/8 Teaspoon

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix Coconut, Cumin Seeds, Sesame Seeds and Salt well.
2. In a frying pan put the Rice Flour; make a well in the middle by moving the Flour to the sides and place the Coconut mixture in the middle.
3. Cover the Coconut mixture with the Flour from the sides; cover the pan and let it sit  for 30 minutes. (No fire at this stage.)
4. After 30 minutes, mix the Rice Flour and the Coconut mixture thoroughly with your hands to break the big lumps if any; switch on the stove and adjust the heat to a medium low.
5. Fry the Rice Coconut mixture stirring constantly until it reaches a pink color. (Believe it or not, it took around 30 minutes for me). Don’t try to rush this process as it will result in the burning of Flour without cooking and frying evenly.
6. Once evenly browned, switch off the heat and store it in an airtight container when cooled.
7. Serve it at room temperature with Sugar and Banana.

Notes:

•  For Raw Rice Flour, either make your own or use frozen rice flour from the frozen section of Asian Grocery stores or use regular Rice Flour that is available in the Grocery stores (the usual ones are very near to raw Flour; but avoid roasted Flour like Puttu Podi or Idiyappam Podi.)
• To make fresh Rice Flour wash and soak white Rice (approximately 1 1/2 cups to get this quantity) for 6 hours; drain properly and grind it into a course powder.
• The Grated Coconut should be finely grated. If it is in long threads do pulse it once or twice in a grinder to make it small.
• Constant stirring throughout the process is very important.
• Don’t brown the Avalose Podi, slightly pink (or very light brown) is the correct time to switch off the heat (The pictures that I took is not doing any justice to the color... but please compare the White color of Sugar and the Pink color of Avalose Podi in the picture below). When you eat some at this stage it will be a bit crisp and the big pieces will be crunchy and there will be a good fried smell.
• You have to keep the mixture stirring for some more time after switching the flame off , otherwise, the Flour in the bottom of the pan may burn due to the residual heat or transfer the content to another dish immediately.

 




Make it, enjoy the deliciousness and 
serve it to your family with love…