Karuveppilai Powder / Curry Leaf Powder - The Iyengar Way

I have a job. Now, you may think I am flaunting that fact but I am just stating it neutrally here. This means I juggle a hundred things at once. That's another fact. This also means that when it's raining really hard, the last thing I want to do or even have the time to do is going grocery shopping.

So, I started buying my groceries from Local Banya. It is convenient, they have always delivered good quality products to me and on time. So one day, as I do when I need fresh produce and spices, I got on to Local Banya and I ordered curry leaves.

And guess what came home? 200gms of curry leaves.

Now, 200gms of anything may sound like very less. But curry leaves? 200gms of that stuff is an extremely large volume of leaves and you can actually put that load on a small basket and sell it for some serious cash. Umm, okay, enough cash for one scoop of some decent ice cream.

So, I was stuck with all that curry leaf and I had no clue what to do with so much. So I put that question out on Twitter. Mohan Krishnamoorthy from Twitter suggested Karuveppilai Podi. The man, meanwhile, got on a call and spoke to the sister-in-law's mum-in-law (yeah, life is complex).

And so I came upon this glorious recipe, made the Tam Brahm Iyengar way. It keeps forever and is delicious, you can eat it with steaming hot rice and pure cow's ghee. Or you can use it as a spice in a quick veggie stir-fry. Or eat it with ghee and dosas, idlis, whatever.

Make this - use this. And thank me when you realise what a lifesaver it can be.

Name: Karuveppilai Podi
Prep Time: 2-3 hours of prep wait
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Recipe Source: Sis-in-law's mum-in-law and inputs from @mohank (on Twitter)
Serves: Multiple servings

You need:
150gms of curry leaves or 3 fistfuls
1 fistful urad dal
5 red chillies
2 tsp asafoetida
Salt
Dash of til oil

- Wash the curry leaves in running water thoroughly. Pat dry between two sheets of tissue or cloth. When they are relatively dry, spread them out on a piece of cloth or newspaper and allow the leaves to air dry for 2-3 hours.

- Some people do the drying and roasting bit in a microwave - I have disposed my microwave oven because microwave technology is believed to have carcinogenic effects on the body and I therefore do not use the product in my kitchen - so I used the traditional method of drying the leaves out.

- Then, heat a kadhai and dry roast the leaves - high heat and continuous stirring is key here so nothing burns or sticks. A good 7-8 minutes of this and you will see the leaves losing colour gradually - you do not want them to do brown or black now. You want the fresh green to go bottle green and then stop when they have dried out entirely. Keep aside.

- In the same kadhai, heat a dash of oil, add the urad dal and chillies and dry roast until the dal is fragrant and light brown. Keep aside.

- Now, in a griender, add the curry leaves, urad dal and red chillies and pulse until you get them down to a fine powder.

- Add salt and asafoetida. Pulse again. Allow it to cool. Adjust salt. Store in an airtight container. Keeps well for a long, long time. If you live in humid conditions, you might want to keep it in the fridge to stop fungus from catching on. I'd play safe and just dunk it in the fridge.

- This stuff is your kick of iron, incidentally. Curry leaves are also believed to help darken hair and possess anti-oxidants. Tell when you try!