Kharapodi (Spicy Tangy Red Powder)

Kharapodi

Kharapodi is red hot tangy powder primarily taken with idli and dosa. This version of Kharapodi is made in Andhra Pradesh. It is mixed with either ghee or cooking oil to make a paste before eating with idli/dosa. I and my family love it so much that with every meal it is taken as an accompaniment. Since we do not take extremely hot food thus the amount of chili is comparatively less as compared to the Kharapodi made in Andhra. 
I use more coconut and comparatively less chilies, coconut provides much required oil and thus this powder unlike its original form can be eaten without mixing with ghee/oil also, though for best taste mixing it with warm ghee is suggested.

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Roasting Time: 30-40 minutes
Grinding Time: 30-40 minutes 
Servings:  1.250 Kg(Approximately)

Ingredients Required For Making Kharapodi : 

• 250 gm Tamarind (Without seeds)
• 500 gm. Whole Red Chili
• 200-250 gm. Dry coconut
• 100 gm. Coriander seeds
• 100 gm. Chana Dal
• 100 gm. Dhuli Urd Dal (Split-chaffed Urd Dal)
• 100 gm. Salt /To taste

Directions For Making Kharapodi:

• Remove the stalk and seeds from the red chilies.
• Grate dry coconut.
• Check tamarind for seeds, if any remove them.
• Dry roast chana dal, Urd dal on low heat to light pink color. Both dal should be roasted separately not together. I use non-stick wok for roasting.
• Remove and keep aside to cool.
• Dry roast red chilies on low heat till they change color to darker shade and become crisp. Remove from wok and keep aside to cool.

Roasted Red Chili

• Dry roast coriander seeds on low heat  to light brown shade. Remove from wok and keep aside to cool.

Roasted Coriander Seeds

• Roast coconut powder on low heat to light pink color. Since coconut has oil and even after removing from heat the hot oil in it will cause it to cook more so do not roast coconut to darker shade. Remove from wok and keep aside to cool.

Roasted Dal and Grated coconut

• Lastly in the hot slightly oily (due to coconut roasting) wok add tamarind and bring the heat to medium and roast with continuous stirring for 5 minutes. Tamarind will stick to the bottom of the wok, it is normal so do not worry. Switch off the heat and remove the wok from the heat. 
• Remove tamarind from wok and let it cool.

Roasted tamarind

• Put water in hot wok to remove tamarind stains.
• Mix roasted Chana dal and Urd dal. Pulse it till it is converted to fine powder.

Dal Powder

• Add roasted tamarind to the dal powder in small portions and pulse. Repeat till all tamarind is mixed with dal powder and pulsed to coarse powder.
• Sieve the mixture and pulse the remaining coarser part. Repeat till whole thing is converted to slightly grainy powder. It will not be fine powder, but little grainy.

Dal and tamarind Powder

• Grind roasted coriander seeds to fine powder.
• Mix coriander seed powder to Dal-Tamarind powder and pulse once or twice to make uniform mixture. 

Dal,Tamarind and Coriander Powder

• As the amount will grow grinding/pulsing in one go will not be possible so divide the whole amount to two three portions and then put in grinder / mixer to grind.
• Grind roasted red chilies to fine powder. Add 2-3 teaspoon of salt while grinding red chilies, this will help converting chilies to fine powder.
• Mix powdered chili to the mixture of Dal-Tamarind-Coriander seed powder. Pulse together again.

Dal,Chili,Tamarind,Coriander and Red chili Powder 

• To roasted coconut add remaining salt and grind to get fine powder.
• Add coconut-salt powder to the mixture of Dal-Coriander seed-Chili-Tamarind powder and mix.

Kharapodi

• Pulse this mixture for 1 minute so that the mixture becomes uniform and all ingredients flavor also infuses nicely. Pulsing the whole mixture is must to get proper flavor in Kharapodi. Since the amount is large now it may require to be divided to two or three portion for pulsing.
• The change in the color of powdered mixture can be seen just after pulsing it after adding salt-coconut powder. 
• Kharapodi is ready. Let the it cool to room temperature (It will become warm due to grinding/ pulsing).

Kharapodi Ready to be stored

• Store in airtight container.
• Mix little Kharapodi with ghee/cooking oil and enjoy with Idli/ Dosa/ Uttapa, Dal-Rice, Curd-Rice,
• Sprinkle Kharapodi on buttered slice, in sandwich. I love to have it with crisp-hot pakoras, there are unlimited options.

Tips:

• Use of non-stick wok will make roasting and later on cleaning easy.
• Roast coconut in just before roasting tamarind this will make the wok slightly greasy and roasting tamarind will become easy.
• Grind the roasted ingredients in the given order for ease and best results.
• Pulsing the mixture at all the steps is very important, because this causes the flavors of all ingredients to mix nicely. 
• Remove seeds from chilies, else the powder will not be dark red in color.
• Check the hotness of the chili and change the amount accordingly to suit your taste.

Suggested Variations:

• Instead of roasting Chana and Urd dal, roasted Black gram (available in market) can be powdered after removing chaff, 
• Powder of roasted curry leafs can be added to the mixture before final pulsing.