Kanji Podi

My mother-in-law has been having this kanji for years now and it became my favourite after I got married. People associate kanji with sickness, but I would say this kanji can help keep sickness at bay. Its loaded with nutrition. This kanji podi is made with a total of 15 ingredients all of them contributing to overall health.

Preparation Time : 1 hour

Ingredients

Ragi - 1 kg
Bajra / Kambu - 250 gm
Jowar - 250 gm
Groundnuts - 200 gm
Roasted Gram Dal / Pottukadalai - 200 gm
Green moong / Pachai Payiru - 250 gm
Whole wheat / Godumai - 250 gm
Boiled Rice / Puzhungal Arisi - 250 gm
Oats - 200 gm
Barley - 100 gm
Javvarisi / Sago - 150 gm
Thinai - 150 gm
Badam - 2 handsful
Cashewnuts - 1 handful
Cardamom - 15 pods

Procedure

1. Take two large vessels. Put the ragi in a vessel and add water, wash it well and carefully take out handsful of the ragi and put it in the other vessel.Discard the water in the first vessel. Again wash it with water in the second vessel and move the ragi to the first vessel and discard the water. Repeat this till there is no residue in the water. Spread out the washed and drained ragi on a paper / a cloth and leave it to sprout overnight
2. Dry roast the bajra and jowar separately on a medium flame till they pop up like pop corn. Transfer it to a large thookku
3. Dry roast pottukadalai till just warm
4. Dry roast groundnuts till crisp. (you may choose to remove the skin / leave it intact)
5. Dry roast javvarisi, oats, thinai, barley till warm and slightly brown
6. Dry roast green moong till it turns brown and crisp. Take a few while roasting and check if they are crisp
7. Dry roast wheat till it puffs up and turns pale
8. Similarly dry roast boiled rice till it turns crisp and a nice aroma comes.
9. Roast cashewnuts and badam till slightly brown and crisp
10. After the ragi sprouts, roast it in batches. Ragi also pops up like pop corn and looks lovely while roasting. Roast till it turns a dark reddish black and crisp.
11. Finally break and add the cardamom.
12. Allow to cool and get the mixture ground in a mill. This kanji podi should last you for atleast 3 - 4 months
13. To prepare 2 cups of kanji, boil 1 cup of water. Mix 2 tbsp of kanji powder with 1/2 cup of water, when the water boils, add the kanji paste to the water and stir constantly till it thickens. Finally add 1/2 cup milk and sugar to taste. Hot, delicious kanji is ready.