If you are born and brought up in Kerala, South India, you will encounter certain dishes which you can’t find anywhere in rest of India. Trust me, Indian restaurants outside India are not catering true authentic cuisine’s diversities exist in that huge nation. There are some dishes, which are just pure nostalgic, this avalose podi/roasted rice and coconut powder is one of those kinds. All of a sudden I remembered my mom, and still after all these years miss her lot, and decided to make this, as she always make it for me and my sister, after we came back from school.
This is one dish, which everybody in Kerala has eaten at least once in their life time. It is mostly made by moms as a after school snack for kids. It seems like in those days, moms were more health conscious; they would make everything at home, and rarely buy something outside. Nowadays bakeries take full responsibility to feed everyone their afternoon snack as everybody is very busy nowadays. I always to try to make fresh food at home, but my kid’s love MacDonald’s French fries, Burger King’s onion rings and pizza. They get that during the weekends.
Coming to avalose podi, podi means powder in Malayalam. In some areas of Kerala, this avalose podi is also named as pooram varuthauthu or pooram podi. I don’t know why they call it by that name. This is basically a mix of roasted rice flour, grated coconut, cumin and salt. First homemade rice flour is made like this. Then it is mixed with freshly grated coconut, cumin seeds and salt. Everything is mixed together and set aside for one hour,if you want you can pulse them for one or two times to make it a fine powder. Later it is roasted until it becomes golden brown color. Usually avalose podi is enjoyed with little sugar and a banana. later it is roasted until it becomes golden brown color. Usually avalose podi is enjoyed with little sugar and a banana.
When this avalose podi is mixed with jaggery syrup and shaped into small balls, then it becomes Avalose unda. This avalose podi also used as filling to make Churuttu , a traditional Christian snack/ dessert common in the Kottayam region of Kerala. The filling is sweetened Avalose Podi stuffed into a thin sheet made with maida/ all-purpose flour. You can see the filling through the outer covering that is characteristic of Churuttu.
My next attempt will be to make avalose unda or churuttu. I haven’t decided which of those yet. The batch of avalose podi I made just vanished. My daughter liked it very much. I only made a small quantity as I was not sure of the proportions my mom used to use. Yes I did it; as mom’s measurement is always 1 kg rice flour and 2 fresh coconuts which quite confusing for me.
Here comes the recipe, try it for you, one better thing is this really gluten free snack also vegan too. Aroma of roasted coconut is really intoxicating (at least for me). You can control the amount sugar you add, and then it becomes a diabetic friendly recipe.
Delicious gluten and vegan free traditional snack made with rice flour and coconut.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup rice flour Homemade recipehere
- ⅓ cup freshly grated coconut
- ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a bowl mix rice flour (use homemade recipe here)
- grated coconut, cumin and salt and set aside for 1 hour.
- This will help to absorb moisture from grated coconut.
- Pulse it one or two times to make it into a fine powder ( you can skip the this step if you want)
- Roast everything until it becomes golden brown color.
- You will also get aroma of toasted coconut. It will take about 15 minutes.
- Once toasted remove from fire and transfer to plate or baking sheet and set aside for complete cooling. It will take about 30 minutes. Then transfer to air tight container.
- Enjoy with little sugar and banana.
- You can keep it in room temperature for about 3 weeks.
Notes
Copyright ©2014 Zesty South Indian Kitchen by Swathi(Ambujom Saraswathy) All Rights Reserved
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
sebeena says
This is so nostalgic .....Swathi. Will ask Mummy to make this for me soon.
tigerfish says
Yes I do agree that the aroma of roasted coconut is indeed alluring 🙂
easyfoodsmith says
I totally agree with you on that. The restaurants certainly do not serve authentic south Indian food. I remember eating food from a south Indian colleague's lunch box and it was nothing what I thought about south Indian food! This is certainly a new dish for me.
mjskit says
Very interesting recipe! I was wondering how it was used then I saw "a little sugar and a banana". Do you dip the banana in sugar then in the podi? It sounds good to me!
Kumar's Kitchen says
these are the recipes which make us so happy...make us feel that home cooking provides the most sustaining,nourishing and tastiest dishes,thanks for the recipe 🙂
julie says
I always had a packet of avalose podi for my hostel days prepared by mom,nostalgic one..love it !!!
sangeetha says
delicious podi n love the prop as well!!!
Rekha says
Oh I don't remember when was the last time I had them 😉 Love love love itttt 🙂
jaspinder kaur says
Really loved it, thnx for sharing dear...
Sushma Mallya says
Lovely recipe swathi ...I am sure its really flavourful
Gloria says
This is new to me...loved the combo of coconut & rice..nice & easy snack
Shweta says
Interesting recipe, love the combination of rice flour and coconut.
Babitha costa says
we too make some what similar to this ,
Jeya says
it is our family favourite, as you said this was one of our after school snack. prepared last month for kids and still have some. we call it as varutha maavu.
Mini@QuickNHealthy says
Hi Swathi,
This is very nostalgic to me.. reminds me of my TVM days 🙂
Swathi says
Yes Mini, are you from TVM
Mini@Quick'n'Healthy says
No, I am from Palakkad, but was in TVM till I was 5 years old.. also did my Masters from College of Engg TVM..so have my share of TVM memories 🙂
Catherine says
Lovely and quite healthy. Blessings, Catherine
Meena Kumar says
Oh u are tempting me Swathi..I am ready for avilose podi anytime, churuttu is in my to do list too wish you try it first 🙂
Swathi says
You can try churuttu Meena, I will get a recipe then.
traditionallymodernfood says
Never heard about this. Healthy snack
Hema says
We have something similar to this too, thanks for sharing a traditional and healthy snack..