Udhaiyam

Udhaiyam / Lakshmi Palm Candy is panangkalkandu — crystallised palm sugar in irregular amber lumps, 200g.

It is the traditional South Indian sweetener: less sharply sweet than white sugar, with a faint caramel and palm note. It is stirred into hot milk and filter coffee, dropped into herbal kashayam and ginger decoctions, used in payasam and other festival sweets, and offered during pooja. Many households simply keep a jar and let people take a piece after a meal.

The crystals dissolve more slowly than granulated sugar — crush the larger lumps first if you are adding them to a cold drink. Store in a dry, airtight jar away from moisture.

Udhaiyam Mixed Lentils is a blend of several dals in one pack, for the mixed dal that many households cook when no single lentil is quite what they want. Cooked together the different lentils give a dal with more body than a single-pulse one: some break down and thicken the pot while others stay whole.

Best for

• Mixed dal, panchmel-style
• Dal khichdi
• Thick lentil soups and stews

How to cook it

Rinse several times until the water runs clear and soak for at least an hour, which matters more here than with a single dal because the lentils in the mix cook at different rates and soaking evens them out. Pressure cook with three parts water to one part lentils for four or five whistles, then let the pressure drop by itself. Mash lightly against the side of the pot, adjust the consistency with hot water, and finish with a tempering of cumin, garlic, dried chilli and ghee.

Pack and storage

500g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container.

Pack of 2 × Udhaiyam Idly Rice 1kg.

Udhaiyam Mung Dal is split green gram with the skin removed, leaving small flat yellow grains. It cooks faster than almost any other dal, needs no soaking, and breaks down into a smooth pale-gold purée with a mild, clean flavour that never fights the tempering.

Best for

• Khichdi and ven pongal
• Everyday yellow dal and light broths
• Kosambari, payasam and sweet dishes

How to cook it

Rinse two or three times until the water runs clear. Pressure cook one cup with two and a half to three cups of water for three whistles, or simmer it uncovered for about twenty-five minutes, skimming the foam that rises early on. For a fuller, nuttier flavour, dry-roast the dal in a pan until it smells toasty before cooking — worth doing for pongal. Temper at the end with ghee, cumin, asafoetida and green chilli.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Udhaiyam Soya Chunks are dried textured soya pieces that swell to around three times their size once soaked, turning spongy and firm with a bite close to minced meat. They carry almost no flavour of their own, which is the point — they take on whatever masala you cook them in.

Best for

• Soya chunk curry and kurma
• Biryani and pulao in place of meat
• Dry stir-fries, kebabs and keema-style fillings

How to cook it

Drop the chunks into boiling salted water, take the pan off the heat and leave them five to ten minutes until soft all the way through. Drain, rinse under cold water and squeeze each one firmly — most of the raw, beany smell leaves with that water, so rinse and squeeze twice if you notice it. Squeeze them properly dry before frying, then brown them in oil alongside the onions so they pick up colour before the gravy goes in.

Pack and storage

500g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Udhaiyam Mung Chilka is split green gram with the skin on, providing a richer flavour and more fibre than skinless mung dal. Ideal for nutritious dals, khichdi and Bengali moong preparations.

• Split green gram with skin for added nutrition
• Richer flavour than skinless split mung
  

Udhaiyam Green Mung Beans are whole green gram — small olive-green beans with the skin intact. They cook softer than most whole pulses while still holding their shape, and have a mild, faintly sweet, grassy flavour that takes a tempering well. The 2kg bag is the one to reach for if you sprout or cook them weekly.

Best for

• Sprouting for salads and sundal
• Whole green gram curry and pachai payaru
• Soups, stews and thick dal finished with coconut

How to cook it

Soak six to eight hours, or overnight, before cooking. Pressure cook one cup with two and a half cups of water for four to five whistles — the beans should give under a spoon without collapsing. To sprout them, soak eight hours, drain thoroughly, then leave them tied in a damp cloth somewhere warm for a day or two, rinsing once a day. Finish cooked beans with mustard seeds, curry leaves and grated coconut.

Pack and storage

2kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Udhaiyam Jaggery Powder is unrefined cane sugar in granulated form, so it measures and dissolves like sugar instead of needing to be chipped off a solid block. The colour runs from gold to dark brown and the taste is deeper and more caramel-like than white sugar, which is why it is used where that flavour is wanted rather than simply for sweetness.

Best for

• Payasam, kheer and chakkarai pongal
• Sweets such as ladoo, halwa and adhirasam
• Balancing sourness in sambar, rasam and tamarind gravies

How to cook it

Dissolve it in a little hot water and strain before adding it to milk-based sweets, as jaggery can carry fine sediment and will split hot milk if added dry. Add it at the end of cooking rather than the start, and take the pot off the boil first. In savoury cooking a small piece stirred into a tamarind gravy rounds off the sourness without making the dish sweet.

Pack and storage

1kg jar. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Jaggery draws moisture from the air, so keep the jar closed or the powder will cake.

Udhaiyam Roasted Rava is a premium pre-roasted semolina made from durum wheat, ideal for making idli, upma, rava dosa and halwa. Pre-roasting ensures a nutty aroma and prevents lumping during cooking.

• Pre-roasted for enhanced nutty flavour
• Perfect for upma, rava idli, rava dosa and sweets
  

Udhaiyam Asafoetida Powder, or hing, is a pungent resin powder used in tiny quantities at the start of a dish. Straight from the jar the smell is sharp and off-putting; fried in hot oil for a second or two it turns savoury and rounded, and that transformation is the entire reason it is used.

Best for

• Tempering for dal, sambar and rasam
• Vegetable poriyal and kootu
• Pickles, and cooking for households that avoid onion and garlic

Using it

A pinch is the measure, not a spoon. Add it to the hot oil after the mustard seeds have popped and before anything else goes in, and move quickly, because it burns within seconds and turns acrid. In dishes cooked without onion or garlic it does much of the savoury work on its own. Keep the jar tightly shut and stored on its own, as the aroma will get into anything nearby.

Pack and storage

50g jar. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Udhaiyam Mini Soya Chunks are the small-format textured soya pieces, granule-sized rather than the large chunks. Because they are small they rehydrate in minutes and take on the flavour of a gravy more readily, and they fold into a dish where a full-size chunk would sit awkwardly.

Best for

• Soya keema and stuffed paratha filling
• Curries, pulao and biryani
• Stir-fries, cutlets and kebabs

How to cook it

Pour boiling salted water over the chunks and leave them for eight to ten minutes until soft, then drain and, importantly, squeeze them out firmly between your palms; the water they hold is what otherwise dilutes the whole dish. Some cooks rinse and squeeze twice. Add them once the masala base is fried and the oil has separated, so they absorb the flavour rather than dampening it, and cook a further five minutes.

Pack and storage

500g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container.

Udhaiyam Roasted Chana, also called daria or pottukadalai, is pre-roasted split chickpeas that go into a dish exactly as they come out of the pack. The 1kg size suits a kitchen that makes chutney often, since a spoonful goes into almost every batch of South Indian coconut chutney.

Best for

• Coconut and tomato chutney for idli, dosa and vada
• Ladoo and other sweets, once ground to flour
• Sundal, snack mixes and plain snacking

How to cook it

Nothing needs cooking or soaking. In chutney, grind a couple of tablespoons along with the coconut and chilli, adding water slowly, because the chana keeps absorbing and a chutney that looks right in the jar will be too thick ten minutes later. Ground fine and sieved, it becomes the flour for ladoo. Whole, it adds crunch to a mixture or a salad.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container so they stay crisp.

Udhaiyam Roasted Chana, sold as daria or pottukadalai, is split chickpeas that have already been roasted, so they need no cooking at all. They are dry, crisp and mild, and in South Indian cooking they do a job no other ingredient does: ground into chutney, they thicken it without water and without cooking.

Best for

• Coconut chutney for idli and dosa
• Ladoo and sweets, ground to flour
• Snack mixtures, sundal and eating plain by the handful

How to cook it

For chutney, grind two tablespoons with coconut, green chilli and a little water; add it a spoon at a time, as it thickens quickly and is hard to loosen again without thinning the flavour. For ladoo, grind it to a fine flour first and sieve out the coarse bits. It needs no roasting or soaking, so it can go straight into a mixture or on top of a dish for crunch.

Pack and storage

500g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container so they stay crisp.

Udhaiyam Special Long Appalam is the Tamil Nadu papad, made from urad dal flour and rolled into the longer, narrower shape the name refers to. It comes uncooked and hard, and it puffs and crisps in seconds in hot oil. Appalam is salty and plain enough to sit beside any meal without competing with it.

Best for

• Rice and sambar, or rice and rasam
• A South Indian thali or sadya
• Crumbling over curd rice

How to cook it

To fry, heat oil until a small piece sizzles immediately, slide one appalam in, and press it flat with a slotted spoon; it will puff and turn pale in three or four seconds. Lift it out before it colours, because an appalam that has gone brown has gone bitter. To roast instead, hold it over an open flame with tongs, turning constantly, until it blisters all over. Drain fried ones on paper and serve straight away, as they soften as they sit.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. They are brittle, so keep the pack somewhere it will not be crushed.