Sakinala podi, a traditional tea-time snack made of sakinalu, onion and green chilies and served in powder form. This snack is quite popular in Telangana, and is often made after Makara Sankranthi or when you have a great amount of sakinalu to finish.
When Makar Sankranthi arrives, every household in Telangana prepares various Pindi vantalu, and among them, Sakinalu holds a special place. These SAKINALU, are a crunchy deep-fried delicious snack. The traditional recipe of Sakinalu typically calls for rice, carom seeds, sesame seeds, and salt for seasoning. These are so precious that in Telangana, we gift to the groom’s family during the wedding.
Why these Sakinalu are a traditional snack of Telangana?
Sakinalu is a classic and traditional snack that has origins in Telangana. And this snack is still thriving for the past many centuries in Telangana. Making sakinalu is an art, as it requires the skill to stretch and shape the wet dough. Hence these sakinalu are so valuable that we offer this snack to the Groom family during the wedding and the Saare ceremony.
Now whenever we prepare sakinalu or food for special occasions, we revere Lord Ganesha and Gowri Devi. While preparing sakinalu we make a small idol of Maa Gowri and Pilla Gowramma(I.e., Lord Ganesha). And later adorn these idols with Pasupu and Kumkuma(Haldi, Kumkum) and we pray for the well-being of the family. After that, we prepare the first sakinam around the idols and then later made it for everyone.
The idols of Gowramma thalli and Vinayaka, and the sakinam rolled around the idol aren’t supposed to be cooked. As we revere these idols, so we place them at the foot of the Tulsi plant/ any tree after cooking the remaining sakinalu.
Why we make Sakinala podi?
Now you may wonder why take an extra effort to make podi, when you can devour this traditional snack as is!! So here is the answer, looking at the below picture you can totally see that sakinalu are crispy and hard. The elders and younger kids at home may have difficulty chewing these, hence they came up with a plan so anyone who have trouble chewing hard foods can have this food to their heart content.
So just powdering sakinalu isn’t enough, because foods in form of powder lead to choking when you inhale air while consuming. There has to be enough moisture so one can eat without any difficulty. Hence this ingenious idea of adding onion came to the rescue, which not only adds enough moisture to the sakinala podi, yet also gives this perfect spicy punch in every single bite.
How to make Sakinala podi?
Traditionally the sakinalu are pounded in a big mortar and pestle until they resemble pea size crumbs. Later roughly chopped onion, slit green chilies and sprinkle of salt is added, and again pounded until the podi resembles breadcrumbs consistency.
But you can always use the easy method by using the blender and the process remains the same. First we need to make divide the sakinalu into 2 inch pieces, blend into pea-size crumbs. Now add roughly chopped onions, slit green chilies(optional) and a pinch of salt. Blend this mixture again until it resembles breadcrumbs consistency. Now let’s get into the recipe.
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SAKINALA PODI
Equipment
- Mortar and pestle
Ingredients
- 20 no Sakinalu
- ¼ cup Onion roughly chopped
- 2 no Green chili optional
Instructions
Using mortar-pestle
- Roughly break the sakinalu, each into 4-5 pieces. Add these sakinalu into mortar, and start pounding them using the pestle until it resembles pea-size crumbs.
- Now add in roughly chopped onions, slit green chilies(if using) and pound again until everything resembles the breadcrumbs texture.
Using blender
- Roughly break the sakinalu, each into 4-5 pieces. Add these sakinalu into the blender jar and blend until it resembles pea-size crumbs.
- Now add in roughly chopped onions, slit green chilies(if using) and blend again until everything resembles the breadcrumbs texture.
Serving suggestions
- You can make the sakinala podi ahead and refrigerate upto week. Serve the sakinala podi as tea time snack.
If you’ve tried this recipe and loved it, I’d love to hear your feedback. Please leave your valuable feedback as a comment below. Tag your photo and share it with #mycurryveda on Instagram @mycurryveda or on Facebook . Also follow @taste.of.telangana on Instagram for more traditional recipes, culture and stories.
