This one's for you Shiny.

To make sambar powder, all you need are the following ingredients.

Chana Dal: 2tbs
Urad Dal: 1 tbs
Coriander seeds: 2 tbs
Dried red chillies: five or six
cloves: a couple
Cinnamon: an inch long piece should be fine
Dried coconut (Copra)

Dry roast all the ingredients till the dals are a nice golden brown and you can smell the aroma. Turn of heat and if you have it add a tsp or two of popy seeds (khus khus). They will cook in the residual heat. Cool and grind.

The thing is you can make this powder everytime you want to make sambar in which case you can substitute dry coconut with fresh coconut; or, if you are anything like me and hate scrapping coconut in any form, leave it out altogether. Still tastes good and is healthier to boot. In anycase if you want to make it and store it for a while, then I suggest you omit th coconut.

Procedure for sambar: Boil toover/arhar dal with vegetables of your choice with a pinch of turmeric and salt. Once it has boiled add some tamarind/jaggery solution to it, add the sambar powder, more salt if you wish and let it come to a slow boil. Once done, you can temper it with mustard, curry leaves, hing and if you want peanuts.

The sambar powder is great to spice up your regular subzis too. Just cook your vegetables the way you like (veggies like capsicum, brinjal or a combination of those with potatoes work excellently). Once the vegies are done, add the sambar powder to them and cook for a few minutes. And, voila you have a great meal.

I also use this powder for the bisi bele huli anna which is nothing but sambar rice. In this case you can cook the rice and dal and vegetables together in the cooker and then follow the same procedure.

Enjoy. And I promise you the sambar powder and a personal demo on how to make it when I am in Delhi.