Making your own indian spice blend

[xsquared]

Probably a niche question, but I want to make a gunpowder podi recipe similar to this one, which uses two types of daal.

It doesn't say anywhere in the recipe whether the daal needs to be rinsed and dried beforehand. I assume that if you rinse it, you would need to dry it out as well before roasting them, therefore adding time to making it.

Also, I don't have a spice grinder, so will a coffee bean grinder produce similar results?

Thanks.

Coffee grinder will be fine.

Not sure about washing daal. I generally only rinse it prior to cooking but you want to grind it.

I learned to cook dhal in Sri Lanka. The chef, who taught me, recommended rinsing the lentils and then soaking for anhour in cold water before cooking.

Coffee grinder will be fine but be warned you can only use it for spices thereafter! Or spiced coffee.

Not sure what recipe you’re talking about but why would you need to dry lentils before roasting them? Wouldn’t roasting dry them out? Spread thinly and put in a not-too-hot oven?

I disagree with this, use a coffee grinder for spices and poppy seeds and the poppy seeds never tasted of spices. I wipe it clean with a paper towel after use. (and just realised how wasteful that is and that I could just use the normal kitchen towel.)

Forgot to include recipe,

https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/gun-powder/.

Well, I'm asking whether one would need to dry them after rinsing, because of you try to roast them while it is very wet, then you would be steaming rather than roasting them.

A coffee grinder will be fine for the spices.

Do you need to also grind the lentils? I assume you do. You may find that doing the lentils in bulk is quite an ask for a coffee grinder, but you could give it a try in small batches.

Yes, I would wash and dry the lentils. I’d probably do them the day before or in the morning and spread on a towel to dry.

That recipe is great. Gunpowder sounds like the perfect name! Yes I would rinse and dry and then “roast” (really the recipe means dry fry). I don’t think roasting in an oven would achieve the same result. I’d also do the grinding in a nutribullet type of blender, if you have one. Coffee grinders tend to be quite small.

I wouldn't bother washing lentils before roasting them

I use recipes from that website a lot and mostly you are told to wash the lentils well, so if this recipe doesn't tell you to do so it's probably because it's not necessary