Peel and clean the garlic cloves. Give each clove a smash and keep it aside.
Heat about ½ teaspoon of oil in a pan and add the thuvaram paruppu. You could roast the dal without any oil as well but amma told me that the powder might become too dry when ground and asked me to use a few drops of oil. Fry the dal until it is golden brown. Remove it on a wide bowl or plate.
In the same pan, add the dalia/roasted gram and fry it as well. This takes very little time to roast, hence keep stirring and remove it as soon as it starts to change color. Add it to the same bowl that we have the dal.
Next add couple of drops of oil and fry the red chilies and black pepper. It is important to add a bit of oil here as it might smoke a lot without oil. Fry them until they become aromatic and changes color. Remove it and add it to the bowl along with the rest of the ingredients.
Add the remaining ¼ teaspoon of oil and fry the cleaned and smashed garlic cloves until it is golden brown in color. Remove it from pan and place it separately to cool down.
Now to the same pan add the salt and give it a quick roast. Remove it with the rest of ingredients.
Let all the ingredients cool down to room temperature and then transfer it to the blender jar.
I ground the dal mixture first until it was coarsely powdered and then added the garlic cloves and ground it until smooth.
Remove it from the blender jar to a wide bowl and let it cool down again for about ½ hour and then transfer it to an airtight container.
Serve the Poondu Paruppu Podi with steaming hot rice and a drizzle of gingelly oil.