• Cook rice as you would normally either using a rice cooker or in a saucepan. Once it is done, spread the hot rice on a large serving plate and allow it to cool. Cooling the rice will allow the rice to be fluffy rather than clumpy at the end.

Prep the spice mix

• Using a small blender, make a fine paste of all the ingredients for the spice mix - fresh coconut, red chillies, tamarind paste, and mustard seeds. Use as little water as possible at this stage.

Make the Vaggarnae

• Heat the oil in a wide saucepan or kadai. Add mustard seeds and cover the pan. After the mustard seeds pop, remove the lid and add chana dal and urad dal. When the dals are a golden brown, add asafoetida (hing), curry leaves, and turmeric. This type of building a seasoning is called Vaggarnae. Add the spice mix to the vaggarnae.
• Cook the mix for about 10 minutes on a medium flame until the oil begins to separate. You can store the cooked spice mix and Vaggarnae in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Assemble the chitranna

• In a separate saucepan toast the peanuts in 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the cooked spice mix, peanuts and salt to the rice. Since the red chillies can be very spicy depending on the variety, I like to reserve some of the mix at this time.
• Toss well and check the salt and spice level. Add the rest of the spice mix if needed at this point and toss again. Serve hot.