Wash the little millet and cook them in your preferred way. I used my rice cooker to cook the millet. I used 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of little millet.
Once cooked, let it cool.
Heat about one tsp of gingelly oil in a kadai, and once the oil is hot, dry roast pepper, channa dal, urad dal, red chilly until the urad dal turns golden brown.
Let this mixture cool and grind into a coarse powder.
Add this fresh ground powder and salt to the cooked millet.
Before mixing, do the tempering. Heat a small pan or kadai and add the remaining one tsp of gingelly oil.
Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.
As the mustard seeds start to splutter, add it to the millet.
Now mix the millet, spice mix, and the tempering together.
That's it. Milagu Orai is ready. Serve hot with chutney or gothsu.
Notes
You can replace millet with quinoa or rice. And also you can use your preferred millet. Red chilli is optional. We personally felt the spice from pepper was more than sufficient. But adjust the salt and spice as per your preference. If required ghee can be included. Tempering can be done after mixing the millet and spice mix too.Adapted from Traditional Iyengar Cooking