Wash the flattened rice thoroughly and drain the water. Now sprinkle ¼ cup of water and let it sit for 8 to 10 minutes. A minimum of 5 minutes is sufficient.
When the flattened rice is resting, gather the other ingredients and prepare the tempering. Heat a tempering pan or ladle and add the ghee. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chopped green chili, and ginger when it's hot. When the mustard seeds splutter, turn off the heat.
Add the chopped cucumber, yogurt, prepared tempering, grapes, coconut, salt, and sugar. Gently mix.
Now add milk if using and mix well.
That's it. Gopalkala is ready.
Notes
Adjust the salt, sugar and green chili, and ginger to taste.
I did not include asafoetida, cilantro, or curry leaves. You can add a pinch of asafoetida, 1 tbsp of chopped cilantro, and few curry leaves.
Add more water or yogurt instead of milk. Adjust the yogurt measure as per your consistency preference. Poha slowly absorbs all the liquid, so adding milk helped the poha from drying out.
Tips for getting perfect thayir aval-
Do not soak the poha. Wash and sprinkle water. Let it sit for 5 minutes and at a maximum of 10 minutes but not more than that.
Do not overmix the poha; also, mix it very gently. Soaked poha tends to break, but when you overmix, it becomes a mush.