Pulihora, also known as Puliyodharai or Puliyogare, Puli sadham In South India, Tamarind Rice is a very common traditional South Indian Rice recipe. Puli means “Tangy” In South Indian language.
Preparations of the Tamarind Paste Or the Rice is made out of tamarind extracts added with grounded spices, lentils, peanuts and they are cooked in oil, preferably sesame oil and curry leaves in it.
It’s prepared as paste or as powder (podi) and it’s often pre-made at home In most of the Southern part of India.
It’s cooked on special occasions on household during festivities and also its served as Prasadam – In most of the temple In South india.
Pulikaichal is a thick paste required to make Puliyodharai/Tamarind Rice/Puliyogare as discussed earlier, and is a feast In Tamil Nadu. It’s also called Indian Pickle.
It’s Iyengar style Pulikaichal/Tamarind Paste. It is not difficult and i am going to explain how to make it, in a traditional and easy way. Without further delay let us look into the recipe below.
INGREDIENTS:
Tamarind- 1 big lemon size.
Turmeric powder-1/2 teaspoon
Salt – as required.
Gingely/Sesame oil- 1/4 cup
Mustard- 3/4 teaspoon
Urad dal- 1 teaspoon
Chana dal-1 teaspoon
Red chilies-2
Peanuts- 2 tablespoon
Curry leaves- an arch
Asafetida- 1/2 teaspoon
Fenugreek Powder (Roasted)- a pinch – ( For add on Preservative for Shelf life)
FOR GRINDING: (This is for a little larger quantity of one whole jar)
Chana dal- 3 tablespoon
Urad dal- 2 tablespoon
Coriander seeds- 2 tablespoon
Kashmiri Red Chili-5-6
Fenugreek seeds-1/4 teaspoon
START:
- Soak Tamarind in water and take the extract of the tamarind juice and keep them aside.
- Let us start the Grinding items now. In a pan add 2 teaspoons of oil from the measured oil (1/4 cup) Then fry the red chilies first and keep them aside. Then in the same pan fry the other ingredients mentioned and then allow them to cool down and then dry grind them together with chilies.
- Then add the oil to the same pan,add the tempering items including curry leaves., add the tamarind water. Make sure you keep the flame low as this splutters the oil out. Then add salt and turmeric and asafetida powder.
- Then allow it to boil for 6 minutes. And then keep the flame low and then add the grounded spice powder. And keep stirring in between and cook this for 15 minutes on low flame.The oil oozes and separates on the side if you notice. Some people like to add 1 teaspoon of Jaggery powder at last, but, I personally don’t prefer to add them. Instead, I add the home made preservative for that i roast fenugreek on dry pan and then grind them to a fine powder and store it. This is what i use it at last as a pinch as adding too much of it will make the Pulikaichal bitter.
- Spicy and Yummy Pulikaichal is ready. This is ready to mix with rice to make Tamarind Rice.So this can be consumed with Curd rice or idly or dosa too. This Tamarind Rice which is Puliyodharai / Puliyogare is usually consumed with Potato Fry and Vathal vaddam and Applam ( Indian fritters)
NOTE:
- Some would like to add sesame seeds to it. That’s an option.
- Some would like to add desicated coconut. I don’t like that for longer shelf life.
- Shelf life for this can be stores in cool dry place in the kitchen counter for 4 weeks, provided you add the fenugreek powder at the end as preservative. If not in refrigerator or freezer for 2 months.
- I also have the Tamarind Paste rice in My instagram as Igtv Video and as well reels, do check them out if interested.
For any doubts and queries comment below or e-mail me. I will be more happy to respond.
The Homemade cooking 