Tamarind Rice Recipe

Tamarind rice or Puliogare (Kannnada) or Puliyodharai (Tamil)  is popular in South India. It is a well known traditional South Indian Tamil Brahmin recipe. Tamarind or imli gives this dish a tangy flavor.Making tamarind rice is not as togh as it sounds, instead it's very easy once you have all the required ingredients. It can be prepared for lunch or dinner

Preparation Time - 10 minutes

Cooking Time - 10 minutes

Ingredients

For Tamarind Pickle (makes 2 cups, can be stored in fridge)

• 50 grams deseeded Tamarind.
• 1 cup warm Water
• 4 Dried Red Chilli
• 1/2 Tsp Black Mustard Seeds (Rai)
• 1/2 Tbsp Chana Dal (brown chickpea lentil)
• 1/2 Tbsp Urad Dal (split black gram)
• 1 tsp Jaggery (or sugar)
• 2 Tbsp Salt (as per to taste)
• pinch of  Hing (asafoetida)
• 1 Sprig of Curry Leaves
• 3-4 Tbsp Vegetable oil

For the Tamarind Rice

• 2 cup steamed rice
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 Tbsp roasted Peanuts

Method

To make the sauce

1. Soak tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes.
2. Squeeze out all the pulp into the water and discard the remains.
3. Dry roast fenugreek (methi) seeds and coarsely grind it.
4. Heat Vegetable Oil and add the Hing powder. Let that fry for 30 seconds. 
5. Add Dried Red Chillies dry roast till brown and raosted.
6. Add the Chana Dal & Urad Dal & fry until the dals turn golden brown.
7. Add curry leaves & turmeric powder. Add the tamarind extract water & mix well.
8. Add the salt,hing powder, jaggery (or sugar)
9. Let the mixture boil & reduce by half .
10. Add the ground Methi (fenugreek) seeds
11. Mix well and continue to boil.
12. Let the mixture cook until it has reduced and become a thick paste
13. Store in air tight container in the fridge for upto 3 months

To make the Tamarind Rice

1. Cook rice. Cool the rice by spreading it all over a large plate & mixing some oil in it. This helps to cool it faster while also ensuring it doesn’t form lumps.
2. Once the rice is cool, add enough tamarind pickle (pulikkachal). Mix well without breaking the rice.
3. Add roasted peanuts, if you want.
4. For additional flavor, roast coriander seeds & dry red chilli & Grind to a powder
5. Add this powder to the rice. Mix well & serve.
6. This is the kind of rice that tastes better & better as it has time to rest & absorb all that flavor from the pickle.
7. Serve hot garnished with ghee and coriander or with papad.