PULI SADHAM / TAMARIND RICE–with stepwise pictures |Chitra's Foodbook

March 8, 2012

PULI SADHAM / TAMARIND RICE–with stepwise pictures

Puli sadham / Tamarind rice is loved by all. Its one of the best lunch box recipes..Ideal for travel too..With papad or vathal as accompaniment , it tastes divine!!
I would say my MIL makes the best puliodharai which i’ve tasted so far. Its taste would be equivalent to temple puliogare.(Kovil puliodharai). We r a big fan of her tamarind rice.Yesterday we made this for our trip to tirupathi. It was very flavorful and tasty.Though there are many varieties of pulikachal recipes in this blogosphere ,I wanted to share my version..I’ve tried to give the step by step pictures for beginners & bachelors.Thanks a to ton to my MIL for teaching me this wonderful keeper recipe..Please have a look at the “points to remember “ section before proceeding ..
INGREDIENTS for Puliogare paste.

Tamarind – Big lemon size
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
Hing / Asafetida – 3 generous pinches.
Salt – As needed
Powdered Jaggery – 1 tsp
Water – 3 cups

To temper:

Cooking oil – 2-3 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Urad dal –1 tsp
Channa dal – 2 tbsp
Red chillies – 10 nos (pinched..refer the picture)
Hing – 2 pinches.
Curry leaves – 1 sprig

To dry roast and grind:

Methi seeds – 1.5 tsp – Roast separately.

Channa dal – 1 tbsp}
Red chilly – 1 no}----------> Roast together.

METHOD

Soak tamarind in one cup of hot water for 20 mins . Extract the tamarind juice using 2 cups of water.Totally it comes to 3 cups of tamarind juice. Pinch red chillies and keep it ready for tempering.

Add the turmeric powder , salt , curry leaves and hing as give above. (everything should be raw)

In a kadai , dry roast the methi seeds till it crackles. Keep aside.

In the same kadai , dry roast channa dal and red chilly till golden brown.

Now powder the roasted methi seeds ,channa dal and red chilly to a coarse powder.Set aside. (just run the mixie once or twice)
Heat the kadai with 2 tbsp of cooking oil and temper all the items in the same order.

Then add the tamarind extract and allow it to boil for 10-15 mins or till the mixture reduces to half.It depends on the flame u keep.

After it reduced to half add the powdered jaggery , ground powder and allow it to boil..

As soon as u add the powder , gravy starts to thicken and bubbles arise with a gala gala sound. Please watch the video if u r interested.I hope most of u know this sound. This is for beginners & bachelors..My MIL says this is the important step to know the final stage of tamarind paste getting ready. So i thought of inserting a video here..

We call it salangai satham in tamil..Boil it for few seconds and switch off the flame..(Make sure the gravy is in semi solid consistency.Don’t allow it to boil much after adding the powder because the gravy would thicken and there would not be enough paste to mix in rice.. )

Allow it to cool down. Store in air tight container.

HOME MADE PULIKACHAL / PULIYOGARE PASTE IS READY..For the above measurements u can make 2-3 cups of tamarind rice for 5 people.

TAMARIND RICE

INGREDIENTS

Cooked rice – 2 cups
Tamarind paste – As needed
Sesame oil – 3 tbsp ( use as needed)

METHOD

Pressure cook the rice in the ratio of 1:2 if u use basmati rice,We always use steamed rice , so i add 2.5-3 cups of water. Add a tsp of oil in the rice before cooking to get the rice separate.
Take the cooked plain rice in a wide bowl and add sesame oil.
Add the puliogare paste little by little and mix well using a fork like ladle.
Enjoy with papad !!

POINTS TO REMEMBER

Raw curry leaves, hing and roasted methi seeds gives the flavor to puli sadham .So do not compromise in adding those ingredients. Please don’t forget to add raw curry leaves and hing in the tamarind extract as well as while tempering.That’s the imp step.
My MIL sometimes reserve a tsp of the roasted powder and adds at the end on the plain rice before mixing the paste.She says this gives an additional flavour. But this step is purely optional.
Always make the paste minimum one day in advance because it takes time to get all the taste blends into it.
The shelf life of the paste is 1 week without refrigeration. U can keep it for two weeks provided u reheat it every 3 days by adding little water.If refrigerated it stays good for a month too..
The taste of tamarind paste increases day by day..
U can try adding coriander seeds while roasting the channa dal and red chilly. It gives an additional flavour.But some people may not like this.
Also add the roasted peanuts in the end before switching off the flame if u wish to use it. We don’t like peanuts in tamarind rice,so i’ve not added it..
After mixing the paste and rice check for salt , add more if necessary.Add more sesame oil if it looks dry.
If u feel its too spicy for u , add more sesame oil and little salt to reduce the spiciness.Here i’ve given measurements for mild spiciness.That would be enough..
If u love to have more spicy rice , then add 2 more red chillies while roasting and powder it along with methi seeds and channa dal. .
Also to reduce the tanginess in tamarind paste, just pinch and roast more red chillies and add it to the paste , mix well and add it to the rice after some time.
Please prepare the tamarind rice at least one hour before serving.We should give some setting time for the rice to absorb all the taste in the paste.
When u make it for lunch box or travel , use ladle to mix the rice and paste . Please don’t use ur hands to mix it.Rice will spoil quickly.
Vadagam or vathal would be the best accompaniment for puli sadham. My mom makes a thogayal with fried gram dal /pottukadalai. I’ll post it soon. It goes well for tamarind & lemon rice.