Its been ages since I made Puliyodharai (Tamarind Rice, Puliyogare, Pulihora etc etc ) – in the authentic traditional way. Actually echoing my better half’s smart pants comment ‘In fact I don’t remember having made it at all!’ (#$#). Have to say, its not true – I do recall making this couple of years ago and then gave up cos for me it was hassle! Prepare the spiced tamarind paste and then mix it with rice and temper it with few more spices and blah and blah some more! Well, I don’t call myself lazy without reason. For those who thought “What, its not that difficult?!!!” – well its not in the strictest sense. I will tell how.

When you have a remarkable cook for a mother – it can be a boon as well as a sore point! She is so good that she measures through her instincts!

(Frantic phone call) – *ringggg….”
Mum: “Hello?..”
Me: “mom…..its meeeeeee!”
Mum: ” Tell me sweetie…”
Me: ” I am thinking of making this  (traditional recipe)..give me measurements…”
Mum: “Oh thats easy – take bengal gram, take rice, take…. (6 more things), cook (this and that) this way, make sure that it cooks well and reddens nicely, grind that – the house should be filled with aroma at this point..and serve it(in some manner)
Me: (all excited) wow! sounds great – now give me the recipe, I will write it down.
Mum: “What were you doing all this while I was telling you the recipe???????????”
Me: (flabbergasted) but..but..you told me the directions – you did not give me the measurements!! How much of each should I use…
Mum: (hesitating)..aaah! Cant you figure it out while you are cooking??? mmm..Let me try – Take a handful of (3 ingredients), pinch of (2 more ingredients), you can eye ball (the remaining 3). I just put it while cooking! Who knows all these measurements..
Me: ………………………………
Mum: “What happened? Are you still around?”
Me: “What in God’s name am I supposed to say? How am I going to make this if you dont give me proper measurements?!!!!!! Its your duty as a mom to give me correct measurements!”
Mum: “And it was your duty as a daughter to learn cooking when I asked you zillion times to!!! Working was a convenient excuse then, now see this is what happens…..”
Me: “…………………………”
Mum: “…………………………”

And this is how our conversation ends (or carries on if topic changes…;)) Only God knows how with all her “handful”, “pinch”, “dash” measurements, her dishes always turn out to be mindbogglingly delicious! My “pinch” and “dash” only results in making throwing away the dishes a “cinch” and getting me verbal “bash”es!

Hence blindly making the Tamarind paste was not in my ‘to-do list’. But with Pongal festival making an appearance soon, I thought of trying it again and this time, my mom instead of giving me her dashes and pinches recipe – gave me a recipe from a famous cook who specializes in Iyengar cooking for marriages. Iyengar community specializes in this rice and is famous among South Indians (and few North Indians too!!) There are like 100,000 variations of this rice and this is one among many! Again she included elements of the eyeballing – though I have tried to work around it and given you measurements – I would appreciate if you could use your discretion while making this recipe. But I have to warn you – this is a cholesterol heaven (or should it be hell?!) and if you think the measurement of the oil that I gave is typo – no it isn’t. In fact I have tried to be conservative here!

Other South Indian Rice recipes: Lemon Rice, Kadambam Rice,  Bisibela Bath, Ven(Khara) Pongal, Hyderabad Biryani

Method
Soak the tamarind in 2  cups of hot water for around 30 minutes.

Take this in a food processor

and process it few times until it becomes thick

Strain this mixture to discard any lumps. The result should be a thick paste – if it is too thick for the strainer, add a little more of hot water, give it a whirl in your processor and strain again. The consistency should neither be too thick nor too watery.

Meanwhile make the powder. Dry roast the coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds seperately (or red chillies if you are using. I did not)

Grind them seperately.

Until ground fine. Mix them together and store them in a plastic container. They keep well and are handy while making the rice. Use this powder carefully. Too much of it will give a bitter taste to the dish.

Note:

You can alternativly grind only little of these (seperately, of course) at the time of making the rice and add it towards the end since the aroma that this imparts to the dish is mind blowing. But take care, esp. with fenugreek seeds powder since it can give a bitter taste if added even a little bit in excess. I followed this method and grind it only as and when needed! I don’t make this that often to require making a large amount or storage.

Now lets make the paste. Take a skillet and add the oil. Add the red chillies, then mustard seeds and then bengal gram.

Note:

I had some oil warming on the side hence added just a little to temper and then added the oil in the next step. It was simply for my own convinience and is not done this way. I am saying it since I wanted to explain the obvious lack of lots of oil in this picture

Next add the Tamarind water(or sauce!)

Now starts the slow cooking process. Keep the heat at simmer and let it cook. You know its done when the raw smell of the tamarind is gone, the water reduces and thickens into a paste like consistancy and the oil oozes out on the surfaces. You can at the point do two things optionally -  add 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds or the powder. This is to give it more aroma. The recipe given my mom did not do this.

remove from heat, cool it well and store it in a glass container. Keeps very well for a loooong (!!) time and requires only a wee little bit (depending upon your taste) at a time to be mixed in the rice.

Note

The more solid the Tamarind paste , lesser is the amount required to be mixed. If you make sure to keep the paste within the oil, then it would last longer. If your mixture is dry, then it naturally reduces its shelf life. Use it sooner in that case.

To prepare the rice, in 1 tsp of oil, temper the lentils, along with red chillies and curry leaves (or you can use fresh without tempering in oil) and then add in the peanuts and cashew (you can roast them seperately too).

Meanwhile cool the rice on a plate. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil and the required Tamarind Paste along with the tempered ingredients. Add the powder in pinches along with little salt. Adjust the powder and salt according to your tastes. Mix until well combined and serve

These are mostly served with Papads and Chips

This dish is nothing and devoid of its famous flavor is not for Sesame oil and this I thought it would make an acceptable entry for Priya’s Cooking with Seeds Event with theme Sesame Seeds.

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