Tamarind Rice or Puliyogare
This is tangy and crunchy South Indian rice dish. The beauty of the dish comes from the simplicity of spices used in it. I personally never eat this with any curry as it takes away from the dish so Curd and Papad are the best accompaniments with it. Make this as a Sunday meal and I am sure your family will relish it!!
 |
| Pic Source : Check out Blend with Spices |
Ingredients for Cooking
- 350 gms Surti kolam rice
- 50 gms Dabur Tamarind paste
- 1 tsp Haldi
- 25 gms white sesame seeds
- 60 gms peanuts
- 15-20 ml Oil
- Salt to taste
Ingredients for Tempering
- 12 gms Chana dal
- 12 gms Dhuli Urad dal
- 12 gms Mustard seeds
- 5 Dry Red chillies deseeded
- 3 Green chillies slit
- 15 Curry leaves
- ½ tsp Heeng
Cooking time
- 1 hour
Serves
- 3-4 people(can serve on Banana leaf)
Best eaten with
- Curd and fried papad
Method
- Wash and soak rice for 20 minutes.
- After soaking rice for 20 minutes boil water in a pan. Add haldi and salt to boiling water and cook the soaked rice till 90% done. This is done to avoid overcooking the rice and making it too soft.
- Once rice is cooked, drain the water out of the rice and spread it on plate to let it cool. This prevents rice from sticking to each other. If rice sticks to one another then it not let the masala seep fully into the rice and the dish will also not look attractive
- In another pan roast sesame seeds without oil. When light brown cool a bit and grind it into a coarse powder and keep aside. If the quantity is small for grinding in mixer then do this on chakla belan but in doing so the sesame seeds will leave oil so as an alternative make a bigger amount of Sesame seed powder and store it
- Roast peanuts in little oil in another pan till slightly brown and crunchy and keep this aside
- Heat oil in another kadhai and add chana dal and urad dal and let it brown. Once brown add mustard seeds to it and let it pop. Once it pops lower the flame and add dry red chillies, green chillies slit, curry leaves. Cook for 1 minute. From this mixture remove 1/3rdmixture for the final garnishing of the rice once ready and rest 2/3rduse as mentioned below
- To the rest 2/3rdmixture add tamarind paste(mixed with a little water for mixing well), Sesame powder, Methi powder(if using), heeng and simmer for 3-4 minutes
- Now add cooled rice and salt to the above mixture and mix well. Mix the roasted peanuts to it as well
- Serve hot with the left over 1/3rdCrunchy topping(I consumed Coriander chutney and curd with this meal and it was WOW!!!!)
Important notes
- I have omitted Fenugreek as I find its taste too overwhelming please feel free to add ½ tsp of methi powder to the recipe if you like. Make sure you do not add more fenugreek powder to rice as it’s a strong spice and can make food bitter
- Please note that we should avoid using a basmati rice for this. A regular Kolam works best for this dish as it holds the flavour of dish better than basmati.
- It’s important to use a good tamarind paste as it forms a very important part of the dish. If you make a homemade tamarind pulp soaking the imli seeds the taste might not be as enticing as when you use a tamarind paste from a company
- If the haldi is added later during cooking and not while boiling it will not make a difference to taste of food but take away from the color of the dish. Rice absorbs the yellow color of haldi best while boiling
- Incase you find the rice less tangy feel free to increase the tamarind paste
- Since the dish has tamarind which due to its acidic nature prevents it from getting spoilt it is a good travel dish as well
