Puliodharai/Pulisadham is a South Indian delicacy prepared from Tamarind and Rice. There are many variations to this recipe. The most popular one is the Iyengar puliodharai which is served as Prasadham in almost all Vaishnava temples.
The sourness from Tamarind, the fresh aroma from sesame oil, coriander seeds and curry leaves enhance flavour to this dish. Though it is bit elaborate I can guarentee you it tastes so delicious and well worth your time. The whole process takes minimum 30-45 minutes.
“Pulikaichal” or Tamarind paste is the base of this recipe. Once the paste is ready you can mix it with rice and serve it. The paste stays good for upto 10 days without even storing it in refrigerator.
Notes :
– If you find the Pulikachal paste too spicy then add some salt, water, jaggery powder and let it boil for 10 more minutes.
– Depending on the variety of Tamarind, Red chilli you use the color of the Pulikachal paste might differ
– Sesame oil works best in this recipe. However if you dont have sesame oil at home,you can substitue with any other oil.(Vegetable or Sunflower oil)
– If you dont have peanuts you can substitute it with cashewnuts
– Start adding paste to rice little by little. For one cup of cooked rice you will need 3 or 4 spoonful of this Paste.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 45 minutes |
| Servings |
cup
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- 50 gms tamarind orange size tamarind...Soak it in 2 cups of warm water for 30 minutes
- 4 tbsps sesame oil
- 1/4 cup Roasted Peanuts
- 12 Dried Red Chillies If the variety you use is spicier then decrease the quantity
- 4 tbsps Channa Dal
- 2 tbsps Fenugreek Seeds
- 4 tbsps Coriander Seeds
- 2 tbsps Sesame Seeds
- 2 tbsps Mustard Seeds
- 2 tbsps urad dal
- 3 tbsps salt
- 1 tsp hing/Asafetida perungayam
- curry leaves
Ingredients
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|
- Heat a frying pan and dry roast fenugreek seeds separately and make it to a fine powder. Keep it aside. Dont add oil while roasting.
- In the same pan roast corriander seeds, sesame seeds together and make it to a corase powder. Keep it aside.
- Clean the soaked tamarind completely and make sure there aren't any seeds or other dust. I always add tamarind as well as the extracted pulp. This helps in achieving the perfect consistency of Pulikachal.
- Heatsesame oil and add mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal. Let it splutter. Then add red chillies,curry leaves. Saute for a minute or two in medium flame.
- Add 1/2 cup roasted peanuts.Saute it for 2-3 minutes approximately
- Now add the extracted tamarind water, along with pulp (புளி கரைசல் + புளி).. Generally while making sambar or rasam, we discard the Tamarind and use only its water. However in this recipe we need both
- Add salt and 1/4 cup of water.Reduce the flame to low and let this mixture boil for about 25 minutes.
- Then add coriander seeds+sesameseeds powder, Hing(perungayam) to this mixture.
- After some time you can see the puliodharai paste starts getting separated from the oil.
- This is the right indication that the paste is ready. You can feel a nice aroma too.
- Turn off the flame and now add the Fenugreek powder (vendhaya podi).This should be added only at the end.
- My mother-in-law adds little bit of jaggery to compensate the spicy,tangy nature of this dish. It is optional.
- Now mix this paste with hot white rice and serve it with Pappad or aviyal. This puliodharai paste itself is an excellent side dish for curd rice.
