Tamarind Rice / Puliogare

I was gifted Chandra Padmanabhan's Southern Spice by a colleague in Hyderabad whose exact words when she handed it to me were 'when I saw the paniyarams on the cover, I thought of you' (Thanks Pragi!!). I am quite glad people think of me when they see delicious food, quite flattering :D Anyway, the book has many authentic South Indian recipes. I am not good with reviews and don't normally read them either. The reason being, I get very biased and it clouds my actual feelings towards something.

I did read about her first book Dakshin on Jugalbandi and since they weren't too pleased with it, I was already judging the recipes before I even tried anything (Don't start judging me now!) I have already tried a few recipes from the book, and this is the first in the series.

Chandra Padmanabhan has titled this recipe 'Avasara Puliogare' - meaning quick tamarind rice in tamil - and since I have an affinity towards any recipe that's quick, I decided to give it a shot and post it for Ranjini who has been asking for the recipe for a while.

Once I read through the list of ingredients and the instructions, I knew this was no quick recipe. To me, this is quick. Or maybe this. Definitely not what she had outlined. But I promised the recipe to Ranjini and also declared what's for lunch to TH so I decided to go ahead anyway.

Two things I significantly changed in the recipe are (a) the amount of oil used and (b) the order of soaking, grinding, roasting, etc, so that we use minimum vessels that reduces washing time at the end. I also changed the amount of ingredients here and there but that of course is normal when you follow someone else's recipe. I have written the actual recipe and changes I made in brackets. Please feel free to adapt according to your taste and email me in case of confusions.


So here goes.

What I Used:

Long-grained rice - 1.5 cups (I used basmati rice)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Grated jaggery - 2 tbsp (I used 1 tbsp)
Salt - 1/2 tsp

For the Tamarind Paste

Tamarind - a large lime-sized ball
Fenugreek seeds / methi / menthayam / uluva - 3/4 tsp (I used 1/2 tsp)
Coriander seeds / malli - 1 tbsp
Dry red chilllies - 6
Salt - 1/2 tsp

For the Spice powder / Masala

Grated coconut - 2 tbsp ( I used 3 tbsp fresh coconut, but dessicated with work too)
White sesame seeds / til / ellu - 1 tbsp (I didn't have this but bought some to try next time)

For Tempering

Sesame seed oil / nallennai / gingelly oil - 4 tbsp (I used 3 tbsp)
Mustard seeds / kaduku - 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder / hing / kaayam - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2, halved (I omitted this)
Urad dal / uzhutham paruppu / uzhunnu parippu - 1 tsp
Chana dal / bengal gram / kadala parippu - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few

For Garnishing

Sesame seed oil - 2 tbsp (I omitted this)
Roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup

How I Made It:

1. Wash and soak the rice in 4 cups water for half an hour. Rinse. Cook in an open, thick-bottomed vessel with 4 cups water (add more if its not enough while cooking) until the rice is cooked yet not too soft. Transfer to a colander and it drip off the excess water. I have found this to be the best way to cook basmati rice since pressure cooking it either makes it either under cooked or too mushy.

2. Soak tamarind and salt for tamarind paste in 1/2 cup water for 15 mins.

3. Soak fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds and red chillies in 1/2 cup water for 15 mins. Drain well.

Do all the soaking simultaneously to save time.

4. Heat a frying pan and roast the coconut (don't add any oil) till it becomes a light brown. Remove and roast the sesame seeds until they start spluttering and turn golden brown. Mix together and grind to a fine powder. Keep aside.

5. In the same grinder, combine all ingredients for tamarind paste and grind to a fine paste.

6. Heat the 3 tbsp oil in a same pan and fry the peanuts until crisp. Drain and set aside.

7. Add the ingredients for tempering to the same oil. When the mustard seeds start spluttering, add tamarind paste, jaggery, salt and 1/2 cup water.

8. Mix well and simmer till all water has evaporated and the mixture has a jam-like consistency. Remove.

9. Place rice a large bowl and gradually blend in the tamarind paste. Sprinkle in spice powder and mix well. Check and adjust salt.

10. Garnish with peanuts and serve with fried appalam.