yummy everyday meal: Puliyodharai / Puli Sadam / Tamarind Rice

Coming to day 2 recipe under the theme rice dishes in Blogging Marathon#65 is a variety rice.This post has been lying in my draft so long,finallydecided to share it for the theme.
Be it for pooja prasadham or lunchbox or travel food,the first thing come to my mind is puliyodharai aka tamarind rice.
Though I make puliyodharai often never get a chance to click as most of the time nothing left after packing for lunch box.
If the rice mix/pulikaichal is ready,all you need is to mix it with rice and serve or pack it for lunch box.The pulikaichal can be stored in the refrigerator for a month or two.Off to the recipe..........

Puliyodharai/Puli Sadam/Tamarind Rice

Basic Information

Preparation time 15 minutes
Cooking time 25 minutes

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Tamarind/puli	a big lemon size
Turmeric powder/manjal podi	1/2 tsp
Water	as needed
Salt	2 tsp
Oil	4 tbs
Curry leaves/karivepillai	few leaves
Raw rice/pacharisi	1.25 cups

To roast and grind

Ingredient	Quantity
Dried red chilly/varmilagai	3-4
Coriander seeds/dhaniya	2 tbs
Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam	1/8 tsp
Sesame seeds/yellu	2 tsp

For the tempering

Ingredient	Quantity
Mustard seeds/kadugu	1.5 tsp
Urad dhal/ulutham paruppu	1 tbs
Channa dhal/kadala paruppu	2 tbs
Peanuts/vekadalai	3-4 tbs
Dried red chilly/varamilagai	12-15(broken)
Asafoetida/perungayam	1/8 tsp

Method

Wash the rice for couple of times in water and cook it with enough water.Once its done ,take the cooked rice in a plate and separate the grains.
Soak the tamarind in hot water and squeeze it well,extract the juice.Pass it through the strainer to remove the debris.To this extracted juice add salt and turmeric powder,keep it aside.
Heat a pan with oil and add the mustard seeds,urad dhal and channa dhal,let it splutter.Then add in the peanuts and fry it for a minute.Add the broken red chill and curry leaves,asafoetida.To this add the tamarind extract and let it boil.

Meanwhile in a separate pan dry roast the red chilly,coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds till a nice aroma comes out.Now add the sesame seeds and fry it for a minute,put off the flame.After cooling grind it to a coarse powder.Keep it aside.

Once the raw smell of tamarind goes let it simmer for 5-6 minutes or until the mixture gets thick.Now add the ground powder and let it cook for one boil.Put off the flame.Now the pulikaichal or mix is ready.Take half of the pulikaichal and mix it with the cooked rice well.Cover it and let it rest for 15-20 minutes for the flavors to get incorporate well in the rice.

Serve it with pappad,chips and fryums.

The pulikaichal needs to be on the thicker side.
Sesame oil is preferable to make the pulikaichal,but I used 2 tbs of olive oil and 2 tbs of sesame oil.
After adding the ground powder do not boil it for long time.
A tsp of jaggery powder can also be added after the ground powder is addded.
As my red chillies are not spicy I used around 15,if it is spice enough you can reduce it.