Pulikachal - an instant spiced tamarind mix to make Puliyodharai/Tamarind rice in a jiffy

Most South Indians that travel are familiar with this staple that is usually made in large quantities at home before the travel date. When I was a child, the smell of pulikachal being made signified that the summer vacations were about to start. We would board the train, with a small koodai(basket) which held our dinner. Tamarind rice and curd rice, both wrapped in banana leaves from our backyard and then wrapped in a layer of newspaper and tied up with vazha naru( twine from the banana plant) would be placed in the koodai along with a bottle of water. The train had to move barely a few inches before we would start feeling hungry and start opening our packets of food. The smell of rice wrapped in heated banana leaves is truly something that you have to have experienced to understand. Mere words are not enough to describe how incredibly satisfying it is.

Pulikachal, the key ingredient in making puliyodharai/tamarind rice is sold as puliyodharai/puliyogare/tamarind rice mix in stores, but if you have a little bit of time, then it is easy to make at home.

What you need:
Tamarind - 1 lemon sized ball soaked in 2 cups of hot water
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

For the spice powder:
Urad dal - 3 tsp
Red chilli - 7 or 8 (adjust based on your spice tolerance and the spiciness of the chillies used)
Coriander seeds - 3 tsp
Sesame seeds - 2 tsp

For tempering:
Sesame oil - 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 2, broken
Curry leaves - a sprig
Peanuts - 1/4 cup

Extract thick juice from the soaked tamarind and keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan, dry saute the urad dal, coriander seeds and red chilli until the dal turns reddish brown. Add sesame seeds and toast quickly till it starts to pop. Cool, powder and keep aside.

In the same pan, heat oil and add all the tempering ingredients except peanuts. When the mustard seeds pop and the dals turn reddish, add the peanuts and toast for a minute. Add tamarind extract, turmeric powder and salt. Let this boil over a medium flame until it starts to thicken and oil starts separating out from the sides. Switch off heat and add the spice powder. Mix well.
Once it cools completely, store in an air tight container. This can be stored at room temperature for a week and in the refrigerator for up to two months.

To make puliyodharai, add required quantity of pulikachal to cooked, cooled rice and mix well.Adding a spoon or two of sesame oil while mixing it with rice adds to the taste. I also feel that the rice absorbs the flavor of the mix better if it is allowed to sit for at least a few hours after mixing.

This is my entry to Blogging Marathon under the theme Kids' delight - Travel food.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#86.

This also goes to  Srivalli's Kids' Delight event guest hosted this month, by me, on the theme Travel Food.

Muringakkai puli kuzhambu (Drumsticks cooked in a tangy tamarind base)

This is another simple, every day meal that we love. Most South Indians tend to love the tanginess that tamarind lends to any dish. I am no exception. Drumsticks grow in abundance in my parents' home. When I lived there, I couldn't care less for this vegetable. Now that I have access only to frozen drumsticks, and on rare occasions, fresh ones which don't match up to the robust flavor of home-grown Indian drumsticks. I miss those little things that I took for granted. This kuzhambu makes use of frozen drumsticks and frozen pearl onions which I buy as a matter of convenience, not non-availability of fresh ones. It is similar to vathal kuzhambu. The main difference between the two is that this one uses fresh vegetables whereas vathal kuzhambu makes use of sun dried vegetables and berries.
Do check out my earlier posts on vathal kuzhambu and the making of sundried sundakka vathal.

What you need:
Tamarind - Lemon sized ball soaked in enough hot water to yield two cups of extract
Oil (preferably sesame) - 2 tbsp.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Pearl onions - 8-10
Drumsticks - 8-10 pieces if using frozen (2, chopped if using fresh)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - a generous sprinkling
Salt

Heat oil in a kadai. Add the dals. When they start to redden, add mustard seeds, methi seeds and curry leaves. When the mustard pops, add pearl onions and saute till pink. Add tamarind extract, drumstick pieces, asafoetida, turmeric, salt and sambar powder. Stir well and let it come to a boil. Boil on low flame for a few minutes to allow the gravy to thicken. If you feel that it is too watery, it can be thickened by adding rice paste which is made by adding one teaspoon of rice flour to water to make a thick paste. This rice paste can be stirred into the kuzhambu, with constant stirring.
Serve the kuzhambu hot with rice and a dollop of ghee or sesame oil.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Pulingari - a tangy tamarind based gravy

When I chose the theme Gravies/Rice main course for the February blogging marathon, the first few dishes that I thought of are restaurant favorites - rich gravies and exotic rice dishes. However, what I often make and  what we truly enjoy is our simple, every day home cooking. This pulingari is an authentic Kerala Iyer recipe. Like all recipes from my home state of Kerala, this one too makes abundant use of fresh coconut which is ground along with some roast spices and added to vegetables cooked in tamarind.It is light and easy on the stomach, with no added lentils, and with an appealing tanginess that is balanced by the coconut masala paste. Pulingari literally mean a curry made of tamarind.  This is eaten with rice and a side of vegetables and papadam.

What you need:
Vegetables - 1/2 cup, diced (The commonly used vegetables for pulingari are pumpkin, ash gourd, brinjal, carrots, and colocasia. These vegetables can be used in combination or separately)
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball soaked in 2 cups of hot water
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

To roast:
Oil - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 3
Curry leaves - a sprig
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Raw rice - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a small piece (If you use powdered asafetida, add it after the flame is turned off)

Heat oil in a pan. Add red chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida and raw rice. Roast over a low flame. Add methi seeds and roast for just a few seconds, taking care to see that the seeds do not burn, as this will make the curry bitter. Once cool, grind this with the grated coconut, adding a little water to make a smooth paste. Set aside.

In the same pan, take the vegetables. Add tamarind extract, turmeric powder and salt. Boil partly covered until the vegetables are three-fourths cooked. Add the ground paste and let it boil again until the vegetables are well cooked. The curry should be of a pourable consistency. So if you feel it is too thick, add some more water and if you feel it is too thin, let it boil till the desired consistency is reached.
In a separate pan, heat a teaspoon of oil (preferably coconut oil). Add 1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds and urad dal. When the seeds pop, pour this over the pulingari. Top with a sprig of fresh curry leaves.
Serve hot with rice and a dollop of ghee.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Mini meals - A South Indian lunch platter and the recipe for Sambar Rice

BM #74 Week 3 Day 2
Theme : Thali/Platter
Dish : Sambar Sadam/Sambar Rice

Several years back, when I started cooking, one of the things I could never get right is the quantity. For the longest time, I used to cook one dish and then we would eat it for several days. Now, with some experience, I think I am finally getting the hang of it. I still do tend to cook more when I have guest, but most of the time, I manage to cook the right quantity these days. In the initial days of cooking, I never would have imagined cooking a thali meal at home, but today, I've tried recreating the Mini meals served in several popular restaurants in Tamilnadu, India. Small portions of different varities of rice, a flatbread and its side, some fried vadam and pickle are the usual components of a mini meal.

Pictured in the thali above are :
Puri with aloo masala
Thakkali sadam / Tomato rice
Sambar sadam / Sambar rice
Thair sadam / Curd rice
Lime pickle
Vadam

All the recipes except the ones for sambar rice and curd rice have been shared on the blog before and clicking on the names above will take you to the individual recipes.
Today, I will be sharing the recipe for sambar sadam. For this thali, I made sambar sadam by cooking rice and sambar separately and then combining them.

What you need:
Cooked rice - 1 cup
Cooked dal - 1/2 cup
Mixed chopped vegetables - 3/4 cup (I used carrot, beans, potato, onion and drumstick)
Tamarind paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp. (I used sesame oil)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
Salt

In a large pan, heat oil. Saute chopped onions until translucent. Add in the rest of the chopped vegetables and turmeric powder. Now add tamarind concentrate and a cup of water. Boil on a low flame until the vegetables are cooked. To make it quicker, you can pre-cook the veggies and add them to the tamarind concentrate.  Now add the cooked dal, sambar powder and salt. Stir well and let it boil for  a few minutes. Switch off heat.
Mix the cooked rice to this. The sambar rice should be a little watery as it will thicken on cooling. You can adjust the consistency by adding some hot water if needed.
In a small pan, heat a teaspoon of oil. Add urad dal, chana dal and mustard seeds to it. When the seeds pop, pour this over the sambar rice. Top with some chopped curry leaves and coriander.
Serve hot.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#74.

Mini tiffin - a South Indian breakfast platter and the recipe for Mysore bonda

BM #74 Week 3 Day 1
Theme : Thalis
Dish : Mysore bonda

Buffets, thalis, quick meals, mini tiffins - any meal where an assortment of dishes is served on one platter is something that I can never resist. The last time we were in the husband's hometown, we went to a small restaurant where I tried out the breakfast tiffin thali. With small portions of pongal, vadai, kesari, sambar, chutney, puri masal and dosa served in a visually and gastronomically appealing manner, this is one breakfast that has been fondly talked about and remembered very often.  In fact, every time I've felt even slightly hungry, I've wished that there was some place here that served this kind of thali.  Making a large number of dishes when I don't have company is usually not my style of cooking, but  this time, I decided to make an exception.

In the platter are an Onion Dosa, mini idlis soaked in sambar, rava kichdi, rava kesari, mysore bonda and coconut chutney.

Some of these recipes have been shared on the blog before and I have included links to older posts with the recipes.
Today, I will be sharing the recipe for Mysore bonda - a deep fried snack that, though a little time consuming, is not very difficult to make.

What you need :
Urad dal - 1 cup, soaked in plenty of water for an hour and drained
Curry leaves - a few, chopped
Green chillies - 3, minced
Black peppercorns - 7 or 8, coarsely crushed
Coconut sliced into tiny bits - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying

Grind the drained urad dal, adding as little water as possible, in a grinder (recommended) or a blender (second best option). When well ground, the batter will be light and fluffy, floating when a bit of it is added to water.
Remove this batter into a container and add all the other ingredients except salt. (*)
Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. When the oil is hot, add salt to the batter, mix it well and drop small balls of batter to the oil. Fry on a medium flame until well browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain off excess oil using a paper towel.
Serve hot with coconut chutney.

* Salt, when added to the batter, makes it watery and difficult to shape. So, add it at the very end, just before you start frying, and mix it in well.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#74.

Watermelon rind puli koottu

Bm # 74 Week 1
Theme : Festival recipes
Recipe : Puli vitta koottu (Koottu curry with tamarind)

Koottu curry with tamarind is different from the usual koottu that is made for a Kerala sadya (feast).This, I think, is the Tamil version of koottu and it finds a place in festival menus at the homes of my aunts.  The commonly used vegetables in this type of  koottu are yam (chena), plantain, or ash gourd. My choice of vegetable is slightly unusual in that I have used a part of fruit that is usually discarded. Since the rind of a watermelon has no discernible taste of its own, it lends itself beautifully to this dish, absorbing the flavors and aroma of the tamarind and coconut.

What you need:
Rind of 3/4th of a large watermelon
Chana dal - 1 cup, soaked in water for an hour
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Salt
Tamarind - lemon sized ball, soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes
For tempering/tadka :
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Red chilli - 2, broken
Curry leaves - a few sprigs

Cook the soaked chana dal in a pressure cooker till two whistles. The dal should not turn mushy. It should be cooked through, but still hold its shape.
Extract thick tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind. Keep aside.
Remove the green outer skin of the watermelon from the rind. Only the white part should be used. Chop it into small, bite sized pieces. Wash well, add a little water and cook in the pressure cooker till one whistle.
Add the tamarind extract, turmeric powder, sambar powder and salt to the cooked watermelon rind and let it boil on a medium flame until the raw smell of the tamarind is gone. Take care not to add too much water, as the final koottu should be quite thick. Add the cooked chana dal. Mix well and let it boil  till most of the moisture has evaporated. Dissolve a teaspoon of rice flour in a few spoonfuls of water. Add this to the boiling mixture to help it thicken and let it boil for a few minutes. Switch off the heat.
In a separate pan, heat oil. Add chana dal and urad dal. When the dals start to redden, add the broken chilli, curry leaves and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds pop, add grated coconut and stir on a low flame until reddish brown. Pour this tempering on top of the koottu. Mix well and serve hot with rice or chapati.

Super soft idlis - the quintessential South Indian breakfast

How we perceive food is influenced by our regular eating habits and the culture that we are from. While idli is considered healthy,light and easy on the stomach as it is oil-free and steamed by most South Indians, I recently came across a person who believes that idli is a very heavy food as it contains dal.
Idli is something that is made in my household quite often. In spite of that, I have never thought of posting it on the blog so far, as it is something that I consider to be simple, everyday food. However, many friends have spoken to me about how difficult they find it to make soft, fluffy idlis. Hence, this post.

What you need:
Idli rice* - 4 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Methi/fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp

Wash the rice and dal and soak separately in plenty of water for at least 8 hours. Add the methi seeds to the urad dal after washing the dal.*
After an hour or two of soaking, pop the urad dal with the water in which it is soaking into the refrigerator. *
Grind the urad dal, along with the cold water until it becomes light and soft. This takes close to half an hour in a grinder.
Add the soaked rice, in batches, with water if necessary, and grind until smooth. This will take another 20-25 minutes. In the last few minutes of grinding, add in some salt.
Set aside the ground batter over night to ferment.
In the morning, grease the idli plates, pour the batter into it and steam for 10-12 minutes.
Let it cool for 5 minutes and then serve hot with molaga podi, chutney or sambar.

 

Notes :

* Idli rice is not the same as the regular rice used for cooking. It is labelled and sold as idli rice in most major grocery stores.

* Methi seeds can be soaked with either rice or dal. However, since the urad dal is ground for a longer time in the grinder, I have found that the seeds are well ground if they are soaked with the urad dal, whereas, if you were to soak it with the rice, you might find little brown flakes of methi in your idlis.

* Putting the urad dal in the refrigerator is optional. However, I have found that the yield of batter is significantly more if this is done.

This is my post for Blogging Marathon #36, under the theme Oil-free breakfast.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 36
This is also my 14th post for Blogathon 2014, a daily blogging event for the month of January. 

More urundai kuzhambu(Steamed lentil balls in yogurt gravy)

A gravy made of buttermilk is standard fare in any South Indian home. It goes by the name of more kuzhambu in Tamil Nadu, moru kari in Kerala and majjige huli in Karnataka. The usual version that I make with ripe plantain or colocasia or ash gourd is posted here.
This version is made using steamed balls of tuar dal. I first tasted this at a restaurant in Chennai and quite liked the aroma and the taste of it. Today, with the help of Mallika Badrinath's recipe from her book Classic Lunch Recipes, I have been able to recreate a remembered taste.

What you need:
For the urundai/koftas
Tuar dal - 1/2 cup(scant)
Whole white urad - 1 tbsp
Green chillies - 2 or 3(adjust to taste)
Onion - 1 small, chopped very fine
Chopped corriander leaves - a few
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste (use a little less than you normally would as the gravy too has salt)

For the kuzhambu/gravy
Sour thick curd - 2 cups (beaten lightly to break up lumps)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Grind together:
Fresh grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Coriander seeds - 1.5 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Tuar dal - 1 tbsp
For tempering:
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillie - 1, broken
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - a few

To make koftas/urundai:
Soak the dals together for an hour. Drain all the water. Add in all the other ingredients except onion and corrinder. Grind to a coarse paste without adding any water. Mix in the chopped onions and corrainder. Shape into lemon sized balls. Grease an idli plate and stem for 8-10 minutes. Set aside the balls to cool.

To make kuzhambu:
Soak all the ingredients listed under Grind together, except coconut in just enough water to cover for at least 30 minutes. Add coconut and grind to a smooth paste.
Transfer this to a pan. Add 1/2 cup of water, salt, turmeric powder and let it boil for a few minutes. Add the whipped curd and boil some more. Just before removing from fire, add the steamed koftas and boil for a minute or two.
Heat the tempering ingredients until the mustard seeds pop. Pour this over the kuzhambu.
Enjoy with rice/idli/dosa.
This tastes even better the next day after the flavours have blended together well.
Today is Day 3 or Blogging Marathon #7, and this is my post under the theme Cooking from cookbooks. Check out the blogging marathon page to see what my fellow marathoners are cooking.

Puliyodharai - tamarind rice

I have always loved the puliyodharai that is handed out as prasadam in the temples of Tamilnadu. In fact, when we moved to Chennai, one of the things I really looked forward to is good puliyodharai. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants in Chennai don't serve this rice. They have it in their lunch menu, but if you ask for it, you'll find a sheepishly grinning waiter informing you that they only have sambar rice or some other variety rice. MTR ready mix puliyodharai powder does satisfy the craving every once in a while, but I find that I have to add more tamarind and more salt to the mix to suit our palate. This recipe is a simple one that I have come up with and fall back on whenever I need to make something in a hurry and don't want to spend a lot of time chopping vegetables.

What you need:
Rice - 1 cup
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball soaked in hot water
Red chillies - 3 or 4, broken into pieces
Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
Chana dal - 3/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - a small piece
Curry leaves - a few sprigs
Groundnuts
Gingely oil - 3-4 tsps
Salt - to taste

Cook rice. Spread it on a plate and keep it aside to cool.
Heat oil in a pan. Add red chillies,urad dal, chana dal, methi seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves and mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add the ground nuts and fry well. Extract thick juice from the soaked tamarind and pour this into the pan. Add turmeric powder, salt and stir well. Lower the heat and let it cook until most of the moisture has evaporated. Switch off the heat. Add the cooked rice and stir gently making sure that the tamarind paste coats all the rice.
Enjoy with fried appalam or vadam.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Monika, PJ, Azeema and Reva are cooking.

Adai (savoury lentil crepe)

A typical South Indian dish, almost every household has its own recipe for adai. This is a very forgiving recipe in the sense that if you don't have any of the ingredients, you can leave it out and still come up with a decent adai. Once my aunt omitted rice and made this with just pulses and it still tasted great.
Any lentil that you like can be added to it.

What you need:
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
A handful each of:
Chana dal
Urad dal
Moong dal(whole or in the absence of it, broken)
Tuar dal
Masoor dal
Whole kabuli chana/brown chana
Black eyed beans
Cilantro stalk
Curry leaves
A tsp each of:
Fenugreek seeds
Cumin seeds
Whole black pepper (adjust to taste)

Red chillies - a few, according to your spice tolerance
Asafoetida - a marble sized piece (a heaped tsp if you are using the powder)

Soak all the ingredients except the asafoetida, corriander and curry leaves in plenty of water for 5-6 hours. If you are not using whole chana and black eyed beans, about 3-4 hours of soaking will do.
Drain the water. Add salt, asafoetida, corriander stalk and curry leaves. Grind together to a coarse paste adding water as required. The batter should be slightly thicker than regular dosa batter.
Set this aside for about 8 hours (takes much less time in hotter places) to ferment.
While it can be made without fermenting,it tastes better when fermented.

Heat a dosa griddle. Stir the batter well and pour a ladleful on the griddle. Spread into a circle. Drizzle some oil over it and cook both sides until brown and crisp.


Serving suggestions:
This can be paired with Avial, Karuveppila thogayal, tangy tomato chutney, or shallot(ulli) sambar.

This is my entry to My Legume Love Affair hosted for Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook by Superchef at Mirch Masala.