Tamarind Rice/Puliyogare

Puliyogare(Kannada: ಪುಳಿಯೋಗರೆ) is a South Indian rice preparation usually eaten as a snack. In Kannada language Puli means sour taste and Ogara means rice in Halegannada, thus Puliyogare translates as sour tasting rice. Puliyogare is also known as Huli anna or Tamarind Rice in some parts of Karnataka.

It is traditionally made using steamed or boiled rice mixed with tamarind juice, groundnuts or peanuts, coriander, coconut, red chilli, curry leaves, jaggery, pepper, mustard, fenugreek, turmeric, asafoetida, urad dal, and cumin. It is also prepared during festivals such as Diwali.

Puliyogare is particularly known to be a specialty of the Iyengar community, and some of the best puliyogare can be found in South Indian Sri Vaishnava temples, associated with the Iyengar community.


You can get ready made mix to make puliyogare from Indian store, and follow instruction on the package to make this rice. However when you make it from scratch, it is definitely worth the effort.

I used to make the Spiced Tamarind paste and keep it in the fridge, so it was very easy to prepare this finger licking rice recipe, however I haven't done this for long time. Other day when I was going through my recipes collection, I came across this and instantly started craving for mouth watering savory taste of this rice.

This recipe was originally given to me by one of my friend from Madras, and if you know me by know from my blog... you are right...of course I had to make some modifications to the recipe. So here it is my modified recipe of Tamarind Rice/Puliyogare.


Ingredients :


For rice:

1 cup Rice
1 cups Water
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon salt



For Spiced Tamarind paste.

• Two table spoon of oil
• 1/4 cup of raw tamarind or 1 table spoon of tamarind paste
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp peppercorns
• a pinch of asafoetida
• 6 dry red chili pods
• 1 tsp cumin
• 10 curry leaves
• 2 tsp Chana dal
• 1 table spoon peanuts
• 1 tsp Urad dal
• 1 tsp sugar
• One 2" piece of jagerry
• 1 cup of dry grated coconut
• 4 tsp sesame seeds
• Salt to taste


Seasoning for rice:

• 6 TBSP oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1.5 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Urad dal (black gram dal)
• 2 TBSP peanuts
• 1 tsp chana dal
• 3-4 red chillis
• a few curry leaves
• 3 spring onions chopped finely
• 1 Jalapeno pepper chopped
• Cilantro leaves chopped for garnish



Method:

Cook rice in rice cooker or follow my recipe on this blog and make it in microwave.
I don't use basmati rice for this, I use any long grain, or North Carolina long grain or Jasmine rice. Once cook separate the grains with wooden spoon and keep it aside.


To prepare the spiced tamarind paste

Heat a pan with 2 Tbsp of oil.
Add all the dry ingredients (except sesame seeds, coconut, sugar and jaggery) and roast in for few min.
Then add coconut and stir for few seconds and take it off the stove.
Cool and grind until smooth powder.

Soak ras tamarind or tamarind paste in one cup of warm water for an hour and extract juice from it.
Keep aside.

Cook Heat oil in a pan.
Add mustard seeds when splutters, add sesame seeds.
Roast until light brown.
Add tamarind juice.
Mix well and add jaggery/sugar and salt.
Allow to boil.
Add ground powdered spices to boiling juice.
Cook till reaches the semi liquid / paste consistency.
Cool & set aside.


To Season rice:

Heat oil in pan
When hot add cumin and mustard seeds
when these splatter, add asafoetida, chili pods, peanuts, dals
Saute until dals are light brown
Add curry leaves followed by chopped green onions and chopped jalapeno
Fry for few seconds
Pour this over cooked rice
Add enough above prepared spiced tamarind paste so the rice are brown
Mix by gently tossing the rice with wooden spoon
Adjust the seasoning as necessary

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot.

You can make large quantity of tamarind spiced paste and preserve this in the fridge use as & when necessary. It even gives a new face to the left over rice.

Recipe modified by Surekha from the original recipe from a friend of Surekha.
Photographs by Surekha.



Description of Tamarind Rice/Puliyogare Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puliyogare
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/