Puliyodharai (tamarind rice)
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Rice tossed in a thick, spiced tamarind paste with peanuts and sesame, a temple offering and travel food.
Region: Tamil NaduOccasion: Temple prasadam; festivals such as Aadi Perukku; travel foodTime: 40 minServes: 4Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked rice, cooled and separated
- A large lemon-sized ball of tamarind
- 3 tbsp gingelly oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp chana dal
- 1 tbsp urad dal
- 3 tbsp peanuts
- 4 dried red chillies
- A pinch of hing
- ½ tsp turmeric
- A sprig of curry leaves
- 1 tsp jaggery
- Salt to taste
- For the powder: 1 tbsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp sesame seeds, ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds, 2 dried red chillies
Method
- Soak the tamarind in 1½ cups warm water and squeeze out a thick extract.
- Dry-roast the powder ingredients and grind them fine.
- Heat the gingelly oil. Fry the mustard seeds, dals, peanuts, red chillies, hing and curry leaves.
- Add the tamarind extract, turmeric, salt and jaggery. Cook on low heat until it becomes a thick paste and oil separates (puli kaachal).
- Stir in the ground powder.
- Mix the paste into the rice a little at a time, with a spoon of gingelly oil. Rest for 30 minutes before serving.
History
Puliyodharai is a traditional offering in Vaishnava temples of Tamil Nadu. The tamarind paste keeps for weeks, so it has long been carried on journeys.
Significance
It is offered at temples and cooked on Aadi Perukku, when families take mixed rice dishes to the banks of the Cauvery.