Tamarind Rice (Pulihora)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Pulihora(Tamarind rice) is one of the famous rice dishes in Andhra, especially this is served in temples as a prasadam, it will be so tasty and you feel like eating more and more. It is also festival dish and also good to pack for lunch box or picnic. The spice flavors are too tempting and I could not resist and kept on eating and feeling so sleepy now :-)

Now a days I am using sesame seeds in most of the dishes after reading an article in telugu news paper saying use of sesame seeds is good for healthy hair and skin also looks bright and healthy. No need to say about the taste and addictive flavors.

Women of ancient Babylon would eat halva(made with honey and sesame seeds to prolong youth and beauty), while Roman soldiers ate the mixture for strength and energy, read more about Nutrition and health treatments here

Ingredients

2 cups raw rice (cooked in such a way that each grain is seperate and cool and keep aside)
Extract tamarind pulp from a large lemon sized tamarind or use 3 tablespoon tamarind paste
2 Tablesppons Oil ( I use Oilive Oil)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch of asafoetida
around 10 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 Tablespoon Chana Dal (split Bengal gram/senagapappu)
1 tablespoon Urud Dal (whole Black gram/minappappu)
4 whole red chillies
5 to 6 green chillies chopped (adjust to your spice level)
1/4th cup of ground nuts

1/4th teaspoon fenugreek seeds (menthulu)
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

Method

1) Keep the rice in pressure cooker or rice cooker, meanwhile prepare the ingredients for the pulihora paste. It is better practise to soak the rice in water for at least 15 mins before cooking.

2) If you have tamarind, heat in microwave with 1/4 cup of water for 30 secs to 1 min so that it is easy to extract the pulp. If you are using tamarind paste then this work is also reduced. But I always use tamarind and it doesn't take much time extracting the pulp if you heat in microwave with water for 30 secs.

3) Dry roast fenugreek seeds and sesame seeds and make a powder and keep aside.

4) Heat Oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add cumin seeds,asafoetida, then chana dal, urud dal, ground nuts and fry until they are light brown.

5) Now add red chillies, turmeric powder, green chillies, curry leaves and fry for a minute and add the tamarind paste and cook for around 5 mins

6) Now add the fenugreek-sesame powder, salt and mix it with rice. You can eat this with Appalam/chips and a cup of Juice to make it a complete meal.

Notes:

1) It is a good idea to make the paste before mixing the rice and store in refrigirator for couple of weeks so that we can mix with rice anytime.