Pulihora/tamarind rice is what I have come up with today. Today also happens to be the day of Sriramanavami. We made this as an offering to Lord Rama today in fact. In addition to being made for festivals or special days, this is one of those preparations that we use in times of travel. The taste of tamarind improves with time – a few hours after preparation is the best typically and is a dry food item. This can be had as is or we usually also eat the last couple of morsels with curd to finish off the meal.

Ingredients

• Cooked and cooled rice – 2 cups
• Sesame oil – 5 + 2 tbsp (if not available use any other oil on hand, but sesame tastes best)
• Peanuts/groundnuts – 3 tbsp
• Chana dal – 1 tbsp
• Split urad dal – 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Jeera – 1 tsp
• Chillis – 3 (or as per taste), cut into pieces
• Curry leaves – 1 spring
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
• Hing – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Jaggery – 1 tsp
• Tamarind juice – extracted from a lime sized ball (tamarind intensity varies on the variety, so adjust after tasting)

Recipe

• Coat the grains of the cooked rice with 2 tbsp of sesame oil. This helps keep the grains separate.
• Heat up the rest of the oil in a kadhai
• Add the groundnuts/peanuts followed by chana dal. Once these turn color just a bit, add mustard seeds and urad dal.
• Add jeera and fry all of them well. Add the hing now.
• Add in chillis, curry leaves and tamarind extract.
• Add in the salt now
• Add in turmeric powder and cook the tamarind extract on low-medium flame.
• Add in the jaggery as well. This helps mellow the sourness from tamarind. It does not add too much sweetness, so do not worry.
• This usually takes a few minutes, took me about 10 minutes. Once cooked, oil floats on the sides and the entire extract becomes more of a paste at this stage.
• Let this cool and now mix it with rice with your hands. It helps avoid making the rice mushy.
• Let this settle for a couple of hours before serving. Tastes much better!

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