Pulikachal -tamarind rice mix paste

 Hi friends,

It is the month of aadi again. Many seasonal festivals will start soon. That means lot of special recipes, cooking and eating.

Aadi perukku ( 18th day) and kanu (15th or 16 th Jan) definitely has one thing on its menu, and that is puliyothare or what we call puliyanchaadam.

I have already told that we are die hard fans of this. Especially when it is mixed with homemade pulikachal, it goes to another level.

So let's jump to ingredients

Ingredients:-

To roast and grind

Coriander seeds - 2 tsp 

Urad dal -2 tsp

Round red chillies - 12

Curry leaves -10-12

Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp 

Sesame seeds - 2 tsp 

Dry roast sesame seeds and keep it aside.

Dry roast all the other things till everything turns golden brown.

Let it cool and grind it into a coarse powder.

For paste :-

Tamarind - 1 big lemon soaked in water 

Salt - as needed 

Turmeric powder -1 tsp 

Jaggery -1/2 tsp 

To temper:-

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp 

Urad dal -1 tsp

channa dal - 1 tsp 

Peanuts - 3 tbsp 

Red chillies -2-3 

Hing

Curry leaves

Gingelly oil - 2 tbsp 

In a kadai, add oil. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds,urad dal ,channa dal and hing. Now add peanuts and roast it well . Add curry leaves.

Now add tamarind water ,salt and turmeric powder. Let it boil for a good 7-8 minutes till it gets thickened. 

After it is thickened a little, add ground powder, which we did before and cook it for another 3-4 minutes. At this point, we can see oil oozing from the paste. At this point add the jaggery and switch it off.

Your yummy pulikachal is ready.

To make puliyothare or puliyanchaadam, mix 2 tbsp of the pulikachal or the paste to 2 cups of cooked rice with a little bit of gingelly oil. Increase or decrease the amount of paste and rice according to your taste. This measurement works for us.

Mix it well. Please make sure that rice grains are separate and non sticky.

Keep it for atleast half an hr or 1 hr. It tastes awesome when it sits for some time. 

Tips 

I have made this earlier with tamarind paste, which is even easier as it is already thick. We don't need to boil it for a long time. So we can also make this with tamarind paste.

Sesame seeds and Jaggery are optional. But it gives a little extra to the rice.

Please definitely try this and I promise you will not go back to the bottled one.

I have already shared aviyal kuzhambu recipe which is taken as accompaniment for all kinds of mixed rice.

https://jairamkitchen.blogspot.com/2020/08/aviyal-kuzhambu-aadi-perukku-special.html?m=1

Please try and let me know.