How To Make Kovil Puliyodharai- Temple Style Tamarind Rice?
KOVIL PULIYODHARAI- TEMPLE STYLE TAMARIND RICE FROM THE SCRATCH.
Kovil Puliyodharai transports me back to my childhood days when Amma used to take me to Perumal temples on Saturdays during Purattasi and Margazhi months. I m not a very religious person but the lure of the puliyodharai was so irresistible that i accompanied amma any way and i even stood in the long queues for the Dharshan. And i did all of this only because the kovil puliyodharai is something that can make me go weak in the knees.
This Kovil Puliyodharai post is a picture loaded post. But before i write the recipe, let me share a few secrets about temple style puliyodharai that i have learned from Nimmi Chiki ( chiki is short for chikamma and she is my mom’s younger sister and i love her to bits). Whenever i used to travel from Coimbatore to Bangalore, Chiki s puliyodharai used to be my lunch. And my love for it has not changed one bit.
This post on Kovil Puliyodharai is sort of a walk down the memory lane. I was thinking about all those times which i have shared with my aunt making or discussing some random recipe and how she still insists on adding fresh curry leaves to all her condiments.
Shall we now check how to make Kovil Puliyodharai step by step?
Soak tamarind in hot water for 20 mins. Mash the tamarind well into the water using your hands and strain this liquid. Discard the residual pulp. Set aside the tamarind extract.
Heat a pan with 1 tsp oil and fry urad dal, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, black pepper corns, fenugreek seeds, red chili and chana dal until dals turns golden. Make sure you make this on low flame. Let cool and grind to a smooth powder.
Heat a pan with sesame oil. Add peanuts and fry till golden. Drain and set aside.Add mustard seeds and once they crackle, add urad dal, channa dal and curry leaves along with a large pinch of hing. Once the dal turns golden, add the fried peanuts and immediately pour in the tamarind extract. Add salt and jaggery and cook this till the raw smell of the tamarind goes away. Once done, add the ground powder and mix well. Continue to simmer this until oil begins to float to the surface. Your kovil puliyodharai puli kachal is ready. You can store this in the fridge for a week. But make sure you use a wooden spoon while serving.
To make the kovil puliyodharai, mix 1/2 c of the puli kachal into 1.5 cups of cooked and cooled short grain rice. Tastes best with appalam and raita.
This kovil puliyodharai makes a great lunch box dish. It also keeps well for 2 to 3 days at room temperature and so it is a great option while traveling too.
Recipe For Kovil Puliyodharai
- Tamarind the size of a medium lemon.
- Hot water 1 cup
- Jaggery 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Sesame oil 1/4 cup
- Peanuts 3 tbsp
- Curry leaves 12 to 15
- Hing a large pinch
- To roast and grind:
- Urad dal 2 tsp
- Channa dal 2 tsp
- Coriander seeds 1 tsp
- Whole black pepper corns 1 tsp
- Fenugreek seeds 1 tsp
- Sesame seeds 2 tsp
- Whole Red chilies 8 to 9 broken
- Oil 1 tsp
- To Temper
- Mustard seeds 1 tsp
- Urad dal 1 tsp
- Channa dal 1 tsp
- For the Kovil Puliyodharai Rice:
- Cooked and cooled short grain rice 1.5 cups
- Kovil puliyodharai kachal 1/2 cup
- Soak tamarind in hot water for 20 mins.
- In the meanwhile, heat a pan with 1 tsp oil.
- Add urad dal, channa dal, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, pepper, fenugreek and dry red chilies on low medium flame till dal begins to turn light brown.
- Once done, let cool and grind to a smooth powder.
- Mash the tamarind well into the water using your hands.
- Strain this to get rid of strings.
- Set aside the tamarind extract.
- Heat a pan with sesame oil.
- Add peanuts and fry till golden.
- Drain and set aside.
- Add mustard seeds to this and once they pop, add urad and channa dal along with curry leaves and hing.
- Once dal turns golden, add fried peanuts and immediately pour the tamarind extract along with salt and jaggery.
- Simmer this till the raw smell of the tamarind goes away. Takes about 5 mins.
- Once done, add the ground spice powder and mix well.
- Simmer this till the oil begins to float on top.
- To make the rice, combine 1.5 cups of cooked rice and this paste and mix well.
- Serve with appalam.
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