Puliyodarai/Tamarind Rice

Puliyodarai is fondly associated with travel. Lemon rice also shares the travel food tag. When packed and taken for a train journey, it stays good for a day. Also it is a common prasadam in many of the temples. Once the puliyodarai paste is made, preparing the tamarind rice is a breeze. It makes a good lunch box food too. The tamarind paste stays good for a week on refrigeration and for a month on freezing. The preserved pulyodaria paste and some cooked rice will come handy, if you have to prepare a quick lunch. There are umpteen ways to prepare the paste. This is my MIL's recipe and its a favorite with our family. Once you taste ice with the fresh, home made paste, you will never go for the instant puliyodarai powders available in the market.

Ingredients

To dry roast and powder
Red chilli - 3 nos
Chana dal/Kadala paruppu - 1 tspn
Urad dal/Uzhunnu paruppu - 1 tspn
Sesame seeds/Ellu - 1/2 tspn
Methi seeds/vendhayam/Uluva - 1/2 tspn

For the paste
Tamarind - lemon sized
Turmeric - 1/4 tspn
salt

Seasoning

Gingely oil/Nalennai - 4 tblspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Chana dal - 1 tspn
Roasted peanuts - 2 tblspn
Curry leaves

3 cups of cooked rice.

Method
Soak the tamarind in a cup of warm water. Extract the thick pulp and keep it aside.

Dry roast all the ingredients till the dals turn golden. Cool and powder it fine.

Heat a kadai with gingely oil. Add the mustard seeds. When it splutters, add chana dal, peanuts and curry leaves. Let the dal turn golden brown. Stir in the thick tamarind extract and add turmeric. Let it simmer till it thickens. Add salt and the ground powder. Simmer till it blends well.

Spread the cooked rice on a plate to cool. Drizzle some gingely oil so that the rice doesn't stick together. Add the paste to the cooked rice and mix gently. Serve with fried applams and enjoy your meal. I served with home made tapioca vadam and salad.

Thanks to Nags for hosting MM# Ravishing Rice, an event started by Meeta, since the recipe in my drafts, finally made it to the blog. This post is also for my blog reader A, who wanted the recipe. And thanks to my friend R, who introduced A to my blog.

Rava Kesari

Kesari is a very common and popular sweet in south India especially Tamilnadu and Karnataka.It's popular neivedyam for Satyanarayana pooja in Karnataka.I heard it's traditional Karnataka dessert(Kesari bath).In hotels they will serve along with Rava upma.In Tamilnadu especially Chidambaram we will call it as Sojji.When ever relatives visit us amma will make kesari and bajji.Every Diwali early morning amma will prepare hot hot kesari along with idlies.Here i used 1/4 cup ghee,but u can add upto 1 cup(Equal proportion of Rava).Very important thing is u have roast rava properly(Golden brown).otherwise you will get Kesari like gum only.



Ingredients:

Rava-1 cup
Milk-1 cup
Sugar-1 1/2 cup
Cardamon-3
Cashew-15
Raisins-15
Ghee-1/4 cup

Preparation method:

1. Dry roast rava till golden brown and keep it aside.
2. In heavy bottom vessel or non-stick pan,add 1 cup of milk and 2 cups of water,allow it to boil.Add crushed Cardamom and pinch of kesari colour also.
3. Now reduce the flame,add roasted rava carefully so that no lumps are formed.
4. Wait till rava cooks well,add sugar mix well.
5. Add half of the ghee in kesari,mix well.
6. Heat remaining ghee in a pan,roast cashew and raisins.
7. Add roasted cashew and raisins with kesari,serve hot.

Paper Roast

The Dosa is spread thinly and fired until crispy like a paper .Instead of oil u will use ghee means u will get nice aroma.I still remember the taste of Saravana Bhavan slightly brown crispy roast along with sambar & two kind of chutney.




Ingredients:

Raw rice-2 cups
Boiled rice-2 cups
Urad dal-1 cup
Feenu Greek seeds-1 tsp
Poha/aval-1 tsp
Salt-To taste

Preparation method:

1. Wash and clean rice,urad dal and soak for 6 hrs.
2. Grind urad dal into fine paste and poha along with rice into little coarse paste.
3. Mix with required salt and allow it to ferment overnight.
4. Heat the Dosa pan,spread the batter,as thin as possible.
5. Grease with oil or ghee and allow it to become crispy.
6. Turn into other side,serve hot with chutney and sambhar.