Quick and easy-to-make tamarind rice recipe! Perfect travel food and a fantastic lunch box recipe. Check out how to make this tamarind rice with the homemade instant pulikaichal mix.
If you are not using store-bought fenugreek powder, roast about 2 tbsps of fenugreek seeds until they turn red. That's the critical thing. If you don't roast until they turn red, you can feel the stickiness when mixed with the rice, and the texture won't be right. So roast it well. Let it cool and grind it. We need 1 tsp of the fenugreek powder for this recipe.
Cook the rice –
Cook the rice in your preferred way. I cooked 1 cup of sona masoori rice variety in a pressure cooker by adding 2 cups of water. I got about 5.5 cups of rice but used only 4 cups of cooked rice for this recipe.
Spread the rice on a plate and let it cool a bit. Add 1 tbsp of gingelly oil and mix it.
Prepare the instant tamarind rice paste | pulikaichal
Heat a heavy-bottomed vessel or kadai and add 3 tbsps of gingelly oil.
When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, and asafoetida. When the oil becomes frothy, add the dried red chilies and the peanuts. If the dried red chilies are big, break them into small pieces. (Gingelly oil always becomes frothy)
Reduce the heat to low and fry them for two minutes and then add curry leaves and fry for 30 seconds.
Mix 2 tsps of tamarind paste with 1 cup of water and add this slowly to the tempering. You are adding water to the hot oil, so add slowly.
Add salt, turmeric powder, rasam powder, and jaggery. Mix well and let it simmer for atleast
Let it simmer for 10 minutes over medium-low heat.
By now, tamarind paste will thicken and now add the methi powder and mix well. Let it cook for a minute and turn off the heat.
That's the puliodarai gojju mix ready.
Make the tamarind rice | puliodarai
Add the required amount of the prepare puliodarai gojju or the pulikaichal mix to the cooked and cooled down rice. Mix well and serve it with vadagam or chips or appalam.
Notes
Rasam powder is optional, but I highly recommend it.
I always tried this recipe with homemade fenugreek powder. Make sure to roast it thoroughly. Also, fenugreek powder is the key ingredient that adds all the flavor. So do not skip it.
Adjust the dried red chilies, salt as per your preference.
If using tamarind pulp, a gooseberry-sized or cherry tomato sized tamarind pulp would do. Soak it in hot water for 30 minutes and extract the juice.