Wash and cook the rice in your preferred way by adding two cups of water. Let the cooked rice cool down and set aside.
Wash 1 cup of curry leaves and pat it dry. You can keep it under the sun for half an hour or dry them under fan too.
If using tamarind paste, mix 1.5 tbsp of tamarind in 1 cup of water or soak small lemon sized tamarind in 1.5 cups of water extract about 1 cup of tamarind juice.
Steps
Preparing the curry leaves mix
Heat the kadai and add two tsps ghee or oil. Add the curry leaves and the black pepper and dry roast until the leaves are crisp.
Let it cool and grind into a powder.
Tempering and Preparing Karivepaku Mix
In another kadai or pan, add 1 tbsp of oil.
Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, peanuts, hing and red chilies.
Saute for a couple of minutes and as they start to splutter, add the turmeric and tamarind extract.
Add salt to the mix and bring it to a boil.
At that stage add the curry leaf powder and mix well.
Bring it to a boil again, and it will slowly start to thicken.
As it starts to thicken, turn off the heat. That's it the pulihora mix is ready.
Store this mix in an airtight container, and I stayed good for up to 2 weeks. And when required, add it to rice mix to prepare the pulihora like below.
Preparing the Curry Leaves Pulihora
Add the curry leaves paste to the rice and mix well. If required add more ghee and serve hot with fryums or papad.
Notes
For a spicier version, you can add up to 2 to 3 tsps of peppercorns. I love the combo to curry leaves and peppercorns. :-)
I did not add jaggery, but a small piece of jaggery can be added to while simmering the tamarind mix.
You wash and dry the curry leaves well ahead and make sure you roast the curry leaves until they are crisp.
Adjust salt and spice as per your preference.
You can use oil instead of ghee for the vegan version.