Puliyogare is a simple tamarind rice made by tempering precooked rice with spicy tamarind paste. This tamarind rice is very flavorful and tastes spicy, slightly sweet & sour. It is traditional south Indian dish made on occasions to serve as a main meal. It is also very popularly offered to gods in Hindu temples & is served as a prasadam.
Recipe Snapshot
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 20 minutes
- Total time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 · 2 to 3
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Karnataka
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice ((preferably short grain like sona masuri, ponni etc))
- 4 tablespoons tamarind (Lemon sized ball (use as needed, more or less))
- 1 tablespoon jaggery (grated (adjust to taste))
- ½ teaspoon salt ((adjust to taste))
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds ((rai))
- 2 to 3 tablespoons peanuts ((or cashews))
- ½ to ¾ tablespoons chana dal ((skinned bengal gram))
- ½ to ¾ tablespoons urad dal ((skinned black gram))
- Salt ((as needed))
- 1 to 2 green chilies (slit)
- 1 red chili (broken)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1/8 teaspoon asafoetida ((hing))
- ¾ tablespoons chana dal
- ¾ tablespoons urad dal ((skinned black gram))
- 2 to 3 red chilies (broken (preferably byadgi))
- 1 tablespoons coriander seeds
- ½ tablespoons cumin ((jeera))
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds ((rai))
- ¼ teaspoon methi seeds ((fenugreek seeds))
- ¼ teaspoon pepper corn ((powder))
- 1/8 teaspoon asafoetida ((hing))
- 1 ½ tablespoons sesame seeds ((preferably white))
- 2 to 3 tablespoons dried coconut ((preferably copra))
Method
Preparation
- Wash rice a few times and cook to keep the rice grainy. Mushy rice doesn't go well to make puliyogare.
- I usually cook rice with 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles following the pot-in-pot method.
- Spread the rice and cool it completely.
- Soak tamarind in ½ to ¾ cup water. Add jaggery and stir until it dissolves.
- When the tamarind turns soft, squeeze it well with your fingers and extract juice.
- Taste test this and if you want it slightly more sweeter, add a bit more of jaggery. The sweetness reduces as you cook down. I prefer to pass it through a filter. Set this aside.
Make puliyogare powder
- Heat a pan on a low to medium flame. Dry roast chana dal, urad dal and red chilies until lightly golden.
- Add pepper corn. methi seeds and coriander seeds.
- Continue to roast stirring often until methi begins to smell good.
- Add cumin, mustard, sesame seeds and coconut. Continue to roast stirring continuously.
- When the coconut begins to smell good. Add hing.
- Switch off the stove and cool this completely.
- Powder this as finely as possible in a blender. Set this aside.
How to make puliyogare
- Heat the same pan with oil and add mustard seeds.
- When they begin to crackle, add dals and peanuts.
- Roast them until lightly golden. Then add curry leaves, green chilies and red chilies.
- When the peanuts and dal turn completely golden, add hing.
- Pour the tamarind and jaggery water and stir.
- Add turmeric and salt. Stir and begin to cook until slightly thick.
- Then add the powder little by little and mix.
- If the mixture becomes too thick, then add some more water to the tamarind and squeeze. Pour this water back to the pan.
- Stir and cook on a medium heat until it thickens.
- You can add 1 tbsp oil at this moment.
- Cook on a low heat until the mixture turns thick and begins to leave oil. Add more salt if needed.
- Add this to the cooled rice and mix. Do not add the entire mixture at one time.
- Add little by little as needed and mix to prevent too much of puliyogare gojju in your rice.
- You may be left with some extra puliyogare mix, which you can use up the next few days.
- Allow puliyogare to absorb the flavors for about 30 mins then serve.
- Usually tamarind rice is served without any accompaniment. You can serve it with some plain curd.
Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note
Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.