Karuvepalai Sadam/ Curry leaves Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice

1 tbsp Ghee

Salt to taste

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp urad dal

hand full ground nuts

1 tsp oil

pinch hing.

Curry leaves to garnish.

For Dry Roast:

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp urad dal

1 tbsp seasame seeds

1  Red chilly

1/4 tsp hing

Hand full curry leaves.

Method:

1. Dry roast all the ingredients under ‘For Dry Roast’ one by one in the same order.

2. Let the roasted mixture cool for a minute and then powder it in a mixie. The curry leaves powder shud be less fine.

Karuvepalai podi / Curry Leaves Powder!!

Coriander Rice /Kothamalli Sadam

Coriander Rice!! Go Green 😉

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice

1cup Coriander/cilantro leaves

2 green chillies

1/2 cup green peas

1 Onion Sliced

1 tbsp Ginger-garlic paste

Some ground nuts

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

1 small  cinnamon stick

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp Desi ghee

Salt to taste.

Method:

1. Soak the rice with 2 cups of water in the rice cooker pan for about 20 mins.

2. Mean while in a pan, heat oil add cumin seeds. once they splutter saute the bay leaf, cloves and cinnamon stick .

3. Now add the onions and ginger-garlic paste and green peas and saute until the onions are transparent..

4. In a mixie grind the cilantro leaves and green chillies with very little water into a fine paste.

5. After 20 mins remove about 20% of water from the soaked rice i.e slightly less than 1/2 cup of water.

6. Now add the cilantro-chilly paste, onion-peas and other sauted mixture to the rice. add salt and mix well.

7. Cook them in the rice cooker.

8. In the same pan add ghee and roast the ground nuts.

9. Once the rice is done add the roasted ground nuts, mix well and transfer them to a serving dish and garnish it with fresh cilantro leaves.

10. Serve them hot with onion raita or any raita of ur choice.

TitBits 😀

*We remove about 20% of water from the rice as they r soaked and need less water to cook. If you don remove the 20%  of water then the rice will be over cooked and ll be mashed up.

* The cilantro-chilly paste shud be made with just enough water i.e the paste shud be thick and should not make the cilantro rice moist.

* I have added only the green peas to the rice to preserve the greenness of the dish. If you wish to add other veggies, you can add and call it a veggie cilantro pulav 😉

* You can also use roasted cashews and raisins instead of the roasted ground nuts.

This a beautiful green rice with a great aroma of cilantro leaves. I love this rice especially for its smell 😉

Enjoy the Coriander Rice!

Thanks a ton!

Puliyodarai/Tamarind Rice

Pulikatchal in the making…

Spicy puliyodarai!!

Puliyodarai, avial,karuvadam and finshing with thayir sadam… Yumm!! 🙂

Ingredients:

For Pulikatchal:

3 tbsp Tamarind Paste(Concentrate)

2 1/2 cups water

6-8 nos. Red Chillies

1 tsp Turmeric Pwdr

1-2 tbsp Jaggery

1 tsp Methi seeds

2 tbsp Seasme seeds

1 tsp Asafoetida

Salt to taste.

For Seasoning:

2 tsp Mustard Seeds

2 tsp Urad dal

2 tbsp Channa dal

Hand full Ground nuts

Hand full Curry leaves

Gingelly/Seasme oil.

For Puliyodarai:

1 cup cooked rice

2-3 tbsp of Pulikatchal.

Method:

1.In a non-stick pan heat around 2-3 tbsp of Gingelly oil and add the turmeric pwdr.

2. Now Mix the tamarind paste in water and add it to the pan.

3. Let the tamarind solution boil for a while in medium flame.

4. Dry roast the sesame seeds and fenugreek seeds and ground them into a fine pwdr and add it to the tamarind solution.

5. Now prepare the seasoning i.e heat about 3 tbsp of gingelly oil and add mustard seeds, once they splutter add the urad dal, channa dal, ground nuts, asafoetida and curry leaves.

6.Once they are roasted add the seasoning to the thickening tamarind solution.

7. Add salt and also add the jaggery and keep stirring it for about 5 mins.

8. You can see the tamarind solution thickening into a paste and also observe that the oil oozes out and settles at the top.

9. Taste the pulikatchal a bit and adjust salt if needed.

10. Let the pulikatchal cool and then store it to an air-tight container.

11.Now add about 2-3 tbsp of pulikatchal to the cooked rice and mix evenly. Add oil and salt if needed.

12. The home made spicy puliyodarai is ready to serve along with some chips/vadams or aviyal.

TitBits 😀

*If you are using the tamarind as such instead of the concentrated paste then use approximately a sweet lime size of tamarind and soak it in hot water and use the extract for the pulikatchal.

*A little amount of Jaggery is added to neutralize and balance the sourness with the spiciness of the red chilly.You can also add 2 tbsp of sugar if u dont have jaggery at home.

* The seasoning can be modified according to your taste. You can add roasted grams or soaked channa also instead of or along with the above mentioned.

*This recipe will make about 200 gms of Pulikatchal.

* The Pulikatchal will be good for months say even 3-4 months if stored in a air tight container and refrigerated.

We tried almost every brand of store bought pulikatchal and nothing tatsed yumm. Was very much wanting to eat the authentic home made pulikatchal i.e wat our grandma and mom used to prepare at home. So much away from home and dire hunger for puliyodarai made me venture this in my kitchen 🙂

Hurray i got it !!! Yes, luckily i happened to make yummy and spicy pulikatchal which ofcourse did not taste exactly like grandmas but still it was yummier than the store bought ones :p

For those who are fed up of trying every brand of pulikatchal in almost every other stores, this is the magic recipe 🙂

Must try!! Enjoy!!

Thanks a ton!

This Recipe goes to Sunita’s ” Think Spice ” Event hosted by PJ – Event Announcement .