Pulikachal/Tamarind Rice Paste/Puliyodharai Paste/Puliyogare Paste

Am not a big fan of store bought spice pastes or readymade rice mix, but i love to prepare myself those humble spice pastes at home whenever time permits. Pulikachal aka tamarind rice paste is a must if you are planning to make Puliyodharai at home. However making pulikachal at home is definitely easy and this spice paste is seriously very handy whenever you doesnt have enough time to dish some tamarind rice with less efforts. This paste calls for tamarind extract which is tempered later with usual tempering spices and cooked with a spice mix to make it more flavourful. This is one of most popular ready mix easily available everywhere (departemental stores, sweet stalls, grocery shops or else even in hotels) especially in South India. Not to forget that this rice paste mix is definitely an excellent travel friendly spice paste to carry with as they stay prefect for almost more than 3 days in room temperature if conserved properly.

Am running this week's blogging marathon with an interesting theme called ' Recipes with Shelf life'. Obviously this incredible Pulikachal goes prefectly under this theme as this ready mix paste can stay prefectly for a long if conserved properly. Yes the shelf life of this paste is particularly important if kept in fridge.Store in a clean and dry glass Jar and dont forget to use clean dry spoons every time for using it. Whenever you feel like having tangy puliyodharai aka tamarind rice, just cook the rice perfectly and mix enough pulikachal to toss the rice well. Your tamarind rice is ready to enjoy with your favourite spicy side dish like potato fry or else simply with papads.

1/4kg Tamarind
1cup Gingely Oil
1/2tsp Turmeric Powder
Salt

For tempering:
1tsp Mustard Seeds
2tsp Urad Dhal
1tsp Channa Dal
Few Curry Leaves
5nos Redchillies
Peanuts (as per need)

Spice Mix:
1/4cup Coriander Seeds
2tbsp Channa Dal
10nos Redchillies
1/2tsp Asafoetida
Few Curry Leaves
1tbsp Fenugreek seeds

Dry roast the ingredients under Spice mix in simmer until a nice aroma comes from. Cool them down and grind them into powder. Keep aside.

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 minutes. Squeeze the pulp and extract the juice.

Heat the gingelly oil in a pan. Let splutter the mustard seeds, add urad dal, channa dal and dry red chillies and fry them.

Add the curry leaves.peanuts and fry until they turns crispy. Add the tamarind juice. salt, cook for few minutes.

Now add the spice powder and cook for few minutes.

Cook until the oil seperates from the tamarind mixture.

Let it cool completely and pour the mixture to a clean jar. Arrange in fridge and use it as your desire.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#69