Delicious & divine Kovil Puliyodharai recipe with detailed step by step pictures. Temple Style Puliyodharai recipe made with fresh ground spices – tastes so brilliant and is best as travel food too!
Spread 4 cups of cooked rice in a large plate or bowl, add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon sesame oil all over. Let it cool down completely.
In a bowl add small lemon sized ball of tamarind and pour ½ cup hot water. Let it soak for a few minutes.
In a heavy pan, dry roast ½ teaspoon black peppercorns and ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds with 2 dry red chillies until fragrant. Remove from heat.
In the same pan add 1 teaspoon urad dal, 1 teaspoon chana dal and fry on low flame.
As the dals turn golden brown, add 1 teaspoon sesame seeds and fry for a few seconds until they begin popping. Remove from heat.
Once cooled down, add all the roasted ingredients into a blender and blend into a coarse powder. Set aside.
In the same pan heat 2 teaspoon sesame oil and add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon urad dal, 1 teaspoon chana dal, 1 dry red chilli cut into two and 2-3 tablespoon peanuts.
As they begin popping and turn golden brown, add 2 green chillies slit cut and few fresh curry leaves along with ¼ teaspoon asafoetida.
Add this tempering and the prepared spice powder to the cooled down rice. Mix well.
Meanwhile extract the tamarind juice and strain out the pulp.
In the same pan add 1 teaspoon sesame oil and add the prepared tamarind extract. Add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon jaggery and salt as needed. Note: I added half of salt in my rice while cooking, so only adding remaining salt in the pulikachal.
Cook it on low flame until it is thick and leaves the sides of the pan.
Now add the prepared pulikchal to the rice.
Mix well until everything is combined. Let it rest for a few hours.
Serve with potato roast or raw banana roast. It can also be packed in lunch boxes and as travel food with some chips.
Notes
I made small batch of pulikachal and puliyodharai spice powder enough for one preparation for two people, double the quantities as needed for a large batch.