Iyengari Puliyogre Gojju

Raise your hand if you DONT love puliyogre. Raise if your hand if you DO. There I see more participation now!
Sometimes I feel the hubby married me only to be assured of constant access to this delectable dish which is so near to any Iyengari's heart. My mother has had a dream run because all she had to say was "Puliyogre" to have him at her beck and call. He also coaxed her to send some of her gojju with us to the US. But the only thing I do not understand in all this hullabulloo is why the hubby heats it before eating it. Ever heard of eating hot puliyogre but thats the only way he likes it! Pulioygre is the rice dish of choice on any festival day or special occasion in an Iyengari house. An Iyengari wedding caterer is judged solely on his Puliyogre making calibre to get repeat contracts. The judgement is even passed as a whisper throughout the wedding hall so people who come in later batches to eat are already equipped with the knowledge of whether to skip all else to conserve space for the Puliyogre or to avoid it entirely.

Puliyogre can easily be the only dish for a meal or one of the main course dishes in a bigger meal. If the gojju is on hand, it is a breeze to make.

The Puliyogre gojju can be stored in air tight containers for upto a month. I keep it in the fridge sometimes but my mom never does and it does not grow mold or go bad.

Iyengari Puliyogre Gojju

Servings: Fills 1 Mason Jar/ Kissam Jam bottle
Prep Time: 2 - 4 hrs Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

200 gms Tamarind (should yield 1.5 cups of juice)
3-4 cups of water
3/4 cup Sambhar powder or Rasam powder
3/4 cup Jaggery shavings

For Seasoning

3/4 cup Oil
1 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Turmeric
4 Red Chillies
3-4 tsp Channa Dal
2 tsp Hing/Asafoetida
10-15 Curry leaves

Instructions

1. Wash and soak tamarind in the water for 4 hours till it softens enough to squeeze to get the pulp. 
2. Alternately wash and soak in water and microwave for 30 min bursts 2-3 times till it softens. Continue to soak for around 2 hours and then squeeze to get the pulp.
3. Do NOT add too much water in the soaking process, else it takes a longer time to get the gojju consistency later. 
4. Squeeze to get the pulp and then filter it using a tea filter (I found this easier) or cloth to get 1.5 cups of tamarind juice. It is a process which requires patience so have your favourite music on if that helps. 
5. Once you have the filtered juice from all the pulp and if it is not yet 1.5 cups, add half a cup of water to the pulp, squueze some more, filter and get more juice. 
6. If you have gotten this far, the tough part of the recipe is over so relax. 
7. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and mustard seeds to  it.
8. Once the mustard seeds splutters add all the seasoning ingredients one by one in the same order listed above.
9. Fry for a minute making sure that the channa dal does not over brown. 
10. Reduce the flame to low.
11. Now add the tamarind juice to it slowly. It is best to slide it down the side of the vessel to avoid oil spurts.
12. Stir the mixture and allow to boil. 
13. Once it boils add the Sambhar/Rasam powder.
14. Mix thoroughly.
15. Add the jaggery and mix thoroughly.
16. The mixture would have thickened by now but continue to boil while stirring occasionally. 
17. It is done when it reaches the consistency of a thick gojju or idli batter. It takes approximately 40 minutes to get to this state
18. Allow it to cool completely on the counter top before storing it in an air tight container.

Pudina Pulav (Mint Pulav)

Dinner is ready! This was up for grabs yesterday night and everyone of my folks enjoyed it.

What you need to make Pudina Pulav

Spices to be used

• Refer to the same named section under Vegetable Pulav under the category Rice Dishes on my blog

Rest of the ingredients

• Rice - 250 gms
• Onion - 1 big
• Pudina leaves - 200 gms
• Peas (optional) - a few maybe 25 gms - 50 gms
• Coriander - 5-6 strands
• Salt to taste
• Oil - 3 tsp
• Water - double the measure of rice

Preparation for making Pudina Pulav

• Wash the rice (I do it 3 times).
• Cut onion into big slices. You want to be able to get the onion in your mouth and experience its taste when you eat the pulav
• Wash and chop the coriander into very small confetti.
• Wash and coarsely chop the pudina leaves (not too small)
• Grind all the spices together.

Method to make Pudina Pulav

• Heat a pressure cooker and put the oil into it.
• Add the onion to the oil and allow it to fry till soft.
• Now add the coriander in and allow it to fry a little. Gives it a nice taste. You could optionally put it in just before closing the lid of the cooker.
• Add the pudina leaves and fry it a little.
• Now drop in the peas.
• Put the rice in and the ground spices and stir everything together and allow it all to shallow fry.
• After around 5 minutes add the water.
• Add salt as much as required (yeah you got to taste if you cant do it just by seeing).
• As soon as it starts boiling close the lid of the cooker and let it all steam up.
• Your Pudina Pulav will be ready :)

My fundas

• Well there are no fundas except I somehow like chips with this Pulav rather than a Raita. Wonder why?

Vegetable Pulav

Pulav also spelt as Pulao or Pilaf is a fragrant rice dish. This dish is not particular to one region in the world. Seems like it has its origin in the Middle east and may have been popularised in India by people visiting from there. Today it is a common fare dish in Northern India and exceedingly becoming the "something different" special fare dish in Southern India as well. My house has a tradition of Pulav most Sundays because sundays are special requiring a special lunch! My mom is one of the best makers of pulav and she never has to contend with left-overs when she makes it. I have followed her footsteps and recipe and at the risk of sounding immodest, am becoming very good and confident at making Pulav too. Yesterday I made it again for T and family and it was delicious (with only one last minute refer-back to the recipe). One has to remember that dishes which use spices can taste different from one cook to another simply because the spices are all so unique. You add a little more of cinnamon then it tastes different from when you add a little more of the masala flower!

What you need to make Vegetable Pulav

Spices to be used

Please see the spices catalog to get an idea of what each of these look like if you dont already know

• Cloves - 10
• Cinnamon - 1 big piece
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Garlic - 10 pods
• Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
• Turmeric - 1 tsp
• Star Anise (Masala Flower) - 4
• Maratti Moggu - 4
• Bay Leaf - 2 or 3
• Red Chillies - 4 long
• Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
• Asafoetida - a pinch

Rest of the ingredients

• Rice - 1 "paav" rice (Paav is a measure we use in South India which is equivalent to approximately 250 gms)
• Beans - 250 gms
• Carrot - 250 gms
• Peas - 250 gms
• Onion - 2 big
• Coriander - 5 strands
• Coconut - 1/2
• Oil - 12 tsp
• Salt
• Water - double the quantity of rice (use same measure)

Preparation for making Vegetable Pulav

• Wash the beans, carrots and coriander thoroughly
• Slit the beans lengthwise and then cut them breadhtwise into 1 inch length pieces.
• Cut the carrots into thin long pieces of 1 inch length
• Cut the onions into half. Slit each half lengthwise and then make thin slices breadthwise.
• Grate the coconut. Alternately if you dont want to use coconut then soak 3 tsp of rice for around 15 mins till it becomes soft and breakable.
• Grind all the spices into a paste along with the coconut/soaked rice.
• Wash the rice and keep it ready.

Method to make Vegetable Pulav

• Take a pressure cooker and place it on a lighted stove.
• Add the oil into this and allow it to heat up.
• Put the onions in and sautee till it becomes golden brown.
• Put in the coriander and sautee a bit
• Now put in the beans, carrots and peas and sautee all this for 5 minutes.
• It would help to not keep the flame too high.
• Put in the rice and allow it fry for 5 minutes.
• Now add the spices paste to this and mix thoroughly.
• Add in the water at this point.
• Nows the time to add salt as well.
• Allow the whole thing to boil for sometime.
• When it comes to a boil, you can check if the salt is ok and then close the lid of the pressure cooker.
• Allow it to cook on steam.
• Aint it easy?

My fundas

• The bay leaf need not be ground into a paste. You can just put it in as a whole after the spices are added in the cooker. This will give an aromatic smell. But take care not to eat it!
• This quantity will easily serve 4 people.
• Reduce the quantity of each spice if you think you cannot handle the spice.
• Eat pulav hot with cool Raita (which I will give recipe for in the next post)