variety rice Archives - MyEdibleCravings

Sambar rice is a south indian dish similar to Bisibela bath but has a different method of preparation. As the name suggests, it is a mixture of rice and sambar. Sambar is a mainstay in southern cuisine and is popular all over India as well (especially those north Indian celebrities who always make it a point to say that their favorite dish from Tamilnadu is Sambar ;))

Sambar rice is one of my most recent favorite dishes. I came across this recipe online while searching, as usual, for a new recipe to try. This particular one caught my attention because of the way it was prepared. In Bisibela bath, you put all vegetables, along with dal and rice and cook them together. But here in Sambar rice, you prepare the rice and sambar separately and mix them together later (I would suggest doing this right before serving).

Sambar rice always reminds me of my college days when it was served during our industrial visits (those days, huh :)) One good thing about sambar rice is that you don’t need a side dish. It tastes just fine with only chips or pickle. Enjoy this favorite dish by cooking it in your kitchen and as always post your comments

Sambar Rice

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

Rice – 1 cup
Toor dal – ½ cup
Tamarind – marble size
Drumstick – 1 no
Other vegetables , chopped – ½ cup (carrot, potato, brinjal)
Shallots – 10 nos
Tomato, chopped – 1 no
Sambar powder (sakthi) – ½ tbsp
Homemade sambar powder – ½ tsp
Turmeric powder – ⅛ tsp
Asafetida – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – a sprig
Cilantro, chopped – 2 tbsp

To roast & grind :

Red chillies – 3 nos
Channa dal – 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds – 1 & ½ tsp
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp
Grated coconut – 2 tbsp

To temper:

Oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Asafetida – ¼ tsp

Instructions

Cook the rice. Soak tamarind in water and extract the juice.
Soak toor dal in water for an hour and pressure cook for 5 whistles. When done mash it and keep aside.
Heat few drops of oil in a pan and roast the above given ingredients except coconut. Roast until they turn golden brown. Roast coconut separately. Allow them to cool and blend all together to a fine powder.
Heat a pan with a tbsp of oil and temper the given ingredients. Add shallots and curry leaves. Sauté until onions turn translucent.
Add tomatoes and fry till they become soft.
Add the tamarind extract and bring it to boil.
Now add turmeric powder, sambar powders, asafetida and all the vegetables.
When the vegetables are cooked. Sprinkle all the ground sambar powder on top slowly, stirring constantly. Switch off the flame- Do not add sambar powder as aheap as it might form lumps. Sprinkle little by little.
Add the sambar to the cooked rice along with dal and mix well (without breaking the veggies).
Add 2 tbsp of ghee and garnish with cilantro.
Enjoy the hot sambar rice with fryums and pickle! 

A traditional spicy and tangy puliyogare recipe which you can easily make at home.

Temples always bring back fond memories to me; beautiful sculptures, devotional songs, the divine atmosphere and the one of a kind prashadam-puliyogare! During my childhood days, I never forget to get to bring back some puliyogare (if the visit was to the Lord Vishnu temple).
The puliyogare version that I love the most (after the temple prashadam, of course!) is my mom’s. I always get excited when she makes it at home 🙂 . It is also very popular among my friends and my mom always prepares some for me to take back after my visit to home during my college days.
Puliyougarae/puliyodharai goes well with coriander chutney, paruppu vada or chips. The base ingredient called as pulikachal, can be prepared well in advance (as far as one week earlier). Whenever you feel lazy or don’t feel like trying out anything new, just mix some pulikaachal with white rice and tasty puliyogare can be prepared in no time.
Though it doesn’t look like the temple prashadam, it tastes yummy!

PULIYOGARAE

Recipe type: Lunch

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 3

A traditional spicy and tangy puliyogare recipe which you can easily make at home.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds - 2 tbs
Fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
Hing( solid) - 1 small piece
Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp for color
Pepper -10
Red chilly -7
Curry leaves- handful
Tamarind - lemon size
Gingelly oil – 2 to 3 tbs
Salt as required

Instructions

Puliyogarae powder:

Heat a pan, dry roast coriander seeds, pepper and fenugreek for few seconds until fenugreek seeds turn golden brown. (make sure not to burn the mixture). Now add hing atlast. Switch off the flame and take the pan off the stove (as the heat from the stove might burn the mixture).
Wait until the mixture cools down and grind to a fine powder (shelf life for this powder is 2 months).

Tamarind paste:

Soak lemon size tamarind in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes and drain the juice.
Heat a tawa and add the tamarind juice with enough salt, bring it to boil. Add turmeric powder when the mixture starts to boil and wait until it gets thicken. Switch off the flame when the tamarind paste is ready.

Pulikaachal:

Heat a pan and add gingelly oil (meanwhile break the red chillies into smaller pieces and keep it ready). When the oil is hot, season it with mustard seeds, urad dal, few curry leaves and red chillies(peanut and chenna dhal are optional)
Add little puliyogarae powder to the seasoning and immediately add the tamarind paste.
Add in the remaining puliyogarae powder to the mixture and boil it until oil separates.

Puliyogarae:

You can now mix the pulikachal with steamed rice in small quantities depending upon how tangy and how spicy you want the rice to be. Your Tamarind Rice is now ready. Serve puliyogare with coriander chutney or it goes well even with potato chips.