Homemade Puliyotharai Paste

Ingredients:

Tamarind – 2 lemon sized balls

Jaggery – 1 tablespoon

Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon

Hing – 1 teaspoon

Roast & grind to powder:

Curry leaves – 10

Coriander seeds – ¼ cup

Pepper – 1 teaspoon

Channa dal – 2 tablespoons

Red chilies – 6

Tempering:

Sesame oil – ½ cup

Mustard seeds – 1 tablespoon

Channa dal – 1 tablespoon

Urad dal – 1 tablespoon

Sesame seeds – 2 tablespoons

Roasted peanuts – ¼ cup

Curry leaves – 20

Red chilies – 3 (broken into halves)

Method:

1. Soak tamarind in 2 cups of warm water for about ½ hour.
2. Squeeze tamarind extract and keep aside.
3. Roast all ingredients mentioned in a teaspoon of oil to golden brown and grind to powder.
4. Heat oil in a deep pan add mustard seeds allow spluttering.
5. Add the rest of the items one by one and fry until the dals turn golden brown.
6. Add the tamarind extract, hing, turmeric powder and salt and allow this to boil until oil separates to the sides of the pan.
7. Add the ground powder allow boiling for a couple more minutes.
8. Allow to cool down completely & fill up in an airtight, clean, dry bottle/jar.
9. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons to mix with one cup of cooked rice & add a teaspoon of sesame oil to make puliyotharai/tamarind rice.