Tomato Puliogare / Thakkali Puliodharai / Tomato Puliodarai

Tomato Puliogare / Thakkali Puliodharai / Tomato Puliodarai

 Puliodarai / Puliogare is an authentic south indian rice variety which is generally made during festivals or on special occasions. Puliodarai is mostly liked by all and we love to taste this tangy rice during odd days also. As we all know that puliogare is generally made with thick tamarind paste along with other ingredients, I wish to try making "Tomato Puliogare" by adopting the method of making Puliogare with thickened tomato gravy instead of  tamarind gravy/paste. And I named my yummy, tangy Puliodarai as "Tomato Puliodarai". If you have "sour" tomatoes, then the taste would be heavenly. With an addition of few drops of Gingelly oil, the flavour of Puliodarai would be upgraded. With good accompaniments like Appalam, Vadams, or just with Potato chips, we can enjoy the Tomato Puliodarai at any time of the day. A good lunch box recipe, of course...

Ingredients

Tomato - 10 to 12 Medium size

Salt - To Taste

Gingelly Oil - 3 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Basmati Rice / Sona Masoori Rice - 2.5 Cups

Hing/Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Mustard Seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Dry Red Chillies - 5

Urad Dal /Minna Pappu/Ulutham Paruppu -  1 tbsp

Channa Dal/Senaga Pappu/Kadalai Paruppu - 1 tbsp

Ground nuts / Peanuts - 2 handful ( Adjust according to your taste )

Curry Leaves - 2 stems

Jaggery - 1 tsp

For the powder

Channa Dal / Senaga Pappu / Kadalai Paruppu - 1.5 tbsp

Urad Dal / Ulutham Paruppu / Minapa Pappu - 1 tbsp

Vendhayam / Fenugreek seeds / Methi Seeds - 1 tsp

Coriander Seeds - 3 tsp

Dry Red chillies - 5 or 6 big

Method

1. Wash the tomatoes and chop them ready. In the frying pan, add a tsp of oil and fry all the ingredients for making the spice powder till a nice aroma emanates. Then, grind them nicely using a mixer grinder and keep the spice powder ready.
2. Cook the Basmati Rice / Sona Masoori Rice and keep it ready. For 1 cup of basmati rice add 2 cups of water. For 1 cup of Sona Masoori rice, add 2.5 cups of water. But this ratio totally depends on the type and age of the rice.
3. In a separate frying pan, add a tbsp of oil and when its heated, add the chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt and fry them till they become mashy. Make a thick paste of this tomato gravy and keep it ready.
4. In a big frying pan, add the remaining oil and start adding the ingredients for the tempering process like Hing, Mustard seeds, Urad Dal, Channa Dal, Ground nuts, Dry red chillies, curry leaves. Roast them till they turn golden brown.
5. Then, add the thicken tomato paste and the spice powder to the pan. Mix them well and fry them for about 2-3 minutes till they all blend together.
6. Add the cooked rice to the pan and spread them using a spatula. Add the Gingelly Oil, required amount of salt to the rice and mix them well with the spicy paste.
7. Leave the rice in the pan as it is for couple of minutes and transfer the rice to the serving container.
8. Tomato Puliodarai is now ready to enjoy with a side of few papads and crunchy vadas.

Tips / Variations 

• Instead of directly adding the chopped tomatoes, you can add the crushed tomato puree into the frying pan while making the thick tomato paste.
• You can add cashew nuts too while making this Puliodarai for a special occasion.
• Try not to forget the Gingelly Oil as its the main taste maker in Puliodarai.
• Cook the rice to the right consistency so that its not sticky or pasty. Rice should look separate but cooked.

Potato Kuruma

Plain potato kurma is our all time favourite and it goes well with chappathis, pulav very well. Made this creamy potato kurma for the vegetable pulav which i made yesterday. For parties, its preferable as its easier to make and its not time consuming also. I still remember the sunday morning breakfast in our hostel during our college days. I used to get up early mainly to taste the watery potato kuruma with hard dried rotis. Though the quality of those rotis were not that good, the watery potato kuruma was tasty. We tried to hunt all the potatoes hiding in that watery kuruma in our mess. That time, i did not even know that i would be making this potato kuruma by myself one day and eat. !!!!

Ingredients

Potatoes - 8-10 Medium Size

Onion - 1/2 Big or 1 Medium nicely cut into thin slices

Tomato - 1 Big One

Fresh Peas / Frozen Peas - 1 handful

Pudina / Mint Leaves - 2 tbsp chopped

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder - 2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp

Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Garam Masala Powder - 1 tbsp

For Tempering

Olive Oil - 3 tbsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Fennel Seeds - 2 tsp

Cinnamon Sticks / Pattai - 2 Medium Ones

Lavang / Cloves - 4 or 5

Cardamom Seeds - 3

Bay Leaves - 2

Anashuppu / Anise Star Seed - 1

For Grinding

Fresh Coconut - 3/4th of a cup

Khus Khus - 1 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 1 handful

Sombu / fennel seeds - 2 tsp

Green Chilly - 2 medium

Method

1. Wash all the potatoes and cook them well. After its cooked, peel off the skin and keep it ready.
2. Grind the ingredients as mentioned above in a mixer grinder. Grind it to a smooth paste and keep it ready.
3. Cut the onions, tomatoes and keep them ready too. After these three processes, we can start heating the kadai.
4. On a thick bottomed vessel, add Olive Oil first. When its heated, add all the ingredients as mentioned under "Tempering" one by one. Make sure that the heat is on a medium flame only.
5. After tempering process is done, add the onions and fry them with a pinch of salt for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add the ginger garlic paste next and fry them till the raw smell goes off.
7. Add the tomatoes next into the vessel and fry them till the tomatoes get mashy and softer. Then, add pudina and frozen peas or fresh peas into the kadai. Fry for a minutes.
8. Finally add all the powders to the mix in the kadai. Fry all of the contents in the kadai for 2-3 minutes.
9. Then, add the grounded mixture into the kadai. Add required amount of water into it.
10. Add salt to the mixture and mix everything thoroughly.
11. Close the lid and let the Kuruma gravy cooks well and let the raw smell completely goes off the gravy.
12. Open the lid and check to see whether the gravy becomes little thicker and if you feel the rawness in taste or in the texture of the gravy, allow the gravy to cook for some more time.
13. After the gravy is done completely, add the cooked, peeled potatoes into the kuruma gravy.
14. Let the kuruma cooks in open for 2-3 minutes. Then, switch off the flame and let the kurma cools and settles down.
15. Now the spicy, tasty potato kurma is ready to serve with roti, chappathi...

Variations

 You can add almonds instead of Cashew nuts in the grinding mixture.

 You can reduce the spicyness in the kurmua gravy by taking out the green chillies from the grinding mixture if its only for 

 the kids. 

Tips

 Allow the gravy to get cooked completely. If the rawness still remains in the gravy, then the kuruma wont taste very good.

 Add enough water in the beginning while making the gravy itself. If you add water at the end, after making the kuruma completely, then the kuruma's taste might change and it reduces the punch in the kuruma.