1. If you do not have premade cooked rice, make it and then cool completely before starting stove method.

2. Each grain of rice should be fluffy and separate.
3. If making in a pressure cooker, wash and drain raw rice; set aside.
4. If using fresh tamarind, soak it in ½ cup of hot water for about 15 minutes.

TO MAKE THE PULIYODHARAI/TAMARIND RICE MASALA

1. Heat a large saucepan on medium heat and add the spices listed under puliyodharai masala except coconut, hing and turmeric.
2. Roast the spices on medium low heat, stirring often until light brown and roasted.
3. Add the coconut and keep roasting until the coconut is dry and loses all its moisture.
4. At this stage add the hing powder and haldi; mix and remove the pan from heat. Let cool.
5. Once the mixture is cool, blend in a spice blender or regular blender to a find powder. Set aside.

TO MAKE TAMARIND RICE ON STOVE TOP

1. Heat oil in a saucepan and once hot, add mustard seeds.
2. Once the seeds splutter and crackle, add the chana and urad dals; sauté a few seconds.
3. Stir in the hing, curry leaves, dry red chili and peanuts along with the methi seeds and fry on medium heat until the peanuts are well roasted and fried.

4. At this stage, squeeze the soaked tamarind to get tamarind juice and add to the seasoning mix. If using tamarind paste add now and add some water; about ½ cup.

5. Add salt to taste and about 2 tbsp jaggery powder (to begin with) and mix well.

6. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to boil.

7. Simmer for about 2-3 minutes on medium low heat.

8. Do a taste test and adjust tamarind, salt and jaggery to make a tangy, slightly sweet, savory mixture, according to personal taste.

9. Add the blended spice mixture; stir to combine well. Keep mixing and stir until you get a thick sauce.

10. At this stage, stir in the cooked rice (in batches); mix until well coated with the tamarind sauce. Add more oil if you feel the mixture is dry.
11. Remove from heat and let cool. Enjoy warm, cool or at room temperature.
12. If you have less amount of rice, remove some tamarind sauce from the pan and then add rice to just coat it.
13. If needed you can add more tamarind sauce; store excess tamarind sauce in fridge to use later.

STOVE TOP PRESSURE COOKER METHOD

1. Same method to make the puliotharai spice mix as above.
2. Heat oil (1/4 cup) in a stove top pressure pan on medium heat and after mustard seeds have spluttered, add chana dal and urad dal along with hing, methi seeds, dry red chili, curry leaves and peanuts if using.

3. Saute a few seconds and add tamarind water or paste with a bit of water.

4. Add powdered spices, jaggery and salt. Add more water (just a splash so as to not burn the spices) and cook until slightly thick; mix well.
5. Stir in washed and drained rice and sauté for few minutes.
6. Add twice the amount of water (or adjust the amount of water like for any pulao with the type of rice your use).
7. Mix well, adjust seasonings and pressure cook on low after the first whistle for 5 to 7 minutes.
8. Remove pan from heat source.
9. Let pressure drop naturally and then open. Let cool completely. Fluff up with a fork or ladle.
10. Make sure it is cool or the rice will mash up.

INSTANT POT PRESSURE COOKER METHOD

1. After the spice mix is ready and tamarind juice has been squeezed from the soaked tamarind (you will need about ½ cup tamarind water), time to make tamarind rice.
2. Heat ¼ cup oil and add 1 tsp mustard seeds on “sauté”.
3. When they splutter, add urad and chana dals along with hing, methi seeds, curry leaves and peanuts if using.
4. Roast or fry, stirring continuously until the lentils are light brown and peanuts are slightly fried.

5. Stir in tamarind water/tamarind paste with some water, spice mix, jaggery and salt to taste.

6. Mix well and cook until most moisture is gone. At this stage, if you feel the bottom of the pan is burning, turn the IP off and continue cooking or remove from heat source. The residual heat is enough to fry the tamarind mixture. If needed, splash some water to avoid burnt mixture at the bottom of the pot.

7. When thick, add drained rice (about 1 ½ cups), 1 ¾ cups hot water; mix well.

8. If you have switched the “sauté” button off, turn it back on. Mix well and adjust tamarind, salt and jaggery if needed.
9. Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen any stuck masala.
10. Cancel the “sauté” button and on seal, pressure cook on “HIGH” for 4 minutes.
11. After 4 minutes, natural pressure release 5 minutes and then manually release pressure completely.
12. When the seal has dropped, remove inner pot from IP and place the inner pot on a trivet to cool completely.
13. Keep it open or cover loosely with the lid. This prevents the rice from cooking further and turning mushy.
14. You will also notice that there is some amount of gravy still. DO NOT WORRY! Let the rice cool fully, undisturbed.
15. When fairly cool, gently mix and fluff up the rice using a flat ladle or fork without breaking the rice grains.
16. Thoroughly mix and enjoy warm, cooled or at room temperature.

TO MAKE THE TADKA (Optional but adds more flavor)

1. Make a tadka of oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing and peanuts.
2. Add to tamarind rice, mix and enjoy!
3. Serve spicy, tangy and lip smacking tamarind rice with some crispy potato chips, roasted/fried peanuts and a salad if needed on the side.
4. Enjoy and Happy Cooking/Eating