Pulihora | Andhra Style Chintapandu Pulihora

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all!!I hope every one is busy with the festival celebrations.

A festival is not complete without a variety rice,sweet,kheer and sundal varieties.Pulihora and lemon rice are the most common among the rice varieties.Though the process for lemon rice is similarly followed by all,pulihora recipe changes from home to home.My mom used to make a special Pulihora Gojju and when she wants to make pulihora all she needs to do is to mix the rice wid the pulihora gojju and lately she started making podi which is convenient to use.I have posted a version of Puliyogre in my blog earlier and today I am posting the Andhra version of pulihora.

In Andhra the pulihora is made in a very simple way,they do not add any powders to the gojju.All it has is tamarind pulp,jaggery(which is optional) and green chillies along with the basic tempering ingredients.They use light colored chillies for this and is cooked in the tamarind mixture while making the base for the rice,that adds a kind of tangy touch to the chili and gives a nice bite while eating the rice.It is a simple recipe which DH likes very much and hence I do make it quite often.
Andhra Style Chintapandu Pulihora Recipe:
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
1 cup Sona masura rice(or equivalent)
1 big lemon size Tamarind
3-4 tbsp Groundnuts
2 tsp grated Jaggery(optional)
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
2 tbsp Chana dal
1 tbsp Urad dal
3-4 dry Red chillies
5-6 light colored(less spice) Green chillies,slit
1 tsp Turmeric powder
a pinch of Asafoetida
a sprig of Curry leaves
2-3 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
Method:

• Wash the rice and add 2 cups of water and soak it for 15-20 mins.Pressure cook the rice or cook it in electric rice cooker or how ever you usually do.
• Once the rice is done,cool it completely by spreading it over wide plate smear with 1 tsp of oil and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder.
• Soak tamarind in 1/4 cup of water for 10-15 mins or microwave the tamarind mixture for 1 min.Microwave method is quite quick when u have lack of time.After it is cooled down remove the pulp and add grated jaggery and mix well until it is melted completely.
• In a kadai heat oil and crackle the mustard seeds,add groundnuts and fry until they turn slight red.Add chana dal,urad dal,red chillies,green chillies and fry for a couple of minutes until done.
• Add curry leaves,asafoetida and turmeric powder and fry for a minute and then add tamarind pulp mixture and mix until the mixture thickens completely for at least 5-6 mins.Add enough salt to it and mix.
• Now remove it from the stove and let it cool a bit and reserve some mixture and pour the remaining mixture over the cooled rice and mix properly until everything is well blended.Now check the taste of it and add more tamarind mixture or salt according to your taste.It should taste sour when you taste it as the sourness will reduce and blend well along with the time it sits.
• Let it sit for 2-3 hrs before serving.

Serve it at room temperature.
Notes:

1. Use rice varieties like sona masuri,ponni,jeeraga samba for these kind of rice varieties,I do not suggest basmati rice.
2. Always make it bit tangy so that it will taste nice once it settles down.
3. This rice is ideal to pack for travel as it does not get spoilt,you can keep it for long upto a day.