#tamarind paste

Ingredients 

 MARINADE

▢ 1½ teaspoons coriander seeds

▢ ½ teaspoon cumin seeds

▢ ½ teaspoon white peppercorns

▢ 1 tablespoon brown sugar

▢ ¾ teaspoon table salt

▢ ¾ teaspoon ground turmeric

▢ ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

▢ 1 tablespoon tamarind paste, store-bought or homemade

▢ ½ cup coconut milk

▢ 1.2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in long ½-inch thick strips (see note)

▢ Jasmine rice and/or white toast, for serving

PEANUT SAUCE

▢ ½ cup roasted peanuts, unsalted

▢ 1¼ cups coconut milk

▢ 2 tablespoons red curry paste, store-bought or homemade

▢ 2 tablespoons tamarind paste, store-bought or homemade

▢ 2 tablespoons finely chopped palm sugar, packed

▢ 1-2 teaspoons fish sauce

"AJAAD" QUICK CUCUMBER PICKLE (OPTIONAL)

▢ ½ cup white vinegar

▢ ¼ cup granulated sugar

▢ Pinch of table salt

▢ 5 ounces cucumber

▢ 1-2 Thai chilies, chopped (optional)

Pound the coriander, cumin and white peppercorns into a powder.

Add all remaining marinade ingredients and mix well. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Cut the chicken breast against the grain, diagonally, into ½-inch thick strips. Once you get to the flat part of the chicken, you can make it wider to even out the size. For chicken thighs, trim off excess fat and any dangly bits and cut horizontally in half. (See video for a visual of how to do this.)

Mix well with the marinade and let sit for at least 20 minutes and up to one day. Meanwhile make the peanut sauce.

Grind the peanuts until mealy in a food processor or mortar and pestle. Do not turn them into peanut butter!

Cook ⅓ cup of the coconut milk with the red curry paste until thick, and the coconut oil starts to separate out from the paste.

Add the remaining coconut milk, the peanuts, tamarind and palm sugar and cook for about 5 minutes until it's thick.

Taste the sauce and add fish sauce as needed. If you want to serve with pickles, make the pickling liquid now; instructions are in the recipe card, but you simply have to dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar and let it cool!

Grill the chicken breast for a few minutes per side with the lid open. If using chicken thighs, you may close the lid as they tend to take longer. You can also pan sear the chicken on a nonstick skillet instead.

Pad Thai ©Kevin Ashton 2022 I am currently teaching a 2 part Thai cookery course online via Zoom, if any UK readers are interested please see the course infromation at the end of the article. Pad Thai is the national dish of Thailand but like the origins of many other food dishes its origns are disputed. As best as my research could tell, it was actually created in the 1930s in Thailand by Plaek…

Ever wondered a sour-tasting rice would make you eager for the next spoon? Even when you go to the temple, worship god ,ring the temple’s nicest sounding bells ,you love heading to the Prasad queue with round paper plates . Or  even when you watch your mother slowly stir the brownish-sauce-like dish which makes ‘plop’-‘plop’ sound in the medium glistening flame ,you tend to dip a spoon into the dish and lick the lip-smacking puliogare paste.Either  way, puliyogare  has always made your mouth water. So are you curious to explore more about the tartness of this tamarind dish? Here it goes…

Origin and history:

The tamarind rice , puliyodharai ( Tamil ) or puliyogare( Kannada ) or pulihora (Telugu ) ,which literally means “sour rice” , is originated from the southern part of India. The dish was made widely by the Iyengar / Sri Vaishnava community .  Melukote , which is located in Mandya district of Karnataka,is famous for its puliyogare and  perhaps this is were you can find one of the best puliyogare in the world.

                  During the empire of Kulothunga Chola-II, Sri Ramanujacharya migrated from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka and was welcomed by  Vishnuvardhan , the king of Hoysala,who then accepted him as his guru. The king’s original name was Bitti Deva ,which was later changed to Vishnuvardhan by his guru Ramanujacharya.

                      Later , to establish a monastery in Melukote , Vishnuvardhan gifted this place to Ramanujacharya. Ramanujacharya lived there for 12 years and the place ended up as the centre of Sri Vaishnava tradition.The inhabitants of Melukote were the disciples of the acharya who followed him along with his journey from Tamil Nadu and as well as the locals of Karnataka who accepted the Vaishanava faith.Then ,the temples stared serving puliyogare as the Prasad .But ,there is no strong evidence that can state whether the dish originated from Tamil Nadu or Karnataka.For now , the credits owe to Sri Vaishnava community for introducing the tantalizing dish.

Making of the dish:

                  Puliyogare can be made in seconds, if you have  pre-cooked rice.It can be served alone or with happla,sandige,curd or fresh kosambari.To make it even more scrumptious , it is along with curd rice!! Cooking puliyogare has 2 stages: (i) preparing the pulikaachal or gojiu(puliogare paste) (ii)adding rice to prepared gojiu.

                The ingredients required for the dish includes tamarind,oil,mustard seeds,cumin seeds,coriander seeds,fenugreek seeds,urad dal,channa dal,black pepper,pinch of hing,turmeric powder,dried chillies,fistful groundnut,jaggery,salt,cooked & cooled rice.

Once the pulikaachal(gojiu) is made , it can be stored separately.Whenever you want to have tamarind rice,just mix the gojiu with the cooked rice .

Speciality :

                         It contains 19% iron , 2% calcium . It reduces the acidity and balances juices inside stomach. While cooking the dish seems to be easy,cleaning up is no joy!

                      It has its own medicinal qualities especially in helping attain glowing skin.There happened an incident were a leprosy affected man was cured of this disease in a couple of months after eating Iyengar puliyogare available in the temple.The man then purchased the puliyogare in bulk amounts!

                       Rakesh Raghunath,musician ,show host and a food traveller, has a popular blog called Puliyogare Travels and his mission is to find out all about traditional food in India .

                         During long travels or the wedding fests or even the school lunch breaks , puliyogare is fondly preferred and  folks would trade things for a few spoons of the dish.