Puli Inji - Kerala Style

Puli means Tamarind, Inji for Ginger. Puli Inji is a thickish sauce with these two as the main ingredients.  It is served as part of Onam Sadya. Quick n easy to make, it's tangy, slightly sweet and is loved by all!

Puli Inji

 

What You Need -

Tamarind - a medium sized lemon (Soak in 2 cups water and extract pulp, discard seeds)
Jaggery (grated or coarsely powdered) - 2 tbsp
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Green chillies- 2 numbers
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

To Temper -

Coconut Oil - 1 1/2 tsp
Mustard /kadugu - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
Curry leaves - a few

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup - to be fried till golden brown (add finally)

Method -

• This dish is done in a single pan. Do the tempering first after heating some coconut oil. Fry till urad dal turns slightly reddish and a nice aroma evolves. Finally add grated coconut and fry until it turns golden colored.
• Soak tamarind in 2 cups of warm water for about 10 minutes and extract the juice. Throw away the seeds and strands. 
• First, add finely minced ginger to the tempering in the pan and then follow with green chillies (Pardon me, I used red chilli padi as I ran out of green chillies that day). 
• Add the extracted pulp of tamarind and let boil together.
• Add salt, chilli powder and turmeric (haldi).
• Finally, add some jaggery to balance out the flavors. The traditional recipe calls for jaggery.

• Let everything boil together and thicken like sauce.

This will be tart yet sweet!
Makes a great side-dish for idlis, dosas and many more! Puli Inji can also be mixed with rice and enjoyed.

This recipe makes 1 and 1/2 cups of Puli Inji. Store in a dry container in the fridge and this stays good for several days. 
 
Check out the Kanjeevaram Idlis that I made recently. My family enjoyed the combo of these idlis with Puli Inji. 

Sending this to "Only South Indian" at Foodelicious

Maddur Vada - Karnataka specialty

Maddur Vade/Vada is a popular Karnataka specialty and you'd have definitely had it if you have ever been on the Bangalore-Mysore train route. This one is a crispy crunchy snack that adults and kids alike will love to munch on! I had the opportunity to discover Kalyani's blog as part of my participation in Blog Hop Wednesdays event. I picked this recipe as I wanted to try a dish unique to a particular region. Kalyani has a beautiful blog with diverse recipes and tempting food pictures and I found her stories prior to every recipe to be very interesting!

I made Maddur Vade in about 30 minutes and it was finger-lickin' good! :)

Maddur Vade

You 'll Need -

Maida - 1 cup

Semolina / Rawa - 1/2 cup

Rice flour - 2 tbsp

Onion, finely chopped - 1/2 cup

Fresh coriander and some curry leaves, chopped  - 1/4 cup

Green chillies-  2 nos (or adjust to suit your taste)

Salt - to taste

Hot oil - 1/4 cup (to make the dough)

Water (preferably warm)- 2 tbsp (approx) - to make the dough

Some more oil - to deep fry the vadas

How To -

• Mix Maida, rawa and rice flour together in a bowl. Add chopped onions and salt and sprinkle little water to get some moisture. 
• After 5 mins, add chopped coriander, curry leaves, green chillies and pour hot oil and mix well to get a soft, pliable dough. Be careful and DONT use your hand because its HOT OIL (I burnt my fingers the first time I made Maa Laadu and learnt the lesson!) Use a stainless steel spoon instead!
•  Add warm water, a few drops at a time to get the dough done. Let sit for 10 minutes.
•  Grease your hands with oil (or use a baking sheet as suggested by Kalyani) and flatten a small ball (roughly of 1 inch diameter or slightly more) of the dough and make a disc (approx 3 inch dia).
• This is now ready to be deep-fried in pre-heated oil and then the Vada is ready to be devoured!

Simply use your palm! That's mehendi design on my hands, btw!

• Repeat the same step of making (kinda thick) discs with the dough and deep fry in batches of 2 or 3 depending on the capacity of your frying pan. I could fry just one at a time, as I used very little oil and the smallest pan I had (this is to reduce left-over oil that remains to be re-used!)
• Check for temperature of oil before frying, by dropping 1/2 tsp of mustard or jeera into it; they should pop up and sizzle. If the oil is not hot enough, the vadas will absorb more oil than necessary and will be soggy! 
• Keep in medium flame and fry the vadas, to ensure the dough gets cooked sufficiently. High flame will blacken the outside and leave the inside uncooked!
• Flip sides when it turns slightly golden colored and let the other side get crisp.

• Drain excess oil on kitchen tissues and enjoy these lovely Maddur Vadas with a cuppa hot masala chai! :-)

Crispy Maddur Vadas

Crispy Maddur Vadas on their way to BHW event!

And to MidWeek Fiesta @FoodCorner