Pulihora – Tamarind rice

Cooked Rice seasoned with tamarind paste and other ingredients, usually made as Nivedhyam for temples.

Ingredients:
rice – 2 cups cooked.
Tamarind paste – 4 tablespoons
curry leaves – 3-4 leaves
mustard seeds – 1 tblspoon
hing/inguva – ½ tblspoon
greenhillies – 3-4 slit
minapappu – 2 tblspoons
senagapappu – 2 tblspoons
red/dried chillies – 2
salt – according to taste
turmeric – 1 tblspoon
oil – 2 tblspoons
Peanuts (Optional) – ½ cup
Coriander leaves – 2 stalks for garnishing
Methi powder( roasted/raw)(Optional) – ½ tblspoons 

Preparation:
1. Soak tamarind in hot water and make a thick paste by squeezing.Filter to remove stones and debris. Set this aside.
2. Cook 2 cups of rice without getting mushy and let it cool. Spread rice in a bowl.

Method:

1. Add oil to a pan and heat it. Add mustard seeds and let them spluter.
2. Add  Inguva(Hing), menthi powder, minapappu/urad dal , senagapappu(chana dal) ,peanuts till  they turn golden.
3. Add curry leaves,  green chilies and red chilies and turmeric powder. Fry everything well. 
4.  remove the contents and transfer them to the cooled rice  and mix well.
5. In the same pan, add oil and add tamarind paste and salt to it.
6. Keep the flame medium and cook the tamarind paste until it becomes thick. You can add some of the greenchillies in the tamarind paste as well. They taste good.
7. Once the tamarind paste gets thick, add this paste to rice and mix well. 
8. Gently Mix all the contents well with rice. Make sure there are no lumps of white rice unmixed.
9. Add chopped coriander leaves.