Skip to main content

Puli Inji (Tamarind-Ginger Chutney)

A "Sadya" is a Banquet or a feast prepared for a special event such as Birthdays, Weddings, or festivities like Vishu and Onam. It is an authentic vegetarian meal comprising of atleast 12 to 24 dishes served on a plantain/banana leaf (see the below picture) and people eat together sitting cross - legged on the floor. There is a specific place for each dish to be served on the plantain leaf.I will try to share the recipes of some of the main dishes made for a Sadya without which any Sadya is incomplete.


Coming Friday is VISHU, the Kerala New Year Festival. Now I can explain about Vishu in detail about its significance, stories behind the celebration etc but this is a food blog and am restricting myself to write only about FOOD!! So you can very well google and get all your answers. For now, let me stick to what am good at...EATING!! :) Vishu is also a day of feasting and I continue to share one recipe of Sadya at a time.
Inji Puli or Puli Inji literally means Tamarind-Ginger. It is a sweet, sour and spicy chutney which is served in a sadya and is placed on the extreme left of a plantain leaf. Usually pickles and chutneys are placed on the top left of a plantain leaf. Its a very simple recipe and is usually prepared 2-3 days before the Sadya. This will definitely tickle your taste buds for sure! :)

Ingredients:
  • 25 gm tamarind
  • 1/4 cup of finely chopped ginger
  • 4-5 green chillies (finely chopped)
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1/4 cup jaggery (whole cane sugar)
  • 2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 10 fenugreek seeds
  • a pinch of asafoetida (heeng)
  • 8-10 curry leaves
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • salt to taste
Method:
  1. Soak the tamarind in 2 cups of warm water for 15 - 20 minutes. Then remove the pulp by a sieve and keep aside the tamarind extract.
  2. Heat oil in a small kadai and put the mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Then add the fenugreek seeds, heeng and curry leaves. Add the red chilli powder and saute for a minute. Then add the finely chopped ginger and the green chillies and saute them for 3 minutes.
  3. Now pour in the tamarind extract and let it come to a nice boil. If you think (after 10-12 minutes of boil)that the the raw smell of the tamarind has gone, put in the jaggery. Let it melt into the tamarind extract. Add 1/4 tsp of salt to it and let it cook for 15 minutes in medium heat.
  4. The syrup will slowly start to reduce in quantity or start to thicken. Switch off the heat.
  5. Inji Puli is ready to be served immediately as a side with rice and gravy or it can be cooled and stored in the refrigerator as it won't get spoilt for at least 2 weeks.
PS: The chutney will continue to thicken once its cooled, so you can switch off the heat once the syrup starts reducing.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Ingredients / 3 Minute Microwave PEDAS

It's Celebration time all the way!! Why? Because My FB fan page has just reached 150 "Likes" & am so thrilled. Also, the festivities will start from August in India. First coming up is "Raksha Bandhan", the festival which celebrates the relationship & bond of a Brother & Sister. So I thought of coming up with an easy to make Indian Sweet Dish, "Peda". A "Peda" is a North Indian Milk Sweet mainly consisting of Khoa (thickened whole milk), sugar & other Indian flavourings like saffron & cardamom seeds. Pedas are usually made during festivities or for offerings made in the temple for deities. This recipe is a simple process of the same "time consuming" Pedas where the Milk is kept on the heat for hours to make khoa & then goes to the next process. This is the first time for me as well & I have taken this recipe from "showmethecurry.com" the cookery website of Hetal & Anuja. And I must say...
6 comments
Read more

Hundred Thousand Dollar worth Rava Upma (Indian Semolina Polenta)

Now you must be thinking, who doesn't know to make Rava Upma? What is so special about it? Every 5th person residing in India knows to make it and is a common breakfast item in almost all the Indian household. We Indians take this dish for granted. Well up until a week back, even I thought the same about this dish and looked down on Rava Upma. Not anymore. Last week I read a news about an Indian born, New York Chef Floyd Cardoz who won the top prize of £100,000 in an American show called "Top Chef Masters". No prize for guessing, he made RAVA UPMA!! After reading the article, I immediately decided that the recipe of a basic version of Upma must be on my blog. And here I am sharing the if not a "million dollar", then atleast a "hundred thousand dollar worth Upma Recipe". :) Upma is a popular South Indian Breakfast dish, mainly prepared by Semolina. It has a great resemblance with the Italian Polenta. It can be made with many variations by adding vegeta...
13 comments
Read more

Paneer Couscous Salad

Last two weeks were so hectic for me that I didn't find time to even open my blog page. Lots of friends coming home, cooking, eating junk, visiting places, our famous festival "Vishu" came up  & finally I ended up getting sick. I am still in bed but was so frustrated doing nothing that I thought let me post one of my healthy salad recipes which I had promised earlier. I saw this salad recipe in one of the BBC cookery shows & was quiet eager to make it. The original recipe suggests the use of Halloumi instead of Paneer. Halloumi is a type of Greek cheese made of mostly Goat's milk. It has the same texture of that as Paneer, hence I used Paneer. Must say, It was quite filling and delicious, perfect for a Summer afternoon. Ingredients: 200 gm couscous 200 ml hot vegetable stock / hot chicken stock 400 g can chickpeas (drained and rinsed) 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 courgette/zucchini (sliced) 200 gm paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), cut 1 inch length wise 2 medi...
6 comments
Read more