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

Ulli Chammanthi (Onion Chutney)

"Ulli Chammanthi" is the very famous chutney of Kerala.Needless to say, my favourite too. One in every 3 houses in Kerala will definitely have Ulli Chammanthi for their breakfast. It usually compliments well with idlis and any type of South Indian Dosas. My mom-in-law makes it super-duper delicious. If you get a good home made Ulli Chammanthi, then don't even think of counting the number of idlis or Dosas which go inside your tummy. :) "Ulli" in Malayalam means Onion and "Chammanthi" means Chutney. No coconut required unlike other Kerala dishes, but we definitely leave the Malayalee imprints in every Kerala dish, so we drizzle a generous amount of coconut oil. :) Please do try making it at home and you will see people lick off their plate even after the idlis and dosas are long gone. :) Ingredients: 5-6 medium onions (peeled and cut into chunks) 1 tomato (cut into chunks) 3 whole dry red chillies 1 tbsp of cooking oil salt to taste coconut oil to driz...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anniversary & Pouring Awards with Pista Kulfi

Took a break from blog & cooking for a couple of days as I was in a mood to celebrate!! That's right, Arun and I celebrated our 4 years of married life on 10th June. Phew, time truly flies in just a snap!! (Below is our wedding snap, a perfect South Indian Wedding shot...please don't laugh at it.;). So I was in no mood to cook that day & told Arun that the meals of the day will be either frozen, take away or a dine out. He preferred the third one. ;) So we went to one of our favourite food joints {Did I tell you, that we live in a place called Chesterfield, a Historic Market Town in UK & don't have much choices around here ;)}, "Frankie & Benny's."My god, we both die for those thin crust Italian Pizzas & the cheesy gar(lick)y bread which melts in your mouth like a candy floss...Aah! Now, I have to tell you what we ordered, because it was that good. ;) For starters, we ordered their famous garlic bread with crispy coated chicken ...
24 comments
Read more

Naankhatai

Naankhatai is to India as S hortbread is to Scotland,    Naankhatai is an Indian shortbread (originally brought by the Iranians to India) quite similar to a Scottish shortbread but only more soft, more crumbly and more delicious. I like to call them the "Indian white Bakery biscuits" because I have always seen them stored in those big cookie jars in front of the bakery till counters. For me, these white dome shaped cookies always stood out from the other cookies.  This 3 ingredients cookie is super easy to bake plus there are no eggs involved so Hello Vegetarians!! One can always experiment with a combination of flours (gram flour, corn flour, semolina, etc) but being me I went for the most tastiest and a slightly unhealthy version of using only refined flour. Do try any version you like but do not forget to dunk these melt in the mouth cookies in  your masala chai and go mmmmm....:) Happy Baking!!   Ingredients: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup butt...
Post a Comment
Read more