Puliyogare : The Tale of the Tangy Indian dish
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.
Nowadays ,to make it even more simpler ,brands sell puliogare pastes and mix . But nothing can beat the taste of homemade puliogare’s tartness!!
