Puzhiyotharai mix... Puzhi saatham mix ... a handy item in every south indian home

Puzhiyotharai or puzhi saatham is a traditional south Indian food made in each and every household on a regular basis. Its also served in temples as prasadam. There are many different versions of this and everyone has heir own favourite style to suit their palate. Whatever it is and however it is made, I find it awesome as it lends a wonderful helping hand in packing kids lunch with no hastle

We all love this in our home. So the mix is always made in a decent amount and stocked up in the fridge. Whenever in a hurry or even on lazy days it comes in handy. Just cook some rice and add a little amount of this mix along with some gingelly oil and give it a quick stir. The rice gets ready in no time to be packed for office or school lunch

We make it so often that I forgot to write a post till now. Last week my friend Vidya asked me for my recipe when I got to know that the recipe wasnt up here. So here it is for you my dear friend 

Serves... Can be made as a large batch and stocked up for a few weeks

Serve option... Mixed with rice

This is what u'll need....

Tamarind - size of 2 lemons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
Chana dal - 1 tbspn
Urad dal - 1/2 tspn
Ground nut - a handful
Red Chillies - 5-6 nos
Curry leaves - few
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tspn
Coriander seeds - 1 tbspn
Chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
Turmeric powder - 1 tspn
Oil - 4 tbspn
Asafoetida /hing - 1/8 tspn
Salt to taste

Here is the stir....

• Soak tamarind in warm water for about 15 mins. Once soft to touch mash it with your hands to extract the pulp. Remove any seeds or extra fibre and keep pulp aside

• Dry roast peanuts and keep them aside to cool

• Dry roast fenugreek and coriander seeds. Once cooled, grind them to a coarse mix

• Now time to start making the mix. Get all the ingredients ready and get started 

• Heat a pan and add oil to it

• Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds and wait for it to crackle

• Add chana dal to oil and fry for a few seconds

• Next sprinkle some broken urad dal and give it a quick stir

• Break red chillies into halves and add it to the oil along with curry leaves and asafoetida/hing

• Once the groundnut is cooled, peel the skin off and add it to the oil

• Give it a quick stir and add tamarind pulp

• Follow this with salt, fenugreek-coriander powder, turmeric and red chilli powder

• Stir it around and let it cook on medium flame till oil starts separating

• Turn off the flame and let the mixture cool completely

• Once cooled, it is ready to be transferred to a glass container and can be refrigerated for weeks

Note:

• Adjust spice levels to suit your taste
• When mixing it with rice, add a little gingelly oil too. It enhances the taste of the dish
• Add a little salt to rice when cooking it