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Puli Aval / Tamarind Poha

A recipe for Puli Aval / Tamarind Poha, one of my favourite tiffin dishes that my great-grandmother would prepare for us. This is her recipe and I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings: 2 servings
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: south indian
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1.5 cups poha Thick
  • 2 tbsp gingelly oil South Indian sesame oil
  • 3 - 4 dried red chillies
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 tbsp chana dal
  • 1 tbsp urad dal split
  • 2 tbsp peanuts
  • 2 - 3 sprigs curry leaves
  • big pinch asafoetida powder
  • 1/4 cup tamarind extract or 1.5 tsp tamarind paste
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder.
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1.5 tsp sambar powder
  • 2 to 3 tbsps coconut freshly grated .

Method
 

  1. Place the poha in a colander and wash well in running water. Drain the excess water, cover and keep aside.
  2. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, dried red chillies, chana dal, urad dal, peanuts, curry leaves. Saute until the peanuts and dal turn golden brown. Stir in the asafoetida powder.
  3. Add tamarind extract to this tempering and bring to a boil. Let this simmer on a medium flame for 3-4 minutes until the extract is well cooked (no more raw tamarind smell) and thickened slightly.
  4. Add salt and turmeric powder to this.
  5. Once this dissolves, add the washed poha and sambar powder and stir gently to bring all the ingredients together.
  6. Check for salt and adjust accordingly.
  7. Garnish with some fresh coconut before serving it hot.

Notes

*To make tamarind extract, wash a small fistful of tamarind (or a compact lemon size) and soak it in a cup of hot water for 15 minutes. After it has softened, rub it well between thumb and fingers to extract all the essence. Remove the leftover rind etc and squeeze it dry and discard. If required filter the extract to remove any fibers.
You can even prepare this with red rice poha if you wish. The soaking time will be considerably increased and instead of draining all the water after washing, soak it in some water instead, so that it softens well.
Instead of using asafoetida powder, you can dissolve a tiny piece (size of the finger tip of your little finger) in 2-3 tbsp of water and use this asafoetida water in the last stage of cooking.