Huliogare, Mangalore style

Or Pulihora/Chitrannam, as Telugus like to call it. No, there is no equivalent for this in Hindi, because this is a South Indian main course dish, served as one of the items in a large meal at weddings or at festivals. However, this recipe is for the Mangalorean version of Pulihora/Huliogare.

Unlike many Brahmin recipes, this one doesn’t have Hing, but has all other usual suspects from a South Indian spice box. Also, if you do not have a coconut grater, you can grind the fresh coconut pieces in a mixer-grinder till it becomes a coarse mixture. Do not use water to get this coarse coconut, though.

The paste can be made well ahead in time and frozen, and thawed before using. You might not understand how much paste goes with a given quantity of rice, so mix a little paste and cooked rice together and taste. Once you arrive at a taste that suits you, use the quantities proportionately to match your family’s palate.

Also, this paste can be mixed with Rice Sevai (I use the MTR Rice Sevai) to make a quick variety of Shavige, otherwise a time-consuming preparation of rice and coconut steamed and made into noodles. Shavige is a dish that is an ever favourite among the Tulu Brahmin community and as kids we would fight to be a part of the noodle-making process, which involves a specific apparatus called Shavige Mani  . Noodles are prepared from the steamed rice and coconut balls by inserting into this apparatus and pressing. They are then eaten with pickle or as Huliogare using this paste, and generally garnished with coconut oil. Yes, we cannot imagine life without coconut oil. :)

Pulihora is ultimate comfort food in most South Indian households. It features as Sunday night dinner in our house, with me and the husband fighting on which variety to make. He likes the lemon rice, while I like the one with tamarind, until I realized I hadn't made this recipe at all. Considering how much I love this Huliogare, its weird that I never thought about making it. But I guess that's because I’ve always associated this with Mom’s kitchen, something she makes with Shavige for me when I visit her.

So here it is… straight from my Mom’s kitchen, via mine… a star in weddings and festive meals… my ever-favourite comfort food…

 

Huliogare, Mangalore style
Preparation time – 20 min
Level – Easy
Serves – Depends on how much rice the paste is mixed with

Ingredients - For the Huliogare paste
Cooking oil – 4 Tbsp
Ural dal – 1 Tbsp
Chana dal – 1 Tbsp
Peanuts – 1/2 C
Green chillies – 6-7, slit length-wise with seeds in it
Tamarind paste – 1/2 C
Fresh Coconut – 1 full coconut, with the fresh grated or ground coarse in a mixer-grinder
Mustard seeds – 1 Tsp
Mustard powder – 1/4 C (I used black mustard powder, but you try with yellow mustard powder if you like)
Jaggery – 1/4 C
Turmeric – 1 Tbsp
Curry leaves – a handful, washed
Salt – to taste

Instructions
Heat the oil in a pan, and add the mustard seeds to it. Once they start spluttering, add the urad and chana dals to this. Let this sit on the heat for a min. Now add the peanuts and saute till the peanuts turn golden brown in colour. Add the curry leaves, green chillies, tamarind paste and jaggery and let the paste boil in oil. Check the taste and add salt per your taste and a little more, so that it balances out by the end of the preparation.

Meanwhile, mix the grated coconut with mustard powder and keep aside.

Once the tamarind paste boils with no trace of water in it, add the turmeric powder and mix the coconut-mustard powder mixture to this. Do not cook once the coconut is mixed with tamarind.

You can keep this paste frozen for future purposes or use it right away. Mix a quantity of this paste with cooked plain white rice. Check for the taste and salt and mix the paste accordingly.

Can be served hot or warm by itself.