మామిడి కాయ పులిహోర/Mamidi kaya pulihora/Raw mango rice

Serve 2 persons

Ingredients:

Raw mango------1 or 11/2 as per the sourness of mango

Rice -- 1 cup (Rice cooker measure)

Salt to taste

Turmeric------1tsp

Curry leaves-----few

Asafoetida------1tsp

Aavalu/mustard seeds----1tbs

Green chillies-----------5 to 6

Seasoning:

Oil------------2 tbs

Senaga pappu/bengal gram dal--1 tbs

Minapappu/ black gram dal------1/2 tbs

Aavalu/ mustard seeds----------1 tsp

Peanuts/ Ground nuts/verusenaga pappu------2 tbs

Method:

1. Cook rice and add turmeric and spread it in a bowl. Let it cool.
2. Grind chilly and 1tbs of mustard seeds to a paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add Mustard seeds, when it splutters add dals and nuts and fry them. Let it cool.
4. Grind mango and make a paste.
5. Mix mango paste to the rice and then add mustard chilly paste.
6 .Finally add seasoning and mix well and eat.

Variations: You can grate mango instead of grinding.

పులిహొర /Pulihora/ Tamarind Rice

(Serves four)
Preparation time : Approx 1 hour

Ingredients:

2 cups Rice
1 tbsp oil
1 big lemon sized tamarind
1/4 tsp turmeric
10 curry leaves (Karivepaku)
4 green chillies
2 tsp salt
pinch of methi(fenugreek) podwer (Optional)

For Popu:
8 Dry red chillies (Endu mirapakayalu)
2 green chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds (aavalu)
2 tbsp urad dal (minapappu)
2 1/2 tbs chana dal (senagapappu)
4 tbsp peanuts (veru senagapappu)
1/2 tsp hing powder
2 tbsp oil
6 curry leaves


Preparation:

Cook rice separately (make sure the rice doesn’t get sticky) and once it is cooked spread it out in a wide bowl/dish and add 1 tbsp oil, turmeric and curry leaves. Keep it aside and let it cool.

Soak the tamarind for around half an hour in water and extract the juice free of all the pulp and seeds

Heat oil in a pan, add few curry leaves, 2 green chillies a pinch of hing, a pinch of turmeric, 2 tsp salt and put it to boil until the tamarind becomes a thick consistent paste and all the water evaporates

Mix the rice with the tamarind paste . Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add all the popu ingredients. When they splutter, turn off the heat and add popu to the rice.

చిత్రాన్నం / నిమ్మకాయ పులిహోర- Chitraannam /Nimmakaaya Pulihora- Lemon rice

Serves: Three. Preparation time: 45 minutes including preparing all the vegetables, assembling the required quantities of ingredients (rice cooks simultaneously on another flame), cooking and mixing together.

Ingredients:

Boil 2 cups of rice and let it cool. Use less water than regular so that the rice grains are not too moist, they should be grainy but well cooked (Manju pinni advises to sprinkle a few drops of oil so that the grains don't stick together as they cool.).

2 large lemons

Salt to taste

½ tsp sugar

For tempering:

1.5 tsp Mustard seeds

1tsp turmeric

2 tbsp oil

2 tbsp Senaga pappu (Chana daal)

2 tbsp Minnappappu

5 Dry Red Chillies (or to taste)

0.5 tsp Asafoetida

Few Curry leaves

0.5 tsp Sesame seeds (Til/Nuvvulu)

2 tbsp Peanuts (or to taste)

Broken Cashwenuts

Fine chopped Green chillies to taste

(Peanuts and cashewnuts are pre-roasted.)

The following are needed just to add various colours, so a small fistful of each would do:

Green peas- halved

Grated/fine chopped carrot

Fine chopped capsicum

Fine chopped red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper.

Grated Green mango

Grated coconut
Grated ginger

(Vegetables mentioned above are only for embellishing the dish with colour & flavour, not for dominating it with an altered taste, so please be careful about the quantities!)

Method:

Place the salt and sugar in a bowl. Squeeze out the juice from the lemons into this bowl (Lemon juice turns bitter if left exposed- hence, the addition of salt-sugar). Set aside.

Heat oil in pan. Add minnappappu, dry red chillies, senaga pappu. When minnappappu is slightly browned, add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add turmeric, asafoetida, sesame seeds, peanuts, cashewnuts, green chillies, curry leaves and the fine chopped colourful vegetables.

Cook for a minute or two, turn off the heat (Carrots/Capsicums/Mango/Coconut are only partially cooked so that they don't lose their colour and vitamins). 

Add the cooked rice into this pan and mix well, pour in the lemon juice that was set aside earlier. Mix well.

Precautions/Variations:
I used pre-roasted peanuts & cashewnuts, hence I added them just before adding vegetables. However, if using raw nuts, they should be added along with the minappappu+red chillies+senagapappu so that they have time to brown.

More lemons may be needed, I used very large juicy ones.

Perhaps I wasn't perfect with the amounts of ingredients, I revised them after my dish turned out bland, so those of you who like it spicy, be generous with the spices ;-)

Culture:
Chitraannam: Chitra+Annam: means "Coloured rice" in Samskrtam/Telugu. It is named thus owing to the many colours present in this dish.
If we didn't add  the many colourful bits of vegetables, it can also be called Nimmakaya pulihora.


Trivia:

This is my mom's trademark dish, she always makes this during any community lunch, for poojas, vanabhojanams, guests at home, et al. And try as I might, I can never replicate her taste :-O