Tamarind rice

Author Notes

There was a separate category of dishes that were created specifically for the purpose of eating while traveling cross country by train during the summer holidays. Note the specific terms, cross country, train & summer.. just the mere mention of the terms is enough to make food go south and inedible. Thus, necessity became the cause of refining these recipes such that they would remain palatable over 3 days, tucked inside a 3 tier Tiffin Carrier. The set varied from community to community, every one had their specific recipes that were primarily made just before setting out for the Railway station. My mother's favorites to pack was a huge grapefruit sized orb of toasted coconut chutney made with freshly grated & toasted coconut, made piquant with pan fried tamarind fruit leather. This was accompanied by Poories (deep fried puffed bread which double up as a plate. As is the case with every true blooded South Indian, no meal is complete without rice. THe unanimous choice was tamarind rice. fluffy separate grains of rice coated with a tangy/spicy tamarind relish and drizzled liberally with cold pressed Sesame oil. The acidity of the tamarind probably kept the rice from going bad as did the fact that the the tamarind relish was cooked up to evaporate as much moisture as possible, leaving behind the spiced up pulp to saute in the oil that it was cooked in.
Since Yogurt rice is part and parcel of every South Indians palate, (with strict instructions to polish it off as quickly as possible) it would be packed along, except instead of Yogurt, the rice was mixed with boiled and cooled milk, with a tablespoon of yogurt stirred in. As you can guess, when the time came to tuck into the feast, sitting cross legged on the blue fake leather berths, the milk had morphed itself into a tangy yogurt, just right to cleanse the palate. —Panfusine