Garlic Rice/Poondu Sadham

Garlic has great health benefits and the one which really catches my eye is that it aids in cholesterol control and weight reduction. Also I love garlic in any form so this rice was my life saver during the days when I used to work. This rice used to appear atleast twice in a week in my lunch box. Now coming to my present I have a garlic hater M at home.
  He cannot have anything with strong flavors of garlic in it. So I resort to this lunch when M travels/when I have to cook lunch just for me. It sure is spicy and satiates all the cravings of a garlic lover. I got this recipe from a withering recipe book that comes along with snehithi magazine long ago. Since then I have been perfecting the recipe with various changes each time I try it. For quite some time I felt that the dish was missing a zing. Then I found it was the acidity that went missing and when I added a peas sized tamarind everything was just right and tasted yum!

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice-2 cups

Salt-as needed

To Roast & Grind:

Garlic-4 plump cloves, peeled

Red chilies-7-8

Coconut-1/3 cup, shredded

Tamarind- peas sized

Oil-1 tsp

Roast the ingredients to golden brown and grind to a coarse powder. Do not add water. But the powder will be sticky.

To Temper:

Mustard seeds-1 tsp

Urad dal-1 tsp

Channa dal-1 tsp

Asafoetida- a pinch

Green garlic/garlic cloves-2 tbsp finely chopped

Curry leaves-1 sprig

Gingelly oil/Sesame Oil-2 tbsp

How it Happened:

1. Take a wide bowl and add the cooked rice, salt and a tbsp of sesame oil and mix well. Take care not to break the rice.

2. Heat remaining sesame oil in a pan, add the ingredients given under the ‘to temper’ list, when they pop and turn golden brown add it to the rice.

3. Add the ground powder to the rice and mix all the ingredients well so that they coat the rice using a fork.

4. Check for salt and let it rest for 10 minutes.

5. Serve with papad/vegetable kootu.

Notes:

* Do not overcook the rice else it will turn mushy.

* Sesame oil is added to the rice to so that they don’t clog and form a mass also it prevents the rice grains from breaking.

* You can add groundnuts/cashews while tempering for more crunch.

* If you want avoid coconut used channa dal while roasting and grinding.

* Resting helps the flavors to be absorbed by the rice.

* Gingelly oil enhances the flavors. Vegetable oil can be used as well.

* You can skip garlic pieces while tempering. Green garlic is nothing but looks similar to spring onion except for it has garlic in the roots. If you can get hold of it, use it to garnish which tastes better.