Pulinji

The dark brown coloured sweet and sour dish that finds its place in a corner of a plaintain leaf in a Kerala sadya is an unavoidable dish in any festival of Kerala let it be Onam or Vishu. It is a make ahead dish , so make this today itself as Onam is just around the corner.
Ingredients

tamarind pulp- one lemon sized ball
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
salt as required
3tsp coconut oil
6 green chillies, chopped fine
2" ginger- chopped fine
1 small cube jaggery
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 whole red chillies
one sprig curry leaves

Method

• Soak the tamarind in 1 cup water and extract the juice. Pour this into a wide bottomed pan. add one more cup of water to this and keep it to boil.
• Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt to this. 
• In a separate pan heat 2 tsp coconut oil. Saute the chopped green chillies and ginger well. Add this to the boiling tamarind mixture.
• Add the jaggery also to the tamarind mix. Cook everything well until the mixture thickens.
• Remove from heat. Heat the remaining 1 tsp coconut oil. Add the mustard. Break the whole red chillies and add . Once the mustard starts spluttering add the curry leaves and pour this over the prepared pulinji. Mix well and serve.