Puli Inji (Ginger in sweet & sour sauce)

Yum

                                       This is one of the side dishes of Onam (a Kerala festival),then again you do not need an occasion to make a dish.  I adapted this recipe from a magazine by Pazhayidom, a renowned chef from Kerala. I made this for the first time for Onam. One can have it only in minimal quantities. It can be made ahead and stored in an air tight jar in the refrigerator. The recipe below is the original one, I tripled the recipe because I had so much ginger in stock and did not want to let it go to waste.

Ingredients:

Tamarind                                -           50 g.

Turmeric Powder                   -           1 Tsp.

Red Chilly Powder                -            1 Tbsp.

Asafoetida                             -             20 g.

Jaggery                                  -             75 g.

Curry leaves                          -            few sprigs

Coconut Oil                           -            3 Tsp.

Mustard                                 -             1 Tsp.

Dry Red Chilly, broken         -             3

Ginger, minced                       -          75 g.

Green Chilly, minced             -           10 g.

Fenugreek Powder                 -            ½ Tsp.

Method:

1. Soak the tamarind in 2 ½ liters of boiled hot water in a hard bottomed vessel for about 20 mins, squeeze the pulp and filter the tamarind water and set aside.
2. Add 1 Liter of water, the turmeric powder, chilly powder, jaggery, few sprigs of curry leaves and asafoetida to the prepared tamarind juice and boil it on high flame.
3. The the mixture starts to boil add a teaspoon of coconut oil to it and let it boil until it reduces to half it's amount.
4. Meanwhile in another hard bottomed vessel heat  2 tsp. of oil ans splutter the mustard seeds. To this add the broken dried red chilly and curry leaves.
5. After a minute or two add the minced ginger and chopped green chilies and saute well. Cook the ginger until ¾ done.
6. When the ginger is ¾ done reduce the flame and saute until completely cooked and remove from flame.
7. Add salt and the fried ginger in the now reduced tamarind juice and combine well. The gravy will become at this stage. Combine fenugreek powder and remove from flame and serve with rice. Or when completely cooled store in refrigerator in a airtight jar.