Kokum Chitranna

We love Puliogare, and when you have eaten the best at Melkote you crave for the authentic once in awhile. However everyone keeps telling tamarind is not good for the bones and muscles, especially if you do not want to aggravate arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. Unlike Tamarind, Kokum is safe and has a lot of medicinal properties without any harmful effects.

I wanted to try Kanda Lasun masala in an unusual recipe. Also the Kokum agal was up in my mind just because Nupur found it so irresistable. So here is an original creation from My Kitchen Lab.

Ingredients

4 cups steam cooked Kolam rice

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

handful of curry leaves

2-3 tablespoons Kanda Lasun Masala(Buy it here)

1/4 cup lightly crushed shelled peanuts

1/4 cup Kokum agal or home made extract

1 teaspoon of sugar for balancing the sourness (optional)

Heat oil in a wok. Splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the shelled crushed peanuts and fry till golden. Fluff up the steam cooked Kolam rice. Add it to the wok. Sprinkle the Kanda lasun masala over it. Mix well. Cover and cook for 5 mins.

Lastly drizzle Kokum agal over the rice. Give it a nice stir with a delicate hand. Ensure you are not breaking the grains of rice. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar to balance the sourness of Kokum only if you must. Cover and cook for another 5 mins so the rice gets the faint pink color of Kokum. Switch of the heat and give a single stir.

Enjoy the Kokum Chitranna hot or cold either way it tastes delicious.

Notes:

1. Strength of agal varies with brand so add tablespoon by tablespoon at a time and check for souring quotient in the rice. Mine is quite a sour agal.

2. We are wimps when it comes to spice, you can hike up the spice level with as much as Kanda lasun masala you want or less. Again same trick add a teaspoon at a time and keep tasting as you mix.

How to make Kokum extract at home:

Soak the required quantity of kokum in boiling hot water and leave it for 30 mins. Squeeze out the extract. Sieve it to remove any fruit skin in the extract. Use as required.