Upgrade Your Inji-Puli Experience: Add Prawns To It
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons (Inji Puli)

No number of quick lunch or weeknight dinner ideas can ever be enough in our insatiable quest to find food that is delicious, yet simple to put together. It is in moments like this that improvisation and creative imagination to use ingredients beyond their original purpose really shine. Having a well-stocked fridge full of delicious condiments is a boon during times when you have less time to breathe than to fix yourself a meal; and just because time or low energy is a constraint, depriving yourself of life’s simple pleasures like eating shouldn’t get in the way of it.

A condiment like inji-puli, which is essentially a dark brown sweet-sour-tangy curry made of tamarind pulp, ginger, jaggery and curry leaves, can be eaten as is, as an accompaniment to good ol’ dahi-chawal or have some pre-cooked rice tossed into it with a handful of peanuts to make a puliotharai (tamarind rice). But if we have to reimagine the use for this tamarind-heavy condiment, it would work brilliantly tossed with some fish or prawns and a handful of aromatics, to be enjoyed with a portion of steaming hot rice and a dollop of ghee. You can find bottles of inji-puli available online and many variations of it that can be replicated at home. It sits well in the fridge for months and can be used on pretty much anything. Yet another easy dish to add to your roster of quick working lunches!

Recipe:

 

Ingredients:

  • 250 grams fresh prawns
  • 1 medium onion, sliced thin
  • 2 green chillies, slit lengthwise
  • 6-7 curry leaves
  • 1 teaspoon chana dal
  • 1 small tomato, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon inji-puli paste
  • ½ tablespoon sesame oil/vegetable oil
  • Salt to taste

Method:

 ASIN ID - B09HXVR6YZ    

  • Add some oil to a pan and add the chana dal and curry leaves, and allow them to splutter. Add the green chillies and onions and sauté for a couple of minutes, until the onions start to brown.
  • Add the chopped tomatoes to the mix and a pinch of salt to soften the tomatoes, until they start to turn mushy. Add the inji-puli paste at this stage and stir everything together until combined. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to dilute the mixture a little and to deglaze the pan.
  • Once the mixture starts to bubble on the sides, add the prawns in and season. Be mindful of not adding too much salt as the inji-puli comes seasoned already. Taste to check if the seasoning needs to be adjusted and serve dolloped on top of ghee-rice.