Inji Puli – A delicious sweet and spicy ginger pickle from Kerala, South India.
What is Inji Puli
Inji Puli or Puli Inji literally means Ginger-Tamarind, or Tamarind-Ginger. The sourness from the Tamarind is beautifully balanced with a sweet flavor, that comes from Jaggery.
This Ginger curry or Inji Puli from Kerala, is an amazing combination of sweet, spice and sour. Ginger makes it spicy, the Tamarind makes it sour and the Jaggery makes it deliciously sweet.
An Onasadya or ‘feast’ is incomplete without serving Inji Puli Curry or Puli Inji. It is prepared during the harvest festival of Onam in Kerala, South India.
Almost 25 to 30 vegetarian dishes are served for a Sadya! We serve Inji Puli as an integral part of that feast.
We also use green chillies, asefotida (hing), and fenugreek (methi) powder in a small quantity. This is apart from the main ingredients. This enhances the digestion of a heavy meal.
You find mild variations in the process of making Inji Puli or Puli Inji, as you travel across different regions of Kerala. We also serve this dish, as part of meals served to guests in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Inji Puli is literally finger-licking good, and helps with digestion of a meal. It is one of my favorite dishes in an Onasadya (an elaborate vegetarian feast for Onam).
I always make some extra Inji Puli whenever I prepare it. That way, I enjoy it with every meal that I have, be it Lunch or Dinner.
For this Onam Sadya, I made enough Inji Puli to last a whole month!
What you can have it with:
You can serve it as a pickle to go with a simple meal of steamed rice, Moru Kachiyathu and Vendekka Mezhukuperatti (Ladies Finger fry) or even Raw Mango curry (Pacha Manga curry). (Yummy!)
You can also have Puli Inji or Inji Puli with simple curd rice too.
Other side dishes that you can have with Inji Puli and rice as part of a whole meal are:
Pumpkin Curry (Erissery) – This is another dish that is also part of an Onasadya, but can be made on a regular day too.
Raw Banana fry (Pacha Kaya Mezhukuperatti)
Long Beans stir fry (Achinga Payar Mezhukuperatti)
This curry tastes better after a couple of days. Because the flavors mature and the heat of the ginger mellows during that period. So, if you make it using the right process, you can store Inji Puli for up to a month without it getting spoiled.
Please try this recipe and share your comments below. Do also share this recipe with your friends and family, if you like it.
Now, let me show you how to make it!
Ingredients
- For Tempering
Instructions
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Break up the jaggery into small pieces and then boil it in about 2 cups of water, till it melts completely. To the same liquid, add the tamarind, press it around with a spoon, so that it gets mushy and is mixed well with the jaggery. You need not heat the tamarind. Switch off the flame.
- Remove from flame and strain this liquid through a sieve. This will also remove any impurites in the jaggery, as well as prevent any seeds from the tamarind if any, from being mixed in this sweet and sour liquid.. Keep this aside.
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Heat oil in a pan on medium flame. Do not allow the oil to smoke. Once it is hot enough, add ginger to it and saute well till the raw smell goes away and it is starts turning a golden brown colour. Keep stirring in between to prevent the ginger from sticking to the pan. This will take around 10 to 12 minutes.
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Add in the green chilles and saute them along with the ginger.
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Now, add the red chilly powder, asefotida powder and the fenugreek powder and saute lightly, on a lower flame. Sauteing on high heat will burn the spice powders, resulting in a bitter after taste in the final dish.
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Pour the Jaggery and Tamarind Liquid prepared earlier, into the Ginger. Increase the flame to medium. Keep cooking this mixture until the liquid is almost completely evaporated. Switch of the gas.
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Now, let's temper this dish. In another pan, add oil kept aside for tempering.
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Once the oil is hot enough, add mustard seeds. Allow it to splutter. Then add the chopped curry leaves and the dried red chillies. Reduce flame and then add the red chilly powder and fry for few seconds. Reducing the flame helps to avoid burning of chilly powder.
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Quickly pour this tempering over the prepared Ginger curry, or Inji Puli and cover the pan. Mix it in well after couple of minutes. This will allow the aroma to merge well with dish. Allow to rest for a couple of hours at least before serving. The longer it is kept aside the better, the flavors will mellow and merge together to enhance the taste.
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Enjoy your delicious Inji Puli!
