Away

Back to Uni. I may not be able to blog till Wednesday.. Plenty of work to do.

I have a question that I hope one of you would be able to help me.

What exactly is pachari..  ?????? in English?

Amma used to make dosai batter with pachari. What I remember is that the grains were almost like glutinous rice colour..opaque white.

So is Pachari glutinous rice?

 

30 thoughts on “Away

  1. I think pachari means raw rice. Seems to make sense because ‘pacha’ in malayalam means raw and ‘ari’ means rice, so put the two together = pachari = raw rice. Maybe wrong.

  2. Puzhungalari is called par-boiled rice and in comparison pachhari is just rice with different sub-types : sona masuri, basmati etc.
    This is from my limited knowledge of rice and cooking 🙂

  3. Pachari is basically your regular long grain rice.
    The other one is “Puzhukal ari’ which is par boiled rice (like Uncle Ben’s brand).
    Dosa batter is better with Pachari. At our local grocery store, you get “Carolina” Long rice. If you have access to Indian stores, then get the Sona Masoori variety. If you are making idli, then get the idli rice, which looks like small thick rice (almost like risotto).

    Happy Diwali!! Eat a ladoo for me to celebrate. Forget that figure for a day!!

    • MS: I make Dosai batter with Basmati and add a tbl spn of tapioca starch..apparently tapioca starch has something that helps with fermenting the batter.
      Didn’t have time to make ladoo or go to the Indian store.. but made a tub of Shrikhand and ate it all..

  4. As I know it – Pachari is raw rice. It is not parboiled like the red rice we use for making kuthari choru.
    I do not think pachari has gluten, yes its white in color and we normally use it to make appam.
    Yes you can also make dosa batter with raw rice .

  5. Hello

    Usually pachari is sold in indian stores as raw rice…sometimes it is also sold as ponni raw rice…most popular brands like Laxmi, Swad has it…Hope this helps

    • av: why I asked abt glutinous rice is because amma used to say pasha pachari..sometimes..that would mean sticky rice.. and I always have glutnous rice at home..to make a lot of Malaysian sweets

  6. Hi,
    Pachari is raw rice! Look for raw long grain white rice and it works well for pachari dosa. Glutinous rice may not give the fine grind texture that pachari dosa requires.

  7. Sarah,

    I haven’t seen pachari outside Kerala, but you can get Idli ari from any Indian Shop and substitute for pachari (same proportion) for Idly /Dosa batter..

    • Kavitha: I only have basmati at home and have been using that..I missed amma few days ago..And thought I would make dosai..like hers and remembered that she only used pachari to make dosai. Mine doesn’t taste like hers and I thought it would be because of the rice I use.. I also can’t make the thenga chammanthi she used to make. I don’t know how to thalikkufy the chammanthi.

  8. Hi Sarah,

    I live in the US and we don’t get pachari here. We use the Uncle Ben’s par boiled rice for making idli/dosa or Camila rice or Goya. I soak both rice and urad dal in 2:1 ratio with a spoonful of fenugreek seed (uluva) overnight. Blend it in a vitamix into a smooth paste, leave it in the oven for 5 to 6 hours with light turned on. If making idli, the batter is made thicker and if making dosa, I do it on the second day when I add a little water to the batter. I get results that are very smiliar to my Ammachi;s idlis/dosas that she makes at home in Ktm. If you cook pachari, it’s usually more sticky and doesn’t have much flavor compared to kuthari which is slightly chewier and has a grainy, slightly nutty flavor.

    Based on your latest post, in my opinion, Kuthari is rosematta rice. It’s always pink in color. I think I remember buying it in parboiled form. Chaakkari is a plumper form of grain once it’s cooked. It is not as chewy and has a characteristic smell (which one has to get used to), however it’s not as sticky as pachari. Kuthari is the tastiest when making kanji.

    Chammanthi: that can go either ways. It can be white or orange color chammanthies. I grew up with the red “sammathi” made from blending shallots, dry red chillies (pathal molaku), small piece of ginger and a shallot. It was thalikkufied by heating coconut oil and adding the following: mustard seeds –> splutter –> shallots (cut in circles) –> curry leaves! Hope this helps! Writing all this is making my mouth water and I can literally smell dosa/sammanthi made with some clarified ghee! 🙂 🙂

    • Christin: Amma used to make Kal dosai/Thattu dosai.. thicker version with tons of holes in them..and serve that with chammanthi..that was thalikkufy. I think I cooked the chammanthi too long.. it kind of separated in to oil and coconut 🙂 and my dosai doesn’t taste anything like hers. Perhaps it was the pachari..

      • Hey Sarah, I just googled thattu dosai… that’s what Dosa’s looked like when I was growing u too…slightly larger than the pics I see online. I love the holes… and it turns out like that when the water content, fermentation, heat etc is right. These days, I make mine thin and crispy with a pat of ghee at the end. Everyone usually is seated at the table with plates by the time I start making dosas… the ones that don’t come right when I call for dinner just eat limp, soft, lifeless dosas! 😛 I don’t boil the chammanthi… I just warm it up on low heat, then pour the thallikufying stuff/tadka + curry leaves on top. Best wishes for the next time you make dosa/idli and chammanthi! I would totally make it for you if you lived in Philly, US! 🙂

  9. Here in gulf pachari means white rice. You may get white rice in Indian stores. Thanjavoor ponni pachari is good one. We make dosa with white rice.

    • Anju: My local Indian shop sells so many varieties of rice..including Sri Lankan rice. When I left India, there was only Mesa ari, kuthari, pachari and chakkari. In Malaysia, we had Jasmine rice, Pulut rice and Basmati..Now there are so many types, I am lost.

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