Saturday, May 07, 2011

Lemon Rice









A simple south Indian dish which can be easily prepared and goes down well with fried potatoes or pickle as side. It can also be prepared with rice that has been leftover and you intend not to waste it.











Ingredients:





Rice - 1 cup

Lemon - 2 nos or lemon juice - 1/4 cup

Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Green chillies - 2 nos,  sliced along vertically

Dry red chillies - 2 nos

Curry leaves - 1 string

Coriander leaves - 3 strings for garnishing


Chana dal - 2 tablespoon

Urid dal - 1/2 teaspoon

Roasted peanuts - 2 tablespoon (Optional)


Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Ginger - 1 teaspoon, finely chopped

Oil - 2 tablespoon

Salt - to taste

Water - 2 cups



Method:




For Rice:






1) Wash the rice two or more times, till the water becomes clear.

2) Drain the water from rice and then add 2 cups of water; 1 teaspoon of salt and boil the rice in Pressure cooker or Microwave.

3) After the rice is boiled, please add one tablespoon of oil and stir it gently and place the rice aside.



For Seasoning:



1) Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan on a medium flame.

2) Add cumin seeds. When the seeds start to splutter, add channa dal and peanuts. Fry these for few seconds till they turn golden brown in colour.

3) Then add sliced green chilies, dry red chilli, urid dal, sliced ginger, curry leaves - all but one by one.

4) Add lemon juice and salt and taste now. Care should be taken while adding lemon juice as adding too much juice will give a bitter taste.

5) Switch off the flame and mix it with the rice. Mix it gently and thoroughly.

6) Garnish with coriander leaves and your lemon rice is ready.






Note:


1) While boiling rice few of us wouldn't add salt to it. In this case, you can add more salt when seasoning.

2) The picture illustrated doesn't have peanuts and coriander leaves added to the lemon rice. However this can be added as explained above.