Lemon Rice, Lime Pickle and Chutney Powder! (Click for bigger pic)
Come on over for dinner! :-)
Recipe for Lemon Rice:
Lemon Rice is a rice dish from South India, containing a very simple seasoning, mixed with hot cooked white rice and fresh squeezed lemon juice. It is extremely easy to make. I think it's a fabulous summer dish because it is not too spicy and the fresh squeezed lemon gives it a light, breezy flavor. The following recipe may not be 100% authentic compared to how the dish is made in South Indian homes.
All of the ingredients I use in the following lines must be in just enough proportion to mix in with the quantity of rice you will cook.
Start cooking white rice in a pressure cooker or rice cooker.
While the rice cooks, chop a little onion and tomatoes. Add 2-3 teaspoons of oil into the frying pan and heat. Add some mustard seeds, and when they begin to pop, add minapa pappu, senaga pappu and dried peanuts. Fry these. When they start to turn slightly brown, break a dried red chilli into pieces and add. Fry everything till they turn brown. Be very careful not to burn them. Next add the chopped onion, and fry till it turns a very light brown, losing the pungent smell of onion. Then add a few curry leaves, if you have them, and a pinch of turmeric. Fry slightly. Add the chopped tomatoes and salt, fry some more until the tomatoes are slightly cooked. The lemon rice seasoning is ready!
To the seasoning in the frying pan, add the hot cooked white rice, squeeze fresh lemon juice, mix well adding more salt if necessary. Hot, yummy lemon rice is ready!
It is good to have curry leaves, but even if you don't, that is quite fine. If you want, you can grate some fresh coconut into the rice at the very end.
Sides:
Lime pickle - this was made by a friend, with fresh lime grown in someone's garden in the Phoenix area, Arizona. This is the best lime pickle I have ever tasted! The flavor of the lime is different from the Indian ones and the pickle seems to have preserved the fresh taste and aroma of the lime, in a way that I have not seen any other pickle do. I got a small cup of this pickle from the friend and I made it last as long as I could. When it was over, I moaned about it to the friend and she was kind enough to give me more, in a bigger box. I am gonna make this last and last.
Chutney powder - This is MTR brand chutney powder.
Posts
This looks yummier than the vaangibhaath. I'll have the lemon rice, please.
ReplyDelete:-*)
LL,
ReplyDeleteGee, thanks! I didn't know you loved the pickle so much. This year, I'll give you a bigger bottle. Will try to make some from the fruit I got from my very own tree!
hmm, I never ate lemon rice made this way. FOA, when u r seasoning sth, the lentles (pappulu) should go in first and then goes the mustard seeds and then red/green chilies. Onions go in the last - this is for any seasoning.
ReplyDeleteFor lemon rice, one should take care not to over cook the rice. The way we make it, we cook rice, add lemon juice to it and then add the seasoning (the turmeric goes into the seasoning). Mix it all together. We fry the peanuts separately and add them in the end. Different ways of cooking :)
We never use onions or tomatoes in lemon rice, although in my kitchen tomatoe goes into anything and everything. making the same thing.
I never thought writing about recipes will get me so enthued. Thanks for a cool post.