Lemon rice is my favorite accompaniment for any Indian-style fish dish or South Indian-style dish. It's also a great way to jazz up leftover rice.
My South Indian nanny (who is now quite old, but until very, very recently could still shimmy up a coconut tree) used to make this a lot when she lived with us when I was 6 or 7, and she wrote out a whole notebook of South Indian recipes for us before she went back to Bangalore (where she still works with the blind). When I went to college, I copied out into my own recipe notebook a number of my favorites from hers, including this one.
Lemon Rice for 4
2 cups cooked brown Basmati rice (start with 1 cup uncooked rice)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3-4 curry leaves
2 chillies, either green chillies slit lengthwise or whole dried red chillies
1/4 cup roasted shredded coconut
1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup roasted or deep fried chana dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt to taste
Optional: a handful of minced fresh cilantro (not traditional, but I like how cilantro brightens everything)
Heat the oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and chillies. Fry until the mustard seeds have all popped. Add the turmeric, remove from the heat, and toss into the cooked rice along with the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
My South Indian nanny (who is now quite old, but until very, very recently could still shimmy up a coconut tree) used to make this a lot when she lived with us when I was 6 or 7, and she wrote out a whole notebook of South Indian recipes for us before she went back to Bangalore (where she still works with the blind). When I went to college, I copied out into my own recipe notebook a number of my favorites from hers, including this one.
Lemon Rice for 4
2 cups cooked brown Basmati rice (start with 1 cup uncooked rice)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3-4 curry leaves
2 chillies, either green chillies slit lengthwise or whole dried red chillies
1/4 cup roasted shredded coconut
1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup roasted or deep fried chana dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt to taste
Optional: a handful of minced fresh cilantro (not traditional, but I like how cilantro brightens everything)
Heat the oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and chillies. Fry until the mustard seeds have all popped. Add the turmeric, remove from the heat, and toss into the cooked rice along with the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Your nieces love Lemon Rice and I am always looking for a good recipe. It should work just as well without chillies, you think, since they will not eat anything remotely spicy?
ReplyDeleteQuestion: when you are roasting the coconut, peanuts and chana dal - is it simply in olive oil and for how long?
ReplyDeleteI dry-roast the shredded dried coconut, raw peanuts, and chana dal (that is, I use no oil). The toughest part is making sure they don't burn. You have to watch them and stir them constantly, and remove them from the heat by pouring them into cold containers as soon as they're browned and fragrant, not just taking the pan off the stove.
ReplyDelete