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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Flavored Basmati Rice

There are days when dinner is a simple dal and rice with may be some salad or papad as a side. Tonight's dinner was one such simple affair. I was too lazy to even make a salad! So, I just added some vegetables while pressure cooking the dal. But when it came to rice, I did not want to just cook plain rice.

Instead I used some whole spices to add flavor to the dish and cooked it with some vegetable bouillon and some cilantro seasoning cubes. This was very similar to jeera fried rice, except that I added more spices than just cumin. You could omit the vegetable bouillon and cilantro seasoning cubes, but I just felt that it enhanced the flavors.



This is a very simple recipe, but the flavors and aroma made it seem like an elaborate preparation!

Rice Soaking Time: 15 minutes       Cooking Time: 12 minutes            Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Black Cumin/Kala Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Bay Leaves - 2-3
Cinnamon Sticks - 2
Green Cardamom Pods - 4
Cloves - 4
Star Anise - 2
Mace - 2-3
Roasted Jeera/Cumin Powder - 1 teaspoon
Vegetable Bouillon - 1 cube
Cilantro Seasoning - 2 cubes
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 1 tablespoon (I used Olive Oil)
Salt - to taste

Method:
  • Rinse and soak rice in water for 15 minutes.
  • Heat the ghee and oil in a sauce pan and add all the whole spices to it. Saute this for a minute.
  • Add in the cumin powder and soaked rice, after draining out the water. Give this a good stir.
  • Now add in the salt,vegetable bouillon, cilantro seasoning cubes and water and bring it to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, reduce the flame, cover the rice and let it simmer for around 10 minutes.
  • By this time the water should have evaporated and the rice will be cooked. Spread the rice out on a a tray or cookie sheet so that the grains or rice don't stick to each other, but remain separate.
  • After the rice cools down completely, remove and discard the whole spices.

Heat it again before serving. This rice goes well with dal or any other gravy based vegetable.

1 comment:

  1. You forgot to mention that its super duper fragrant too! Yum!

    ReplyDelete

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