Refreshing Lemon Rice Recipe
Refreshing Lemon Rice is a south Indian specialty and another one of those preparations that is quite complete by itself. At the most, serve some Curd.
Ingredients
- 15 cups rice, picked, washed and soaked in 3 cups water
- 7-8 curry leaves, washed and torn up
- ½ cup cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted peanuts
- 2 whole red chilies
- A pinch of Asafoetida
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoons black gram
- 1 teaspoon rice, picked
- A few green chilies (optional), deseeded and sliced
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- Juice of 4 limes
- 1 tablespoon raisins (optional)
- 1 tablespoon fresh, grated coconut (optional)
- Salt to taste
Utensils
A pan to boil the rice; a karahi or heavy-bottomed pan; brown paper
Method
- Boil the rice (see recipe for plain boiled rice) and keep aside.
- While the rice is cooking, heat the oil and fry the peanuts golden brown. Remove from the oil and keep aside.
- Take out and strain the excess oil, leaving only 3-4 tablespoons in the pan. In the same oil, drop the red chilies. Then they start to darken, add the asafetida.
- After another second, add the mustard seeds, gram and rice.
- As soon as the seeds stop spluttering, add the rest of the ingredients. Be careful — the lime juice will splutter as soon as you add it but will subside in a few seconds.
- Fluff up the rice and add to the ingredients in the pan. Stir well to coat evenly. Add the peanuts.
- Garnish with the fresh coconut if using.
Serves 4
