Lemon rice is an easy recipe which can be prepared in less than 15 minutes using pantry staples. It is known as “Elimicham Pazham sadam” in Tamil and is a very popular rice in Tamilnadu.
Ingredients:
Cooked Rice – 1 1/2 cups
Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Chana dal/bengal gram dal – 1/2 tsp
Urad dal – 1/2 tsp
Red chillies (whole) – 2
Green Chillies – 2
Roasted Peanuts/Cashewnuts – 12 -15
Curry leaves – 7-8
Coriander leaves – 1 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Juice of 2 Lemons
Salt – as required
Preparation:
Wash and cook the rice. To cook it, boil the rice in 4 cups of water with little salt and a tsp of oil added to it. When it is almost cooked, take it off the fire and strain the water. Transfer the rice to a big plate to cool it down completely so that it does not stick to each other. Make sure the grains are not sticky.
Heat oil. When it becomes hot, add mustard seeds, udad dal, chana dal, red chillies, green chillies, curry leaves, peanuts, asafoetida and turmeric powder. Stir and put off the flame or take it off the stove. When it cools down, add the lime juice to it and then the cooked rice. Add enough salt and mix well. Garnish it with some roasted peanuts or cashews and coriander leaves. Adjust the amount of lime juice as per your preference of sourness.
You may serve the lime rice with potato chips or spicy potato masala.
Clean and devein the prawns. Marinate it with 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and little salt and keep it aside.
Soak basmati rice for 20-30 mins. Then, drain the water out and keep it aside. Heat 1/2 tsp oil and 1 tbsp ghee. Add the drained rice and saute for about 10 mins and keep aside.
Heat little oil again . To make the paste, add whole garam masala, chopped onions and saute. Then in goes the g.chillies. ginger garlic paste and saute for a good 6-7 minutes. Add cor leaves.mint leaves and one small tomato (optional).Grind it along with little coconut to a fine paste. Keep it aside.
Heat oil and ghee, add sliced onions, slit g.chillies,whole garam masala (mentioned above), mint leaves, cor leaves, and fry well.Then add ground paste and giner garlic paste and saute well for 5 minutes till the raw smell disappears. Add the red chillie powder and the prawns and fry till the colour changes. This may only take about 3 – 4 minutes. Do not cook it for long as the prawns may become rubbery. Add water and let it boil. When it starts to boil, add the fried rice to it , salt and cook.
Keep the flame on high and do not cover. When the rice starts to show up on top and 3/4 th of the water has been absorbed, take it off the flame. Heat a iron tava and when it becomes hot, place the closed pot with the biryani on the tava. Keep the flame to the lowest and let it cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.
If you do not have an iron griddle, you may place the biriyani pot/pan on very low small flame and cook it for 15 – 20 minutes. Check in between to make sure that it does not burn.
Thalapakatti is a popular chain of restaurants which was first started in Dindigul, a district in Tamilnadu. Their biriyani is so popular that I am also a huge fan of it. When a friend suggested that I try Suguna Vinod’s recipe, I quickly decided to make it for the weekend. So, here it is and hope you like it.
For this biriyani, the tiny grain of rice variety known as seerage samba (in tamil) or Jeeragashala (in malayalam) is used.
Ingredients:
Seeeraga samba rice – 2 cups
Mutton with bone – 500 gms
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Oil – 3 tbsp
Red chillie powder – 1/2 tsp
Yogurt – 1/2 cup
Salt – 1 1/2 tsp
Mint leaves – a handful
Coriander leaves – a handful
Juice of 1/2 lime
For Masala:
Green chillies – 5
Cinnamon stick – 3 (2 inch sticks)
Cardamom – 3
Cloves – 3
Nutmeg (Jathika) – 1/8th of a nutmeg
Mace – (Jathi pathri) – 1 small piece
Ginger – 2 inch piece
Garlic – 12
Small onions (Shallots) – 15
Water – half cup
Preparation:
Before starting to cook, wash and soak the rice for 20 minutes in water.Do not soak it more as it may become mushy. After 20 minutes, drain it and it should be ready to use.
Wash the mutton and keep it aside.
Grind all the masalas listed under ‘masala paste’.
Take a pressure cooker and heat it. Add oil and ghee. When it becomes hot, add the ground masala to it. Saute it well and add the mutton. Saute it again for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water, salt, red chillie powder and the yogurt. Mix well and close the lid of the cooker and cook the mutton in it. After the first whistle, reduce the flame and cook the mutton for 20 minutes. Put off the flame and allow it to cool down.
Then, open the cooker and remove the mutton pieces from it to a bowl and roughly measure the liquid in the cooker. You should have approximately 1.5 cups as it need not be accurate.
Transfer the liquid (1.5 cups of liquid) to a wide bottomed cooking pan in which the biriyani is to be cooked. As we require 2 times water to the quantity of rice, we need to add 4 cups of water. As you would have 1.5 cups of liquid already in the cooker, add 2.5 cups of water to the pan. Then, add the chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves and let the mixture come to a boil. (The total amount of water in the pan should be 4 cups).
When it starts boiling, add the meat pieces which were taken out and check the seasoning. Adjust the salt and add the drained rice to the pan. When it starts boiling, add lime juice. Cover the pan with a lid and cook on medium flame for the first 4 minutes.
Then, open the lid. Gently mix once from the bottom, cover the lid again and simmer with lid on for 10 minutes on very low flame. Open the lid and the rice would have been three fourth cooked. Let it cook for a few more minutes.
Switch off the flame and close the lid again and let it rest with the lid on for 20 minutes. The rice will get swollen and absorb all the left out moisture. Do not rush as this step is very important.
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