Lemon rice

Lemon rice / Nimakaya pulihora ~ Indian hot dish

Dear Friends,

Hope every one enjoyed the Diwali celebrations and had a joyous and safe festival time. Now I am posting simple dish which most of us will make for any Festival with little variations.

This dish especially while making first time most of us will be worried about the quantity of lemon juice and salt. Also the rice should be cooked with less amount of water, so the rice will not be mashed up while mixing. If you are know the process of cooking rice then it is very easy.

I also remember train journeys when we prefer to take such food during our childhood.

Elders generally will prefer to prepare lemon rice with left over rice of before day.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice                                 – 1 Cup (Sona masori)

Water                                      – 2 Cups

Oil (sunflower/groundnut)         – 3 or 4 Table spoons 

Mustard seeds                          – ½ teaspoon

Channa dal / Bengal gram          – 1 teaspoon

Urad dal / Split Black gram         – 1 teaspoon

Ground nuts                              – 1 Table spoon or more

Cashew nuts                             – 1 Table spoon or more (Optional)

Green chilies                             – 3 or 4

Red chili                                    – 1 or 2

Curry leaves                             – 10 leaves (Nearly)

Grated Carrot                           – 2 Table spoons (Optional)

Turmeric Powder                       – 1 teaspoon

Asafetida or Hing                       – Pinch (Nearly 1/8^th teaspoon)

Salt                                          – To taste

Chopped Coriander leaves         – 1 Table spoon

Lemon juice                              – 2 Table spoons or more (Nearly two medium sized lemons)

The quantity of juice will vary based on your taste for sourness.

Procedure:

1. First wash the rice with water twice. Then add the water and you can cook the rice in pressure cooker or rice cooker or by any other source of cooking rice. The amount of water varies for different rice. I used sona masori rice so water will be 1:2 in ratio i.e. one portion of rice with two portions of water. If you use basmati rice then the ratio will be 1:1+½ i.e. one portion of rice with one and a half portion of water.

2. Once rice is cooked allow it to cool to room temperature. So, that it will be easy for you to mix. Transfer the rice into a big plate or wide mouthed vessel or pan.

3. Squeeze the lemon juice and add salt to it. Add this juice to the rice and mix it once. Keep little plain rice aside, this will be useful after mixing, if you feel little more oil is remaining or quantity of lemon juice or salt is more, then you can mix this rice.

4. Now in a fry pan add oil, once oil is heated add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds popped up add Bengal gram seeds, urad dal seeds stir it for a while when urad dal slightly changes its color add ground nut seeds (You can use either normal ground nuts or roasted ground nuts). Switch off the stove or put it in complete low flame. Now add cashew nuts, green chilies, split red chilies, curry leaves, turmeric, hing and grated carrot and mix it.

5. Add the above tampering and chopped coriander to the rice. Mix it gently using hand or fork or spoon.

Dish is ready to be served.

You can also use Ivy gourd (Little gourd / Tindora / Dondakaya), Carrots, Beans vegetables in lemon rice. Just steam boil the vegetables. Drain the water and finally add into your tampering or tadka and cook it for 1 minutes in low flame. You can also add grated ginger of ¼ teaspoon if you like.

Adding roasted ground nuts with out husk will be good. Avoid cashew nuts and vegetables if you want to take it for journeys. This rice will be good for the whole day.

You can also use Lime instead of Lemon.

Hope you will make and enjoy eating this recipe.