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Cumin Rice aka Jeera Rice

 
Cumin Rice
Jeera Rice - it's delicious! It's amazing how you can cook a fragrant and flavorful rice with nothing more than just a few cumin seeds. It's ready in no time and with minimal effort. It's the perfect recipe to make on days when you crave for something more than just plain rice. 
Now there are many variations that you could make to this recipe by including other spices or may be an onion and / or add leaves such as the curry leaves or coriander leaves. I sometimes do so by including the ingredients that I have mentioned as Optional down below to my Jeera rice. But honestly - there isn't a need for it really - you have already taken the boring plain rice to a whole new level by adding just the cumin seeds alone.

So What Do We Need?  
  • 2 cups of Basmati Rice - 1 cup is about 150 ml
 Take a bowl. Put the rice in and fill the bowl up with water. With clean hands, stir the rice and water. In doing so, the water will turn white and cloudy. This is the excess starch getting rinsed off the grains. Drain this water out (you can use a strainer for this) and repeat the rinse. Keep repeating this till you see that the water is staying fairly clear - maybe rinse around 3 or 4 times. Then soak the rice in water for around 10-15 minutes. Later drain this water out.
  • 4 cups of Water to cook the rice.
  • Salt as required.
  • 2 teaspoons of Cumin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon of Sunflower/ Canola Oil / Ghee (Clarified Butter)
  • 1 Cardamom crushed. (Optional)
  • 1 or 2 Cloves (Optional)
  • 1 small piece of Cinnamon (Optional)
  • 1 sprig of Curry leaves (Optional)

Let's Do This
  • In a sauce pan or kadai with a fitting lid, heat the oil over a low to medium flame. Add in the cumin seeds and fry it off till it begins to splutter. This should take only about 30 seconds or so. Be very careful not to burn the cumin seeds because its just going to ruin the flavor  entirely. If you like - you can add the ingredients that I have mentioned as optional along with the cumin seeds. 
  • Now toss in the washed rice and give it a good mix so that the rice gets evenly coated with the oil and roasted cumin seeds.
 
  • Now pour in the water. And add enough salt. Give it a good stir. Then turn the flame up to high and let it come to a rolling boil.
 
  • Once it comes to a boil - put the lid on and turn the flame down to low.
  • Let the rice cook till all the liquid we had added is completely gone. This should take about 10 - 15 minutes.
  • Then turn the flame off. Take the saucepan off the stove. Keep it aside for about 5 - 10 minutes with the lid still on.
  • Before serving - Use a fork to separate the grains of cooked rice. Using a fork ensures that the grains don't break or get mashed.
  • And that's it. It's ready to be served. You can garnish it with a bit of chopped coriander leaves if you like.
 
Do give this recipe a try. I'm sure you will enjoy it.
 
To know more about my blog Click on  What's Laura's Food Fantasies all about?  

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