Pepper Jeera Rice

Pepper Jeera rice is my long time pending post. Atleast once in a month, I will prepare this recipe. Pepper has many medicinal benefits as it helps to cure cold & sore throat. As well Jeera is equally important for digestion. Jeera is good for women to cure Menstrual pains. Yes I remember that my mom used to make Kashayam (drink) made from Jeera + Fennel seeds. (I will post that recipe soon). Rather trying usual Milagu Jeera rasam for cold, you can try this quick flavoured, healthy rice.   I have added Garlic to enhance the flavour better. But you can skip if you dont want. And for the side dish this can go well with chips or ulunthu papad. Try this recipe at home and your comments are always welcome.

Ingredients :

Rice - 1 cup

Pepper corns - 1 1/2 tsp

Jeera - 2 tsp

Garlic pods - 2 (crushed)

Red chilli - 1 or 2 (depends on taste)

Urad dhal - 1/2  tsp

Channa dhal - 1/2  tsp

Hing -  1 pinch

Cashews - 2 broken (optional)

Roasted Peanuts - 2 tbsp (optional)

Curry leaves - 1 spring

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method :

Soak rice for 20 mins in water. Wash and drain water completely. Pressure cook it for 3 whistles.Once its done, spread the rice in a wide plate with a tsp of ghee. Fluff it with fork to get the grains separated. Keep it aside.

In a  pan, add ghee followed by adding cashews. Roast it till golden brown. Keep it aside. In the same pan with 1 tsp of oil / Ghee saute garlic, curry leaves & red chilli. Now add a pinch of hing. Fry till the garlic becomes light brown. Always do it in low flame to avoid burning. Keep the contents aside.

In the same pan, add oil or ghee (Preferred ghee),followed by adding Jeera. Once the jeera splutters, add pepper corn & saute it well.Now grind jeera + pepper corns in a mixie to a coarse powder. (No need to make it as fine powder). Now the jeera pepper powder is ready. We just need to mix everything to the rice to get the flavored delicious, healthy rice.

Now add the jeera-pepper powder & cashews-curry leaves- garlic mixture to the rice. Adjust the salt to taste. Adjust the salt to taste. Temper it with Mustard seeds, channa dhal & urad dhal. Its optional to add roasted peanuts. Since I want to have nice flavour of pepper- jeera, I dint add.  Serve hot with papad.

See you soon with interesting recipe.