Lemon Rice/Rice Pulihora

Among the many wonderful Indian blogs that I like to follow, is Sailu's blog. Here blog is usally really well illustrated with pictures, clear directions and has a wonderful mix of both authentic Indian and several experimental and innovative recipes for pasta and wholesome kid friendly mean. This particular recipe caught my attention, because of both its use of lemon instead of tamarind and also used delicate broken rice also called rice rawa. There are I guess several variations of pulihora, which I realized essentually translates to sour rice in Telegu, which is spoken in Andhra Pradesh. Well, I did not have rice rawa (broken rice available in the house), but I did have delicate fragrant kalajeera rice available. So I made a pulihora, that was very close to her recipe power packed with a lot of fresh lemon juice that ended up being a lovely refreshing meal for a summer night. Here is how I did it.

Lemon Rice/Pulihora

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

1.5 cups of kalajeera rice

1 and 3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

For the tempering

2 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/8 teaspoon asafetida or hing

1 teaspoon chana dal (yellow split lentils)

1 teaspoon urad dal

10-12 curry leaves

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

3/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts

3-4 dried red chilies

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

2 lemons, halved and seeded

2 green chillies, very finely chopped

1/3 cup cilantro leaves

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the rice in the water for about 12 minutes, drain and rinse throughly and set out to cool.

2. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida and wait till the mustard seeds begin to crackle. Add in the lentils and let them brown for 2 minutes.

3. Add in the curry leaves, ginger and dry roasted peanuts and cook lightly for about 1minutes. Add in the red chilies.

4. Mix in the rice and the turmeric and mix well.

5. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir in the green chilies and cilantro.

Note: The flavor of this rice improves considerably served after 30 minutes and also tastes good warm rather than very hot.

Andhra Shrimp Curry

I think we all like noovelty in our life, so my North Indian husband who loves spices (since this is what he has grown up with) expresses his independence by insisting how much he loves South Indian and (yes after marriage) - bengali food. I cook general South Indian food reasonably well, but have never tried my hand with fish and seafood recipes.

Well I figured the RCI event which features diverse Indian cuisines, this month featuring Andhra recipes, hosted by Latha.

Well, I adapted this recipe from something a friend of mine from Andhra makes. I think it is close, but since I am doing this recipe by instinct, it may not be perfect

Andhra Shrimp Curry

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Grind to a paste

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

1 piece ginger

4 green chillies

3 red chillies

3 tbsp coconut powder

Grind to a powder

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 sticks cinnamon

2 cardamoms

2-3 cloves

1 tsp turmeric

1 lb shrimp

1 tsp salt

1 lime

3 tbsp oil

1 small onion chopped

For garnish

A few curry leaves

1 tsp chopped cilantro

Method of preparation

1. Coat the shrimp with the lime and vinegar and set aside

2. Heat the oil and add the chopped onion and saute well.

3. Add in the ground paste and powdered spices and cook stirring frequently for 15-20 minutes until it is well browned and the oil separates.

4. Add in the shrimp with 1 cup of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Check the salt and serve hot with rice.