Jeera Rice/ Cumin flavored Rice

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I hope you all have had a very nice weekend with Diwali and Kali Puja to mark the end of Hindu festivities for this year. I am very sorry for my unannounced break from the blog. I just came down to Bangalore for a couple of days and had been busy since, working and partying.

Diwali pradipDiwali diyaPancha Pradip

The festival season has gone past but still the feel has not passed away. There are still sounds of crackers coming from here and there, and even at odd hours, 6 in the morning or 12 midnight. When it’s the time of festivities, eating out almost all nights, attending parties, visiting friends and relatives, having the oily and spicy food are all synonymous. So the last week ended with spice intake that should have lasted a month. I was almost craving for some non-spicy, less oily food for lunch. Yesterday I was all alone at home in the afternoon, and was very lazy to cook. There was left over rice from the other night and so thought of adding little cumin to it. The jeera rice (my version) was just the thing that I was looking for after a whole week of spices and oils. I had it with a hard-boiled egg.

Tubri

A little search on the web showed that zeera or cumin flavored rice is originally from North India, I am not sure though about the exact period from when it became popular. Any suggestions or information as comments regarding its history is highly welcome. Though I had prepared the jeera rice with left over rice, you can make it with freshly cooked rice also.

Preparation time; 3min
Cooking time: 20 + 5min
Serves: 1

Ingredients:

Cooked rice (Bhaat): 1 cup
Cumin (Jeera/ Zeera): 1 tablespoon
Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size, diced into small pieces
Sugar (Chini): ½ teaspoon
Curry leaves (Kari pata): 4/5
Green chilies (Kancha Lanka): 2, cut into small rings
Clarified butter (ghee): 1 tablespoon
The ingredients

Preparation:

  • Heat the ghee in a wok, throw in the curry leaves, cumin seeds
  • As the cumin start popping add the diced onions and sauté
  • Let the onions turn soft before adding the rice
  • Add the chilies and sugar
  • Toss for sometime till the ghee is well mixed with the rice
  • Serve hot any side dish of choice or even some raita and green salad.

Jeera Rice

Hot Tips – If you are using fresh rice to prepare this, then you can also do it this way. Do same till the sautéing the onions, put in the soaked rice (uncooked) and add just the double amount of water and let the rice get cooked.

Further Reading – Jeera Rice from Arundhati, Cumin Pilaf

Sending this recipe to a dear friend’s (Radhika) first blog anniversary celebration with the Cook For Yourself event.

cookforyourself

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10 thoughts on “Jeera Rice/ Cumin flavored Rice

  1. Dear Sudeshna
    This is a nice and fast recipe. Will use the recipe but with cooked rice.

    I saw your comment, that the net is starving of mutton dishes. You are right ..That haox red meat scare (unique to India) is catching up, I guess. You start posting some and I will start too.
    best wishes

    1. Dear Ushnish,
      We are not much of a mutton eater, yeah may be because of high cholesterol and heart disease history in our family. But, still at times we feed on the mutton kashsa, the only preparation at home. I posted the mutton kasha recipe sometime back. Will try to post some more.

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