Jeera Rice (Cumin Rice)

As I mentioned in my previous posts that I was part of a wonderful team & we all used to work, eat & enjoy together as a team!! One of our team members was a Punjabi & his wife was an excellent cook. She used to pack nice Punjabi dishes for lunch. We all used to enjoy the dishes prepared by her. Now that I am not a part of that team, I’m missing all those nice food especially the jeera rice, rajma masala & rajma chawal, that he used to get for lunch. Thought of searching in Indian Restaurants to satisfy my craving. Just then flew an idea of preparing it by my own.
Went inside the kitchen, started looking for the ingredients, prepared it in the next 30 minutes & enjoyed eating. You also note down the ingredients, you never know when you might need it ;)

Ingredients
1.5 tbsp jeera/cumin seeds
2 cups basmati rice
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 onion finely chopped
Salt according to taste
4 cups water
1 tbsp butter/oil (I personally feel butter gives better result)

Method:

• Take a broad pan. Add butter to it. When butter is heated, add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds turn golden brown, add ginger garlic paste, onion & sauté well.
• Let the onion turn golden brown.
• Add water, salt & allow water to boil.
• Meantime, wash the basmati rice & soak for 5 mins
• When water starts boiling, add the rice & close the lid of the pan.
• Allow the rice to be cooked for 10-15 mins. Keep peeping in between, but don’t mix the rice. Just take a peek.
• When the rice is almost done, mix the rice gently & allow the remaining water to evaporate completely.
• Serve it hot with spicy & tangy raitha, any curry of your choice or just normal dal-fry.

Tips:

• Don’t soak the rice for more than 5-10 mins. Rice becomes sticky.
• Donot pressure cook this rice (even 1 whistle in the cooker would make the rice soggy & sticky)
• Don’t keep mixing the rice when it is being cooked. Just do it once at the end. Take a heavy bottomed pan, the rice won’t be burnt with that & turns out just perfect.

These simple tips help to make jeera rice that looks & tastes like how we get in restaurants!!