Jeera Rice

Whenever we go to any north Indian restaurants, we usually finish up our meal with jeera rice and dal fry or dal tadka. You can serve it with both veg and non-veg curries like paneer and chicken curries. Since it is very mild in flavour it tastes great with spicy curries.

It is basically steamed rice with nice flavor of pan fried cumin seeds (Jeera). This simple and easy recipe can also be made by using onion and cashew nuts stir fried in ghee to enhance the flavor and palatability. Additionally, instead of How to Make Zeera Rice in pressure cooker if you prepare it in a deep pan with lid, every strand of its grain separates and gives a pleasing look to the recipe.

It’s one of the simplest, easiest yet most ordered rice dishes in any restaurant. Jeera Rice is very common dish eaten along with different gravy based dishes like dal fry, dal palak or even rasam and sambar.

Basmati rice is the key ingredient in this jeera rice as it gives a special aroma to jeera rice and you will not get that flavor if you use any other variety of rice. Basmati literally means ‘fragrance’ in Sanskrit and this fragrance defines the aroma of jeera rice.

Common Ingredients of jeera rice:

• Basmati rice
• Cumin seeds
• Ghee
• Bay leaf
• Black cardamom
• Cinnamon
• Salt to taste

Method

The simplest method of making jeera rice is washing rice thoroughly and soaking in water for half an hour. Drain the water and heat ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds, bay leaf, cardamom and cinnamon. When cumin seeds crackle, add the rice and then add salt to taste. Stir till ghee coats every grain of rice and it looks glossy. Add three cups of water. Bring to a boil. Stir once and reduce heat to minimum and cover the pan with a lid. Rice is considered to be completely cooked when holes appear on the surface and water has been completely absorbed or evaporated. Take out the rice onto a serving dish to separate each grain, decorate with grated tomatoes and coriander leaves and serve hot with any curry.