I like the idea of lemony rice. So often rice is a foil – for a curry sauce, for a meat dish, for dinner’s protagonist, etc.
But if you add some protein to a rice dish it almost becomes a meal on its own, and then it needs some flavour. Most often in Indian cuisine that means the complicated baked rice and yogurt dish called biriyani, but a dairy-free version with some pungent flavour is a little more rare. In walks Hari Nayak’s rice section in “My Indian Kitchen”. He has a recipe for tamarind rice and another for lemon rice, both sour flavours made to stand on their own. You would have to careful what you’d pair this with. It wouldn’t work with saucey dishes (for the Newfoundlanders, I don’t mean dishes with attitude…).
I made a quasi tamarind rice a few months ago when I had some leftover tamarind pulp that I figured I’d toss into an otherwise minimally spiced rice dish, but I finally decided to do this recipe properly, and I’ve got to say it’s really an acquired taste…
Ingredients
2 cups Basmati rice
8 cups water
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp mustard seeds (black or brown)
3 dried red chili peppers (small ones)
2 tsp split yellow peas (chana dal. I used toor dal like in sambhar, but you could also just leave this out completely. It adds a nutty flavour to the dish, but there’s so little of it that it’d be fine if you didn’t want to go out of your way and purchase a bag of chana dal just to use 2 tsp. I think Nayak would forgive you)
6-8 fresh curry leaves (or dried, though fresh works better since they get stir-fried. Just make sure you get them fully coated in the oil. In fact, maybe use a third tbsp of oil in a small saucepan if you use dried leaves)
1 cup unsalted peanuts
Juice of two lemons (eek! This is pungent! Use Meyer lemons if you can since there’s nothing sweet in this dish to balance, and there’s really no other flavour)
lemon wedges for serving, optional
Directions: I like that Nayak says to do the whole elaborate Basmati-soaking procedure of letting it sit in water for 30-40 minutes and then draining and rinsing until the water runs clear, then letting it drain for 15 minutes. This keeps the rice grains from sticking together when they cook. It’s a little miraculous.
Then boil the rice with the turmeric, water, and salt (lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, partially covered – brilliant instruction because it won’t overflow – and then drain the rice in a sieve. Now that’s a bit strange because you’re using more water than necessary. Usually with Basmati you go for the perfect amount, but what do I know?
Now, like a dal, you do a little oil-spice seasoning to add to the dish. So you heat the oil over medium heat and add the mustard seeds in a small skillet or saucepan. When they pop you add the curry leaves, peanuts, dried chili peppers, and chana dal. After one minute you add it to a large serving bowl with the drained rice, the lemon juice, and the salt. Taste, pucker your brow from all the lemon, and either add more salt or lemon if you really love that puckeriness. Actually maybe try adding 3/4 of the lemon juice at first and add more as you want it. Serve with the lemon wedges for garnish.
All in all, I didn’t love this dish, but that was just because my palate likes sweeter food and my lemons were fairly bitter. I’d like to try this with limes (for a completely different flavour) or sweeter lemons. I’d also top it with nutty sprouts or serve it with yellow chickpea dal to enhance that nutty flavour of the peanuts and chana dal. And if you want sweetness in the dish itself, fry some slivered shallots or onions in oil (especially coconut oil) over medium-low heat utnil they caramelize. Then drain them on paper towel and use as garnish. They’re plenty sweet and savoury.
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