Zeera Rice & Kadi Pakoda

A simple yet refreshing dish to indulge your family without shelling out an extra buck right with ingredients found in your store cupboard.This is a rice dish with a mild flavor of cumin seeds accompanied with a tempered yoghurt savory dish to which chickpea flour fritters have been added.

Zeera Rice:

Ingredients:

1 cup high quality basmati rice

1 tbs cumin seeds

1 tbs finely chopped ginger and garlic

2-3 black pepper corns

1 bay/laurel leaf

2 pods of cardamom

1inch piece of cinammon

2-3 cloves

1-2 tbs oil

salt as required

1 and 1/2 cups of water

Method

Warm oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add the whole spices and when they begin to release their aroma add the finely sliced onions and saute for a minute.Now add the chopped ginger garlic.Remove the whole spices and add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle for a minute.Now add the rice and stir for half a minute and then add the water and salt.Then, let it cook on a medium flame till rice is well done.Garnish with finely chopped green chillies and coriander leaves.

Kadi Pakoda

Pakora:

3/4 cup besan/chickpeaflour

1/3 tsp carrom seeds/ajwain

1 tsp red chilli powder

1tsp ginger/garlic paste

1/4 tsp baking powder

salt as required

oil to deep fry

Mix all the ingredients listed above into a smooth batter with enough water to a thick consistency.Heat oil and drop spoonfuls of batter into it in batches and fry till golden brown.Remove onto kitchen tissue/towel.

Kadi (Savoury Yoghurt)

1 onion sliced

1/2 tsp chopped ginger

2 tbs chickpea flour/besan

1 cup yoghurt

2 red chillies

a pinch of fenugreek seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

salt as required

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbs oil

Method:

Whisk the yoghurt and blend with an additional one cup water.Heat the oil add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chillies broken into bits,till they sizzle and splutter, now, add the turmeric and chickpeaflour while stirring all the while and taking care to reduce the flame.Add the yoghurt and make sure the chickpea flour mixes well with it and then add salt and simmer on a low flame for fifteen minutes.Turn off the flame and add the pakoras.

Serve zeera rice with kadi pakoda.Also serve a pickle and papad on the side.You could even add a kidney bean dish like rajma masala on the menu to make a great combo.