Lemon Rice

Today I made lemon rice after coming across a recipe for it on India Express. I ended up learning a bit about one of the ingredients. The recipe called for fenugreek seeds. I didn't think I had them, but the funny thing is not only did I have them, they were what I thought was dal that I had in a jar in the cupboard which would have gone into the rice in nearly the same portion since the recipe called for two kinds of dal and fenugreek seeds! The recipe called for chana dal and black gram dal. I was just going to use whichever two dals I had and skip the fenugreek seeds. At the last minute I decided to bring up a google image of fenugreek, just out of curiosity. To my surprise, it was exactly what I had in a jar already! I don't remember buying them, but somehow they were in my cupboard. So, finally, I used fenugreek seeds and split black gram (urad dal), but not the chana dal since I did not have that one. Now in all seriousness, I would have realized upon closer inspection when I opened the jar that those little thingies were certainly not dal! :) Fenugreek seeds, I see, tend to have a strange asymmetrical jagged shape...

Fenugreek has been used in alternative medicine as a way to manage diabetes.
According to wiki, but backed up by actual scientific research, "Several human intervention trials demonstrated that the antidiabetic effects of fenugreek seeds ameliorate most metabolic symptoms associated with type-1 and type-2 diabetes in both humans and relevant animal models by reducing serum glucose and improving glucose tolerance."
That's pretty fascinating!

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Back to the lemon rice...

Ingredients:

1 cup rice
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil
2 dried red chillies, each halved
1 teaspoon split black gram
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 cup peanuts
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
10 curry leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:

Prepare rice as usual and set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet, and add the chillies, dal & fenugreek seeds.

Cook until the dal is slightly browned.

Add peanuts and mustard seeds, and stir.

Add curry leaves once the mustard seeds begin to crackle.

Stir in turmeric powder.


Then, stir in rice and lemon juice.

It's ready to serve!

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The picture of the overall dish includes coconut green beans, dal fry, and raita. The dal fry was RTE; I cheated! The green beans are a side dish that a friend of mine back in college used to make. I'll post that recipe, too, very soon. The whole dish turned out pretty good. I'll be making the lemon rice often now that I know how to make it. Next I'd like to learn to make tamarind rice. Now, vegetable biryani is the Godfather of rices (well besides my Iranian counterpart favorite, "zereshk polow"). It's nice to mix it up!

Do you have a favorite rice or do you stick with plain rice?