Jeera rice/ How to make jeera rice.
Jeera rice is a combination of cumin seeds and rice. Long-grain basmati rice is best suited for making jeera rice. Fragrant basmati rice is fried with cumin, cardamom, green chilies, black cardamom, cloves, and bay leaves, which makes cooked basmati rice delicious. Jeera rice is usually on the menu card in all the restaurants in North India. You can enjoy eating it by combining it with any favourite dish.
What is Jeera Rice?
Jeera rice is a vegetarian recipe that is a combination of cumin and rice. To make the rice more palatable, we cook the rice and mix it well after adding cumin seeds. Due to this, this rice fried in cumin is served as a fragrant and tasty dish.
I like jeera rice like any other fried rice. like garlic fried rice, onion fried rice, lemon fried rice, and ginger garlic fried rice. I always like to pair jeera rice with chicken curry, mutton curry, dal, and curry dishes.
Ingredients:
Rice: Use long-grain basmati rice. Basmati rice is of many varieties; you can use any basmati of your choice. Avoid using short-grain or starchy rice.
Cumin: Cumin is the main ingredient in this recipe. Always use whole cumin seeds for cumin rice; cumin seeds should not be cut.
Ghee: When whole spices are fried in ghee, it makes jeera rice aromatic and flavorful. You can also use olive oil, mustard oil, or almond oil for better taste.
Whole spices: bay leaf, black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, and black pepper If you want, you can also use dry red chillies.
Salt and water are other ingredients for jeera rice.
How to make jeera rice?
- Wash two cups of basmati rice with water until the rice is clean. Then let the rice soak in water for 30 minutes.
- Drain all the water and keep the soaked rice aside.
- Boil 4 cups of water in a pan.Put the soaked rice in the boiling water. Add one teaspoon of salt and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Cook until the rice grains are slightly soft and separated.
- Put the cooked rice in a sieve and filter the water. Keep the cooked rice aside to cool.
- When the cooked rice is slightly cool or slightly lukewarm, start preparing the tadka.
- Heat 2 tbsp. ghee in a pan on medium heat. When the ghee melts, add 2 bay leaves, 4 black cardamoms, 5 cloves, and 5 black peppercorns and fry them.
- Roast two spoons of cumin till it crackles, add one spoon of chopped green chillies, and mix. Pour the tempering into the rice. Mix the rice with the tempering carefully, otherwise the rice grains may break.
- Take out the cumin rice in a serving bowl and garnish it with chopped coriander.
- You can serve jeera rice with your favourite curries, like paneer masala, kadai chicken, dal, and curry.
- I prefer to serve Jeera rice with a side dish of my favourite rajma dal and North Indian pahadi curry (kafli)gravy.
Instant pot jeera rice.
- Wash the basmati rice till it becomes clear with water. It will be cleaned by washing it about three times. Soak the washed rice in water for 30 minutes.
- To make jeera rice, set the instant pot to roast for 5 minutes.
- Pour ghee into the inner vessel. When the ghee melts and becomes hot, add bay leaves, black cardamom, cardamom, and cumin seeds. Fry them for 1 minute or until the aroma of spices comes out.
- Add soaked rice. Fry the rice gently for 1 minute to infuse the rice grains with the flavours of spices and ghee.
- Add the soaked rice, 1 cup water, and salt, and mix. Close the lid of the Instant Pot. Set the steam valve to the sealing position. Set the pressure cook mode to 3 minutes.
- After the set time has elapsed, wait for the steam to release, or you can manually release the steam.
- Open the lid, stir the rice with the help of a fork, and garnish with chopped coriander.
- Serve Jeera rice hot with your favourite vegetarian and non-vegetarian curry or dal.
Pro Tips:
- Always use whole long-grain basmati rice for making jeera rice.
- Wash well before making rice. and keep it soaking for about half an hour.
- Do not overboil the rice, or else the rice may break.
- Use soapy spices to make the rice more palatable.
