Restaurant style Jeera rice
A simple and perfectly made jeera / Zeera rice goes well with everything. A quick fix with piping hot dal tadka is comfort in a plate.
Is there any one way to cook and flavor the rice? The beauty of Indian cuisine lies with in the spices used. The way you use your spices tells about the region of Indian you are from. This simple jeera rice is just to celebrate the queen of spices. Well, Cardamom is called queen of spices.
This simple rice can be paired with any of the gravy’s below for a quick weeknight dinner. Who doesn’t love a quick dinner recipe right?
Now to the recipe, I strongly suggest using basmati rice for this. It tastes authentic and the rice itself has its own flavor added to it. I also cook the basmati rice in my electric pressure cooker (Instant pot) and Stir it once on wok with the tempering.
Ingredients
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
For tempering
Ghee - 1 to 2 tbsp
Cinnamon sticks - 2 (1 inch sticks)
Bay leaf - 1
Star Anise - 3
Cardamom - 3
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Note that you can add or exclude any spice that you wish. Sometimes I ignore all and enjoy just the simplicity of cumin seeds. However, adding whole spices makes it aromatic.
DIRECTION
Start by washing the basmati rice in cold water and soak it in 1:1 ratio water for 20 mins. Don’t soak it longer.
Then cook in pressure cooker or stove top, until its fluffy and soft along with salt.
In instant pot I cook it in rice settings.
Once the rice is cooked, In a hot wok, add ghee, when it is hot start by adding all the spices. I first add bay leaf, star anise, cinnamon and cardamom pods.
Once it give a nice aroma, I go ahead and add a tsp of cumin seeds. When it splutters add in cooked rice and slowly stir. If you forgot to add salt while cooking the rice, now is the right time to add it. Then turn off the stove and enjoy hot with green moong and spinach dalt. Just the way I like it
