The last rice dish for this week is black gram dal rice from cookbook Dakshin. I never tasted this rice before and do not know how it is suppose to taste. I adjusted the spices to suit my palate.

Masala powder prepared with urad dal gave the rice a nutty flavor and black peppercorns gave a unique taste. When eating this rice, it reminded me a lot of temple prasadams (offering to God) with rice.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I do not use hing in my everyday cooking and am not used to its flavor. I always prefer garlic. Though I used hing in this recipe, I used less than ½ the quantity the recipe called for.

The other change I made was using less black peppercorns. The recipe called for 1 ½ tsp peppercorns and I used half of it. I felt if one wants more fiery rice, can use upto 1 tsp. However, I prefer chilies or chili powder for heat and felt ¾ was just good enough for my taste.

Total Time: 30 – 35
Preparation: 20 -25 minutes (time required to cook rice)
Cooking: 10 minutes
Serves: 1

Measuring cup used is the one that comes with the rice cooker.
Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked Basmati Rice (regular rice can be used)
• ½ – ¾ tsp. Salt
• Masala Powder
• 3 tbsp. Ghee or Butter (I used 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp oil)
• 10-12 Whole Cashews, broken
• 2 small Green Chilies, chopped

Masala Powder

• 1 ½ – 2 tbsp. Black Gram ~ Urad Dal, washed
• 1 ½ – 2 tbsp. Sesame Seeds
• ¾ – 1 tsp. Black Peppercorns
• 1 ½ – 2 tbsp. Coconut Flakes or Dry Coconut

Tempering

• ½ – ¾ Mustard Seeds
• ¾ tsp. Black Gram ~ Urad Dal, washed
• ¾ tsp. Bengal Gram ~ Chana Dal, washed
• ⅛ – ¼ tsp. Hing ~ Asafoetida (can used to upto ½ tsp but used less than ¼ tsp. Check notes)
• 6-8 Curry Leaves
• 1 Dry Red Chili

Preparation:

• Rice – Cook rice with 1 ¾ cups of water. I used a rice cooker and let the rice cool.
• Masala Powder – Heat a pan to dry roast the ingredients listed under masala powder.
• First add Urad dal and roast for few seconds until it is slightly dry and not wet anymore.
• To the same pan, add peppercorns and sesame seeds. Dry roast until almost light brown.
• Then add coconut flakes and continue roasting until all the ingredients are well roasted.
• Remove from fire and let cool.
• Grind to fine powder and keep aside until ready to use.
• Putting it together – When rice is cool enough to handle, add masala powder, ½ – ¾ tsp salt and mix properly.
• Heat butter and oil in a 9-10” nonstick pan.
• When oil is hot, add cashews and fry until cashews are brown. Remove and keep aside.
• In the same oil/butter add mustard seeds, urad dal, Chana dal, curry leaves, dry chili and hing(if using).
• Once mustard seeds splutter, add green chilies and saute for a minute or two. If not using hing, add crushed garlic at this point.
• Add rice and mix until tempering is blended. Fry for a minute or two until rice is hot and turn off the heat.
• Garnish with cashews and serve with papdams. I ate it as is with some yogurt to the side.

Notes:

• I used less than ¼ tsp hing and I would always prefer crushed garlic. If you are like me, use about 1-1 ½ tsp crushed garlic.

This day in 2011: Ground Turkey Fry (Dry Curry)
This day in 2014: Strawberry Banana Muffin

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#65

This also goes to this week’s Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.