Curd Rice (Thayir Sadam)

Chennai in May, two in the afternoon, and the road outside is white with heat. Inside, a steel dabba comes out of the fridge. The curd rice in it is thick and cool and just loose enough to fall off the spoon. There are black mustard seeds through it, thin slivers of ginger, a bit of green chilli, and curry leaves that went crisp in the pan and have stayed crisp. On the lid, one piece of mango pickle. You take a spoon of the rice, touch it to the pickle, and eat. The cold rice takes the burn away and the sourness comes back around. This is the last course of every Tamil meal and, on the hottest days, the only one anybody wants.

The tempering is done in wooden cold pressed white sesame oil, and there is a practical reason for it. Curd rice is eaten cool or cold, and ghee sets hard and grainy when it cools. Sesame oil stays liquid, so the mustard seeds and curry leaves stay loose in the rice instead of clumping. Our sesame oil is pressed slowly in a wooden ghaani without heat, so it holds its raw nutty smell, and that faint bitterness underneath is exactly what a mild, milky dish needs to stop it tasting like nothing.

The one thing that decides this dish is temperature. Cook the rice softer than you normally would, mash it while hot, then cool it down to room temperature before the curd goes anywhere near it. Curd added to hot rice splits into grains and water within minutes, and no amount of stirring brings it back. Add milk while the rice is warm, curd only when it is cool.

How to make it

1. Wash the rice three times and cook it with 3.5 cups of water. It should be properly soft, well past the usual point, with the grains falling apart. In a pressure cooker that is 5 whistles; in a pot, about 20 minutes.
2. While it is still hot, mash the rice with the back of a ladle or a wooden masher. Do not make a paste. You want the grains broken but still recognisable.
3. Pour in the warm milk and the salt, and mix. The milk keeps the rice soft for hours and stops it turning sour too fast. Now leave it uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes to come down to room temperature.
4. Test with the back of your finger. If the rice is still warm to touch, wait. This is the step people skip and then wonder why the curd separated.
5. Whisk the curd until it is completely smooth, with no lumps. Pour it into the cooled rice and fold it in gently. It should be loose and pourable, because rice keeps drinking curd as it sits.
6. Heat the sesame oil in a small pan on medium. Add the mustard seeds. When they crackle and jump, add the urad dal and chana dal and fry 30 to 40 seconds until they turn light gold.
7. Add the ginger slivers, green chillies, broken red chilli and curry leaves. The leaves will curl and go crisp almost instantly. Switch off, stir in the asafoetida, and pour the whole tempering over the curd rice.
8. Fold it through once, no more. Taste for salt. Curd rice needs a little more salt than you expect because it is served cool.
9. Add the coriander leaves and, if you like, the pomegranate seeds or grapes and grated carrot on top.
10. Rest it for 15 minutes before serving so the flavours settle. Serve at room temperature or chilled, with mango pickle or vadu manga on the side.

Tips

• Use fresh curd, never sour curd. The rice will turn sour on its own within a few hours. Starting sour means it is inedible by evening.
• Make it looser than looks right. Rice absorbs curd steadily. What seems runny now will be perfect at lunchtime and thick by evening.
• Travelling with it? Add an extra 1/4 cup of milk and hold back some curd in a small box, then mix it in when you are ready to eat.
• The dals are not decoration. Urad and chana dal give the crunch that makes the soft rice interesting. Fry them until they are gold, not pale, or they stay soft.
• We do not sell curd or rice. Set your own curd from full fat milk if you can. Shop curd is often set thin and makes the rice watery.
• A hot summer version: skip the green chilli and add a spoon of finely chopped cucumber and a few crushed grapes. It cools the mouth even further.