Sesame Oil Lemon Rice
Every grain turned yellow, studded with crunchy dals and peanuts, sharp with lemon and warm with sesame oil. It tastes better an hour after you make it.
Ingredients
Serves 3
- 1 cup (200 g) raw rice, cooked and cooled (about 3 cups cooked, or use leftover rice)
- 3 tbsp Cold Pressed White Sesame Oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp chana dal
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 2 tbsp raw peanuts
- 2 dried red chillies, broken
- 2 green chillies, slit
- 1 sprig curry leaves (10 to 12 leaves)
- ¼ tsp hing (asafoetida)
- 1 tbsp ginger, chopped fine
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 3 tbsp lemon juice (about 1½ lemons)
- 1 tsp salt, or to taste
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped (optional)
Quantities are scaled up. Taste as you go and adjust the salt and spice.
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Six in the morning in a Madurai kitchen, and the rice from last night is already spread out on a wide plate, cooled and separate. The sesame oil goes into the kadhai, the mustard seeds crackle, then the chana dal and urad dal and peanuts go in and turn gold in about ninety seconds. Curry leaves hit the oil and curl. The rice goes in, everything turns yellow, lemon at the end. By eight it is in a steel dabba on the way to school.
In the South, sesame oil is the tadka oil, and wooden cold pressed white sesame oil is the one for this. Pressed from white seeds in a slow ghaani, it stays pale and keeps a warm, gently nutty smell rather than the dark heavy taste of a roasted-seed oil. It holds the dals at a steady fry so they go crisp instead of soft, and it coats the rice so the grains stay loose for hours. You will smell it the moment the mustard seeds go in.
The one thing that decides this dish is when the lemon goes in. Switch off the flame, wait a minute, and only then pour it over and mix. Lemon juice added to a hot pan cooks, loses its edge and turns faintly bitter, and the whole point of lemon rice is that sharpness.
How to make it
- Cook the rice so the grains stay separate: 1 cup rice with 1¾ cups water in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles, or use leftover rice. Spread it on a wide plate to cool and fluff it with a fork.
- Heat the sesame oil in a kadhai on medium. Add the mustard seeds and wait till they crackle.
- Add the chana dal, urad dal and peanuts. Fry, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes till the dals turn golden. Watch closely, they go from golden to burnt fast.
- Add the dried red chillies, green chillies, curry leaves and hing. Let them sizzle for 30 seconds.
- Add the ginger and fry for 30 seconds. Switch off the flame, then stir in the turmeric. Off the heat, it colours the oil without burning.
- Add the rice and salt. Mix gently from the bottom up with a flat spatula so every grain turns yellow and the rice does not break.
- Wait a minute for the rice to cool slightly, then pour in the lemon juice and mix. Taste and add a little more salt or lemon if you like.
- Rest for 10 minutes before serving so the flavours settle. Serve with papad and curd, or pack it for lunch.
Tips
- Day-old rice from the fridge works best. Fresh rice is soft and can turn mushy when mixed.
- For a Kerala touch, add 2 tbsp fresh grated coconut along with the rice.
- Lemon rice travels well. Pack it in a steel dabba and it tastes just as good at room temperature 4 to 5 hours later.
- Skip the peanuts if you are packing it for a school where nuts are not allowed. Roasted cashews or nothing at all are both fine.
