Ingredients
|
Quantity
|
Cooked rice
|
3 cups
|
Lemon juice
|
½ cup
|
Turmeric
|
¼ tsp
|
Salt (heaped)
|
1 tsp
|
Mustard seeds
|
½ tsp
|
Channa dal
|
2 tsp
|
Urad dal
|
2 tsp
|
Dried red chillies
|
2
|
Peanuts
|
¾ cups
|
Oil
|
4 tsp
|
Asafoetida
|
1 pinch
|
Add the salt and the turmeric to the lemon juice and mix well
until the salt dissolves completely.
Heat the oil in a saucepan, on a medium flame. Put in the mustard
seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the Channa Dhal, Urad
Dhal, Peanuts. Break the chilies into 2 or 3 pieces and add them to the Oil.
Fry the mixture, stirring often, until the peanuts turn a light brown.
Now add the lemon juice mixture to the pan. (Take care while doing
this. The oil will sputter and the mixture will give off a lot of steam.)
Sprinkle the asafoetida on the mixture and boil for about 5 seconds. Remove
from heat and let it cool.
Spread out the rice in a shallow vessel. Pour a little of the
lemon mixture on the rice and mix well. Add more of the lemon mixture, mixing
well until the rice is well coated and the taste is to your satisfaction.
Notes:
The proportion of salt, chilies and lemon juice may be varied
depending on your tastes.
Leftover juice mix can be stored in the refrigerator. Store it in
either glass, enamel or porcelain cookware. Never store it in an aluminium or
iron container. Lemon juice is strongly acidic and will dissolve most metallic
surfaces over time.
This mixture can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge
over an extended period of time. Since it is highly acidic, it won't spoil even
if kept for a month or more. In fact, after a week or so, the soaked chilies
would have lost most of their heat and will be quite palatable.
You can spice it up further with the fenugreek-cumin powder (See
the recipe for Tamarind
Rice).