Sanket's kitchen

Jeera rice

Ingredients -

Basmati rice - 1 cup
Salt - 1/2 tbsp
Water - 2 cups
Ghee (clarified butter) - 1/2 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
asafetida - 1 tsp
Cloves - 2
Green cardamom - 2

Recipe - 

Step 1: Cooking rice - Clean rice with water for 3 times. Soak in water for at least half hour. Discard water used for soaking and replace with 2 cups of fresh water. Put rice and water in a cooking pot. Add salt to it, and turn on the heat to medium. Close the lid and let it cook for about 20 minutes.

Step 2: Tempering - Heat ghee in a sautee pan. Once heated, add cumin seeds. Once cumin seeds start to become black (about 2 minutes), add asafetida, cloves and green cardamom. After 30 seconds, add the tempering to rice and cook as per instruction in step 1.

Jeera rice taste well with any curry or dal recipe.

Enjoy!

Garlicky moong dal/lentil curry

Ingredients:

Moong dal - 1 cup (soak for 2 - 4 hours)
Water - 1 cup
salt - 1 tbsp
Lemon juice - freshly squeezed - about 1 tsp

For tempering:
Ghee (clarified butter) - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Green chili - 1/2 chopped
Dry red chili - 1/2 crushed (optional)
Garlic - 3 pods - finely chopped
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
red chili powder - 1/2 tsp (mainly for color)

For garnishing:
Coriander - 1 tbsp chopped


Recipe:

Step 1. Wash and clean moong dal. Soak it for 2 - 4 hours. Drain the water used for soaking and add 1 cup of fresh water and salt. Put it into a cooking pot. Turn on the heat to medium flame. Cover the lid and let it cook for about 25 minutes.

Step 2. Tempering - Meanwhile heat ghee on a medium high in a small sautee pan. Once ghee is hot, add muster seeds. Once seeds start to splutter, add chopped green chili and chopped dry red chili. After 30 seconds, add chopped garlic. After 30 seconds (garlic will become fragrant), add turmeric and red chili powder and pour it over the moong dal in cooking pot. Mix well and cook daal for total of about 25 minutes (as per step 1).

Garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve with Paratha or Jeera rice!

Enjoy!

Notes:
1. Dry red chili can be substituted with chili flakes.
2. Discard seeds from green and red chili to cut down hotness.