Cilantro Rice

Cilantro is also referred as coriander. It is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cooking. In Tamil it is called kottamalli and in Malayalam malli ila. I make cilantro chutney once in a week. This week when I shopped for the veggies, I saw 4 bunches of cilantro for just 99 cents. That was a good deal. I made cilantro rice like pulav with peas and potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• (1tsp cashews, 1 inch piece cinnamons stick, 2 cloves, ¼ tsp funnel seeds (saunf) , 2- 3 bay leaves, 1 cardamom )
• 1 small onion cut into length wise
• 1 tomato
• 1 small potato cut into small pieces
• A fistful of peas
• 2- 3 tsp oil
• Salt to taste

To grind:

• 1 Bunch cilantro
• 1tsp ginger
• 2 pods of garlic
• 4 green chilies
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coconut

Method:

1. Wash and soak rice for 5-10 minutes
   
2. Heat oil in pressure cooker or rice cooker pan and fry cashews, cinnamons stick, cloves, Cardamom, funnel seeds (saunf) and bay leaves. Add onions fry until they are brown, add tomatoes and fry till it becomes soft. Now add potatoes, green peas and fry for few minutes.
   
3. Mix the grinded items and fry in medium low heat till good smell comes. When the moisture is absorbed, add the soaked rice and fry for few more minutes. Add 1tsp salt and two cups of water. Close the lid if you cooking in the pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 10 minutes in low heat until 1 whistle and turn off the heat. If you are cooking in the rice cooker pan, remove the pan from the heat and transfer to the rice cooker and plug in.
   

Once the rice is cooked, check for salt and add accordingly.

Squeeze lime to the rice and mix them together and sever hot with raita and pappad.