Jeera Rice Recipe : Steamed Cumin Fried Rice!

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The totally tempting rice plate is commonly ordered in restaurants with Punjabi gravy. At many places, it is served as a complimentary dish to please the customers when they order curries. This Jeera Rice Recipe simple, easy, quick and a no fuss recipe. It is a comfortable dish both is eating and making.

When you want to make something with fewer ingredients and time, you can prepare Jeera Rice. It is totally an unsung hero among the different rice dishes and cuisines. Its versatility in flavors and flexibility in taste cannot be ignored. It is comforting rice dish with a heavy meal.

Recommended Products:

• Prestige Pressure Cooker
• Patanjali Basmati Rice
• Pigeon Induction supported Non-stick tava

Remarks:

• The Jeera Rice Recipe requires nearly 20 – 30 minutes for cooking.
• The Cumin seeds are good for hair and skin.
• When you buy from the grocery store, prefer whole seeds and not the cumin powder.
• Store the cumin seeds in the sealed air-tight glass container.
• If you do not like the strong taste of cumin, then you can use ½ to ¾ tbsp. of Jeera for 1.5 cups of rice.
• For the creamier and crunchier texture, add cashews. Stir fry them in ghee before adding.
• You can also add sliced and sautéed onions in the Jeera Rice. It will infuse its pungent aroma to the rice.
• To make rice more refreshing, you can add chopped coriander and mint leaves. Mix these fresh herbs well in the rice.
• If you are not serving the rice immediately, then you must keep it covered. This keeps rice warm for a longer time.
• You may add Mace as an extra spice to your Jeera Rice. It gives unique flavors and fragrance to the Jeera Rice. Add in less quantity, it must not overpower the taste of cumin.

Garnishing:

Jeera rice perfectly pairs with the spicy Dal fry, Dal Tadka or various other lentils. It is preferred to eat with spicy gravies. You may drizzle some extra ghee over the rice. Add some chopped cashews and raisins over the cooked Jeera rice.

Also, you can garnish with:

• Mint Leaves
• Coriander Leaves
• Fried Onion Rings
• Fried or Roasted Papad

Serving Idea:

• This subtle and mild flavored Jeera fried rice can be enjoyed with any spicy Indian curries.
• You can make it a complete meal by pairing it with fried mixed vegetable gravy.
• Also, serve the fresh and crunchy Kachumber Salad along with Rice.
• The Rice can be eaten plain with just the fried Masala Papad or plain Papad.
• It makes a wholesome meal when you have it with Onion Raita or Cucumber Raita.
• Some People, prefer eating Jeera Rice with tangy pickle or plain coriander chutney.
• You can also serve it with spicy Punjabi Kadhi.
• In the restaurant, it is generally served with dal recipes like Dal Fry or Dal Makhani.
• It goes well with most of the gravies which we eat with Roti.
• This can be served any gravy dish like Paneer Bhurji Gravy.
• However, the Jeera Rice tastes exceptionally well with various Punjabi gravies:
  • Paneer Butter Masala
  • Matar Paneer Masala
  • Paneer Tikka Masala

Quick Tip:

• Be careful while adding salt. If you are using cooked rice, then it would already have salt. Or if you have boiled rice with salt then also be careful in adding salt later.
• When you add rice to the pan, you add little lime juice in it. This prevents the rice from becoming mushy. Few drops of lemon do not allow rice to become sticky, it makes grains of rice stay separate.
• You may need to add more or less water based on the quality of rice. The amount of water required to cook basmati rice depends on its type and age.
• The substitute for the Basmati can be the Sona Masuri rice.
• When the holes begin to appear on the surface, your rice is cooked. The water must be completely absorbed when you switch off the flame.

The restaurant Jeera Rice Recipe is exceptionally easy to make at home. It is the easiest and simplest of all flavored rice. The rice mainly requires cumin, cinnamon, and cloves for flavors. It is light to consume and tastes nice. It is the plain rice which is cooked with cumin seeds and tempered with spices. The spices when fried in ghee becomes aromatic and releases a flavorful fragrance. This cumin flavored rice dish is mild yet flavorful. You can make it spicy as well.

It is one of the best tempting rice dishes of the Punjabi Cuisine. Jeera Rice or Cumin Rice in its simplest form is just the cooked rice with sautéed cumin. This is steamed rice dish with the combination of pan fried cumin seeds. The basic Jeera Rice Recipe is made with cooked rice and Jeera but you can use onion or cashews. Both of them must be fried in ghee and then added. This enhances the flavors and richness of the rice.

The rice grains are soft and salty. The overall dish has an attractive aroma and appealing taste. This dish is versatile and compliments well with any food. The addition of cumin always increases the taste and palatability of any dish.  With the Jeera, you can choose any other whole spice to saute. These whole spices fried in ghee infuse plenty of flavors to plain steamed rice. Cook them together and see the magic.

Here, we have prepared Jeera Rice Recipe in the pan instead of a cooker. Whole cooking rice, you must use a deep pan with a lid. Covering the pan, steams the rice and separated every strand of its grain. This rice can be cooked with any method, i.e. in the pan, in the pressure cooker or in the microwave. The method will not affect the end result. Rice lovers cannot refrain from eating Jeera Rice even if they are on a strict diet.

How to Cook Restaurant Style Jeera Rice in Pressure Cooker?

The delicious restaurant style Jeera Rice can also be prepared in the pressure cooker. The method to cook the rice remains same. Add the rice and cook for 3 whistles. The first whistle should be on the high flame. After that, reduce the flame and wait for the other two whistles on the on low flame.

Use a good capacity pressure cooker. It is preferable to use the aluminum or steel cooker. If you are cooking rice in cooker instead of pan, then you can prepare tempering separately.

How to Fry the Onions in the Healthy Way?

The Jeera Rice can be garnished with the fried onions. You can slit cut the onions or you can also cut the onions in the round rings.  Follow the steps below to fry the onions:

• Wash the onions, remove the skin and cut the upper and lower end
• Lengthwise, slice onion thinly (Cut the onions in the circular rings).
• Keep the onions to dry. (You can dry the onions in the sun or with the fan).
• In a nonstick pan, keep 2 tsp. of oil to heat.
• Stir and Fry the onions on very low heat.
• Saute these onions until well browned.
• Wait till the onions are properly cooked and translucent.
• This is time-taking, you an alternate you can also deep fry the onions.

How to make Jeera Rice at home with tempering?

To get the restaurant style taste and flavors of the Jeera Rice, you must do the tempering. There are two methods of preparing the Jeera rice or cumin rice. Both these methods have the tempering of the spices in the Jeera Rice.

• Method 1: In this method, you have to do the tempering separately and cook the rice individually. Then you can mix rice with tempered spices. Mostly all the restaurant use this technique.
  • You can firstly temper the spices and then add to cooked rice.
  • You can cook the rice first and then season it with cumin, spices, and butter.
• Method 2: In this way of preparing Jeera rice, you have to cook both rice and spices together. It is similar to the preparation of pulao or biryani. You can prefer this technique as the grains of rice consume the flavor of Jeera/cumin. Even the whole spices and Garam masala mix really well. In this method, you can also add a variation of onions or nuts.
  • The whole spices are fried first. Then you combine the rice and cook everything in the same pan or cooker.
  • Wash the rice first and then cook together along with spices.

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Image Credit : Mintsrecipes