Lemon Rice (Elumichampazha Sadam)

Today, we had guests over and we served Lemon Rice and Aviyal - a traditional South Indian combination that is a sure winner! I made the Aviyal from Ammupatti's blog and as do most of her recipes, it turned out excellently. I just followed it to the letter.



My lemon rice has never turned out so well, so I thought I'd jot down the recipe here.

Ingredients

- 3-4 juicy Lemons
- 1.5 C Rice
- 4-5 Green chillies
- 1 inch piece of Ginger
- 10-15 Curry leaves
- 1.5 tbsp Oil(preferably Gingelly)
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp Urad Dhal
- 1 tbsp Chana Dhal
- 1/8 tsp Asafoetida
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 1-2 tbsp broken Cashews/Peanuts
- fistful Coriander leaves, chopped

Cook rice with lesser water than usual so that the grains remain separate. A good way to ensure the lemon rice doesn't end up a sticky yellow mass is to spread the hot rice around on a wide plate and drizzle with a tsp of oil to coat evenly. Now, let it cool.

Heat the rest of the oil in a small kadai/shallow container. Add broken cashews and fry until it turns light brown. Remove from hot oil and add to the rice. Next, add dhals and fry until they turn reddish brown. Remove and add to rice. Now add the mustard seeds, green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and asafoetida. Once the mustard seeds pop and the chillies sizzle, add the turmeric to the hot oil and turn off the heat. Add salt and let it cool completely. Squeeze the juice of the lemons into the oil mixture and stir to mix evenly. Pour this over the cooled rice and mix gently, taking care not to break too many grains. Add coriander leaves as a garnish.