CURD RICE

INTRODUCTION

INGREDIENTS

Open the Tiffin box of any student in South India and chances are, it would have been packed with CURD RICE. This simple looking simple tasting rice variety has been worked upon by me and I have tried variations with great success. Curd Rice which I used to pack in my son's lunch box won him ardent followers in his software company. Today I am reproducing one of the variations. You too can try this and win hearts.

Rice (New) 3/4 cup
Fresh Curds 3 cups
Milk 1/2 cup
Curry leaves 1 sprig
Green chillies 2 nos.
Ginger 1.5 " piece
Onion 1 medium sized
Grapes 20 nos.
Pomegranate 2 to 3 spoons
Pineapple 4 spoons
Mustard 1 spoon
Red Chilli 2 Nos.
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Salt to taste
Kothumalli 3 to 4 spoons
Rose petals A few
Oil for Tempering 3 ladles

Cook New rice as usual. If you do not have new rice, use old rice and pressure cook using more water than usual to ensure that the cooked grains are very soft. Hard grains of rice rob the charm of Curd rice. Cut chilli in thread thin slices, grate ginger, cut onion in very small pieces of 1/4 cm size, prepare fruits of choice (don't mix two fruits). Pluck Kothumalli and Rose petals .Set aside all the ingredients. When the rice is sufficiently cold, add fresh curds, and all the ingredients except Mustard, red chillies, Rose petals Curry leaves and Kothumalli. Mix thoroughly. Taste for salt now. Take oil in a tampering Ladle and heat. Add mustard and red chillies. When mustard starts popping out, add curry leaves and immediately pour the temperings on Curd rice. Stir and mix again. If you are going to serve curd rice immediately after tampering, it is not necessary to add milk. But if you are serving it after about an hour or more, add milk about ten minutes before serving. This would avoid souring of curd rice. Decorate the rice with Rose petals and Green Kothumalli . You must have noticed that I have not added  asafoetida  to tempering. Asafoetida  tastes wonderful when added raw in Curd rice. Same is the case about raw onions which you have added in curd rice.
As usual, don't forget to post in your feedback please. 

Enjoy!!!