Coconut Rice With Toasted Peanuts

This post is very special as it is a virtual baby shower for my blog-buddy PJ. When we(the members of Blogging Marathon)  got to know that PJ of Seduce your tastebuds was expecting her second bundle of joy, we wanted to do something special for her. So we decided to cook and click for a post from her blog. I chose this recipe to post as her babyshower gift.

While she has a humongous collection of recipes, I chose this cause I have always wanted to post more of those "Variety Rice" recipes. What is Variety Rice? In South India, folks make varieties of flavored rice -- Lime Rice, Lemon Rice, Raw Mango Rice, Tomato Rice, Yogurt Rice, Carrot Rice frequently..sometimes all of them at the same time too cause they are so easy to make. They are often the star of picnic foods cause they don't spoil quickly and they taste good with almost any side dishes -- vegetarian or meat.

Side-dish choices:
Channa Masala "Masala Chickpea"

Lentil With Carrots and Sweet Potatoes-

Cauliflower and Peas Curry:
Ingredients:

• 1 Cup "Raw Rice", soaked 30 minutes prior to pressure cooking,cooked till they are firm yet tender and cooled so they don't get mashed when mixing
• 5 Tbsp Fresh or Frozen Scarped/Shredded Coconut
• 4 Tbsp Finely Chopped Red Onions
• a handful of Roasted/Toasted Peanuts
• 1 Tsp Split Black Gram/Urad Dhal
• 1/2 Tsp Mustard seeds
• a pinch of Asafoetida/Hing
• 1 Stalk Curry Leaves
• 2-3 Green Chilies
• 2-3 Dry Red Chilies
• 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt for taste

Procedure:

• In a pan, heat a little oil and add the split black gram, mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard seeds start sputtering and the black gram starts to brown, add the chopped onions, red chilies, green chilies and curry leaves. Saute till the onions become translucent.

• Once the onion becomes translucent, reduce the heat and add scraped/shredded coconut, toasted peanut and salt.

• Stir them all together and switch off the stove a couple of minutes later. The coconut shouldn't get too browned.

• Add the cooled rice and gently mix.

• Voila, you have your coconut rice, crunchy with peanuts and browned black gram and with a phenomenal taste due to the coconut.

Note:

•  People who are allergic to peanuts may substitute it with Cashews.

Check out what the other bloggers have made from her blog

Aarthi
Cool Lassi(e)
Gayathri Kumar
Kalyani
Kaveri
Mireille Roc
Pavani
Pradnya
Priya Srinivasan
Priya Suresh
Suma
Vardhini
Veena
Vaishali
Srivalli
Enjoy!