Yogurt rice also called Curd rice is a dish commonly served in south India. The word "curd" in India usually refers to plain yogurt.
In the state of Tamil Nadu it is so popular that this food is one of the chief offerings to the God in many Shiva and Vaishnavite Temples which is later distributed as 'prasadam' (blessed food) to devotees.
Yogurt rice can be served at room tempreture is often eaten accompanied by South India Pickles such as those of mango or lime. In South Indian home cuisine, it is standard to eat curd rice at the end of lunch and dinner, which helps ease the effects of the spicy main dishes. It is also said to aid digestion.Garnishing may vary with region and range from grated carrots, pomegranate seeds, raisins, green and purple grapes, fried cashewnuts, grated raw mango and boondi.
Yogurt rice is a true soul food for me as this was the fist thing I learned to eat as baby without all the seasonings of course. Then as child I saw my mom make this seasoned yogurt rice with different variation and over years I adapted this recipe from her.
Ingredients:
1 cup Jasmine rice
2 cups of water
Salt for rice
1 teaspoon of Olive oil for rice
2 cup Plain unsweetened Yogurt (homemade or any store brand)
½ cup fat free sour cream
Salt – to taste for yogurt rice
1 seedless cucumber peeled and diced into small cubes
4 table spoon oil
3 teaspoon black mustard seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
3-4 dried red chillies
¼ cup urad dal
¼ teaspoon asfoetida
Handful of fresh curry leaves
1 Jalapeno pepper chopped (optional)
1 teaspoon ginger paste (optional)
¼ cup of water or milk
1 teaspoon of butter
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Method:
* Wash rice, add water, salt and olive oil and and cook rice. (I cook the rice in microwave, recipe in this blog)
* Mash the rice a with wooden spatula and let it cool.
* When rice is cool, mix yogurt and sour cream in it.
* Add salt, and chopped cucumber to above yogurt rice, mix well.
* Heat Oil in a small pan.
* When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, and cumin seeds,
* When these seeds crackle, add red chilli, and urad dal
* Stir for few seconds until dal is light brown.
* Add asafoetida and curry leaves and chopped jalapeno and ginger paste turn the heat off.
* Pour this mixture over Rice and Yogurt, may add little unsalted butter on rice and yogurt mixture when pouring this hot oil with the seasoning for flavor – mix well.
* Add 1/4 of water or milk to the pan that you heated the oil and did "tadka" in, rinse with this milk or water and pour it onto the rice.
* Mix everything well.
* Garnish with chopped Cilantro leaves.
Serve at room temperature and Enjoy :)
Suggestions:
As mentioned earlier may garnish with grated carrots, or pomegranate seeds, or raisins, or fried/roasted peanuts or cashew nuts, and or grated raw mango or boondi for extra crunch and taste based on whatever your palate desires.
This recipe yields 6-8 servings.
Information on yogurt rice source "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curd_rice"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and photographs by Surekha adapted from her mom's recipe.
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