Lemon Rice / Pulihora

Hello guyss .

Today I am going to tell about a traditional recipe of our state, we prepare this for mostly all of the festivals and on every special occasion. This is very easy to prepare and tastes great. There are several variations in this recipe , the actual name of the recipe is " pulihora " . The actual recipe is made with tamarind juice , but you can use lemon juice, grated raw mango. So I did using lemon juice so the name is lemon rice. So lets see how to prepare it ...

Ingredients

Rice : 2 1/2 cups , uncooked Lemon juice : 1 small cup Ginger : 2 Tbsp , finely chopped Green chillies : 6, Slit Red chillies : 3, broken into halves Curry leaves: 8 Chana dal : 1 1/2 Tbsp Urad dal : 1 1/2 Tbsp Mustard seeds: 1 1/2 Tbsp Jeera/Cumin seeds : 1 Tbsp Asafoetida/ Hing : 1 1/2 Tbsp Turmeric powder : 2 Tbsp Cashews : 1 Small cup Oil : 5 Tbsp Salt : adjust to taste

Method:

1. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or pressure cooker.

2.In a small pan , heat the oil and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, chana dal, urad dal.

3. After they start sputtering, add green chillies, ginger and red chillies and fry them for 1 minute. Meanwhile add salt to lemon juice and keep it aside.

4.Now add cashews , curry leaves and fry till cashews turn into golden brown , this should take a minute or two.

5. Lastly add Turmeric powder, Hing/asafoetida , mix well and switch off the stove and allow it to cool for few minutes.

6. Take rice into a big bowl and add the lemon juice+ salt mixture to the rice.

7. Finally add the cooled seasoning to the rice and mix well from bottom till there are no white blocks of rice.

8. Give sometime for the rice to absorb the flavor and lemon juice like about 10 minutes.

9. Now serve with curd/buttermilk.

Tips :

1. I added some more lemon juice than shown in the picture, so adjust salt and lemon juice accordingly.

2. I added a bit more hing as we like it that way, if you dont like hing you need'nt add it, ginger is also optional but ginger really gives a lot of taste.

3. You can use peanuts instead of cashews.

4. The reason why I added curry leaves, hing at the end because it will not loose its smell/flavor and curry leaves might turn brown . Otherwise you can add it before also.

5. Altenatively in place of lemon juice , you can try tamarind juice or grated raw mango

6. Lemon rice can be eaten as it is , but you can serve with curd , buttermilk.