Lemon Rice

Lemon rice!!
Once i was travelling on Dhanbad Allepy Express. This Train connects extreme of south India to east of Jharkhand and this journey takes more than 37 hrs on whole. We Indians often carry home made food for such a long journey. Sometimes its better to keep interacting with fellow travelers as it becomes easy to pass such long long hours. In the same coach a south Indian  family was travelling with me carrying a Tin packed with Lemon Rice for the whole journey. They were very friendly and during lunch hours they offered me a plate full of lemon rice. As a courtesy i accepted the food and to be honest it was mouth watering awesome dish.  Since then i fell in love with this simple and serene recipe.
In south India during Pongal they prepare this rice. Also in several other festivals i have received lemon rice and gram curry as prasadam.
Take a note of this recipe:

Ingredients

• Rice- 2 Cups (boiled)
• Curry Leaves/Mint Leaves/Coriander leaves- Finely Chopped
• Mustard seed- 1 Tea Spoon
• Roasted ground nuts- 1/4 Cup
• Whole gram/Chana Dal- 3 TSP (soaked in water for 1 hour)
• Lemon juice- 3 TSP
• Salt as per taste
• Green Chilly- 2
• Turmeric- 1 Tea Spoon
• Oil for cooking
• Onion- 1 Chopped

Method

• Heat 2 TSP of oil in a pan or skillet
• Add the mustard seeds
• Once they start crackling  add the gram and roast it. If u have Curry leaves ,at this point of time add some curry leaves. If you are adding curry leaves  then mint or coriander leaves are not require to be added further.
• Add the chilly and onion
• Fry until onion is soft
• Add the groundnuts ,salt and turmeric powder. Fry for 1 min
• Finally add the rice, Fry until every thing gets mixed up well.
• Add the Lime juice , Mix well.
• Turn off the heat and finally add Mint or coriander leaves to it. 

Serve Hot with Pickle or Yoghurt. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Cooking :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit