Coconut Rice

Before leaving to India I realized I still had some veggies and these 2 coconuts that need to be used up. So I asked my DH to break the coconuts for me, so I can freeze some of it and make this rice dish with the rest of it. We followed Alton's Brown's method of drilling into the eyes and removing the water and then baking the coconut in a 375degree oven to break the shell. It worked pretty well. Here are some pics of my DH.

This recipe is from Chandhra Padmanabhan's Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine From South India and we really enjoyed the final dish.

I never had decent coconut rice in my whole life; I don’t remember my mom making this dish at home and the ones in the restaurants are always below par (I’m not even sure if they use real fresh coconut). Well anyway, I found my favorite coconut rice recipe and I’m going to be making this more often now. To go with the saada (plain) coconut rice and to use up my huge onions, I made this onion+veggie curry.

Recipe adapted from Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine From South India
Ingredients:
Rice (Sona masoori rice is preferred)– 2 cups
Fresh grated coconut – 1½ cups (from about ½ a coconut)
Sesame seeds – 2 tbsp (optional, but highly recommended by me :-D)
Cashews – 3tbsp
Green chilies – 2-3
Curry leaves – 6-10
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Urad dal – 1tsp
Chana dal – 1tsp
Dry red Chili – 2
Hing – ½tsp

Method:

• Cook rice and set aside to cool.
  
• Dry roast sesame seeds and grind to powder.
  
• Heat 1tbsp ghee, add cashews and sauté till lightly browned. Remove and keep aside.
  
• Heat 1tbsp ghee; add grated coconut and sauté till reddish brown. Keep aside.
  
• In the same pan, add 2tsp oil, add urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chili and hing. Once the seeds start to splutter add the green chilies and curry leaves.
  
• Add the rice, sesame powder, salt and coconut to the tadka. Turn off heat and mix well. Serve hot.