Coconut-milk Rice (Write For Us Contest Entry - 6)

The main attraction of Coconut-milk Rice recipe is the coconut milk. The yummy smell of the coconut milk is known only when it is cooked. People residing in the coastal areas cannot cook anything without coconut. It so happened one day that my mom-in-law was making ready to prepare payasa (sweet porridge) and she had extracted coconut milk. She was making all other arrangements for the preparation. Suddenly out of some emergency, she had to leave to visit one of our relatives leaving everything half way. I was so confused about the coconut milk, did not know what to do. I did not want to throw away anything nor did I know how to do payasa properly. Then my hubby suggested using this coconut milk to cook rice. And to it I added all the spices randomly. And the rice turned out to be full of aroma. I named it coconut-milk rice. Thus coconut-milk rice was invented accidentally.

Ingredients:

• Rice – 1 cup
• Coconut milk – 2 cups
• Cashew pieces – Few
• Almond pieces - Few
• Raisins - Few
• Cardamom - Few
• Jeera - 1 tablespoon
• Ghee - 1 tablespoon
• Salt - As per taste

Preparation:

I believe this is the easiest eatery that can be made. Just note down the below procedure.
Soak rice in water in a vessel and keep it aside. Grind grated coconut with some water in a mixer jar. Put this grinded mixture into a strainer and separate the coconut milk by collecting it into a vessel. Keep aside for time being.

Heat ghee and fry jeera, cashew, almond, raisins and cardamom. Carry on until the cashew turns golden brown in color.

Now remove the soaked rice out of the water and add it into the cooking pan for frying but do not add water. Continue frying till you find the rice also turning into golden brown color.

Add the extracted coconut milk to the rice. Add salt according to your taste and cook the rice.

Serving Options:

This rice is best as on its own. Optionally you can serve this rice with tomato ketchup.

Author: Chandana Tantri