Guest Post: Curd Rice by Deepa

When I started this series on Bangalore food bloggers, I was overwhelmed by the entries from the bloggers. This is really a nice way to interact with them and to know what pleases them being in Bangalore. Thank you to all the people who boosted my spirit of guest post and welcomed the Bangalore food bloggers. Today I have with me Deepa of Hamaree Rasoi. As if by now, many of you know that Deepa stays very near to my house and we make regular trips to each others house. Being food bloggers, food id the integral part of our conversation and when I asked her to make a post on guest blogging, she was happy and she shoot me this recipe……scroll down what Deepa has in store for you….

Few days back when I got an invitation to post a recipe as a guest from Lubna of Yummy Food, I could hardly believe my ears. Till today, I did not think myself to be worthy enough to post at someone's blog. This is indeed a honour for me. Thanks a lot Lubna. I also must add that within a span of 6 months both of us became good friends. Also, living in the same neighbourhood helped. So, here I am posting my first recipe as a guest. Hope all of you would like it.

Now all of you must be wondering why I didn't choose my ethnic recipe that is i.e. Bengali. It is due to the fact that when I landed in Bangalore 4 years back the first local recipe that I tasted was curd rice. This was also my first local recipe that I learnt in Bangalore.

One of the staple dish in the entire South India is "Curd Rice". It is equally popular in all four states namely, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu & Kerala. Apart from the tasty and tangy taste of the preparation, the fact that the summer is very intense in these states helps in maintaining the system to remain cool. Also the fact that South Indian cuisine is mostly spicy takes a toll upon the stomach. Having curd with rice at the end of each meal ensures that stomach does not get upset.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups Rice
• 1 ½ cup Curd
• 3-4 Green chillies
• 2 Red chillies
• 1 tsp. Ginger, chopped
• 2 Carrots, grated
• 1 tbsp. Raisins
• 2 springs curry leaves
• 1 tsp. Mustard seeds ( black)
• 1 tbsp. Channa dal
• 1/2 tsp. Asafoetida (hing)
• 1/2 tsp. Fenugreek seeds
• 2- 2 1/2 tbsp. Oil
• Salt & sugar according to the taste

METHOD:

• Cook rice in enough water (1:3 i.e. rice is to water). Once the rice is cooled, mash with spatula. Mix curd, salt and make sure there are no lumps and keep aside.
• Heat oil in a pan and add whole red chilly, Channna dal, fenugreek seeds, and mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds starts spluttering add ginger, green chillies, raisins, grated carrot, hing and curry leaves to the pan. Now fry this for a minute and pour the tempering to the curd rice. Serve this curd rice with chutney or with pickle.

NOTE:

• Use only fresh curd for this preparation.
• After cooking the rice, let this cool down in room temperature. Then only mix curd with the rice.
• After mixing rice and curd, if you find the texture to be little dry then you can add 1 tbsp. milk to thin it down.
• You can add fruits in the end to make curd rice tastier. This curd rice goes well with pomegranate and black grapes.
• Make sure you do not burn the tempering for curd rice. Otherwise it will ruin the taste.