Curd Rice

Rinse ½ cup rice a couple of times in water. Then add the rice in a 2-litre pressure cooker.

Add water. Stir very well.

Pressure cook rice for 5 to 6 whistles or 8 to 9 minutes till the rice is cooked and softened very well.

When the pressure settles down on its own, remove the lid and check the doneness of rice. The rice has to be more softer than what we cook on a daily basis.

With a spoon or masher, mash the rice. Close the cooker and allow the rice to become lukewarm or come at room temperature.

When the rice becomes lukewarm or comes at room temperature, add fresh curd and milk.

Mix again very well and break lumps if any. You can either use the spoon or masher while breaking the lumps.

Add finely chopped ginger, finely chopped curry leaves, chopped green chilies and chopped coriander leaves.

Instead of adding ginger and curry leaves to the rice, you can also fry them in the tempering.

Add salt. Mix very well. Keep aside.

Heat a small pan or tadka pan and add sesame oil in it. You can use peanut oil or sunflower oil instead of sesame oil.

When the oil becomes hot, lower the flame. Add mustard seeds.

Let the mustard seeds crackle.

Then add urad dal. Urad dal is optional and can be skipped.

Fry on a low flame stirring often till the urad dal becomes golden.

Lastly add the add curry leaves and asafoetida. Mix very well.

Switch off the flame and immediately pour the tempering in the curd rice mixture. Again mix very well.

Serve south indian curd rice topped with a few coriander leaves or pomegranate arils or grapes. You can skip the fruits too and just serve curd rice plain. You can also serve with fried sun dried green chillies or south indian mango pickle.