(Cumin Rice, Zeera Pulao, Jeeraga Sadam)

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         Jeera rice (Jeera Pulav) is a rice dish with the wonderful flavour of cumin seeds. I love to make this dish for parties because it goes along with any kind of side dish. It is a simple and elegant dish.
 
Ingredients
Basmati rice - 2 cups
Ghee/ Butter/ Oil - 2 tbsp
Cilantro - handful
Onion - 1/4 (chopped)
Green Chillies - 2 (minced)
Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tblsp
Whole garam masala - (1 bayleaf, 3 cloves, 1 cinnamon, 1 star anise)
Salt - to taste
Water - 3 cups
Method
1. Wash and soak the rice for atleast half an hour.
2. Heat the ghee in a pan and splutter the whole garam masala and cumin seeds.
3. Saute the onions (optional). Onions might change the colour of the rice.
4. Add the above tempering along with green chillies, part of the cilantro, drained 
rice, water and required salt and cook in a rice cooker.
5. Garnish with cilantro and serve with any curry. It is a very versatile diah and goes 
along with any sidedish.

Tips
      - If you use whole garam masala instead of garam masala powder and skip the onions, 
the rice will remain nice white in colour.