Jeera rice


Jeera rice or Zeera rice is an Indian and Pakistani dish consisting of rice and cumin seeds. It is a popular dish in North India and Pakistan as an everyday rice dish. It is easy to prepare, unlike biryani. "Zeera" is the Hindi word for cumin seeds, often pronounced Jeera. The ingredients used are rice, cumin seeds, vegetable oil, onions and coriander leaves.

Preparation

Cumin seeds are fried in hot oil. Long grain Basmati rice and salt are added to it. Water in almost double quantity of rice is poured and allowed to boil with covered lid at high flame. The rice then is steamed on low flame until all the water is absorbed.
Jeera rice is generally garnished with finely chopped fresh coriander leaves, but is also garnished with onion rings in some Indian hotels and restaurants.

History

Jeera rice recipe is not found in ancient books and scripts of Indian recipes and culinary art. Text about this recipe can be found in books and travelogues since the Mughal Empire. Mughals were fond of rice recipes, because of which cooks worked to invent new rice recipes as well as did experiments with tradition old recipes. Jeera rice recipe is one of those rice recipes. Later on, it was adopted in Indian cuisine and became so popular that the recipe is now cooked daily by almost every Indian family.