Recipe: Lime (or Lemon) Rice w. Peanuts

I’m the cook of the house. My wife doesn’t like to cook, would actually rather wash dishes. And since I like food, I kinda like to cook (especially when I get tired of preparing store-bought crap), so I do the cooking. There has been some demand for some of my recipes among friends and family – (I’m still an amateur cook so I don’t have many recipes yet.) – so I thought I would start posting them.

Lime Rice w. Peanuts

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked basmati or regular long-grain rice
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seed
• 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts
• 1/4 cup dried yellow split peas (chana dal) or split and hulled black lentils (urad dal) (optional)
• 1 fresh jalapeno or 2-3 fresh Thai, serrano or cayenne chilis, chopped finely
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• Juice of 2 medium limes (1/4 cup)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or salt to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne/red chili powder
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Substitutes: Lemons can be substituted for the limes, but keep in mind that lemon juice is somewhat sweeter than that of limes. You can also substitute cashews for the peanuts. Personally, I prefer peanuts in the recipe and eat cashews separately as a snack. The cashews seem to go better with lime.

Recipe

1. Cook the rice. I usually use a pressure cooker.
2. I prefer to grind the mustard seeds because I don’t like biting into a whole one and don’t yet have the skill or patience to cook them in oil just long enough to “pop” them. If you use whole mustard seeds, heat the oil and mustard seed in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the seeds begin to pop, cover the skillet and wait until the popping stops. If you use ground mustard seeds, see below.
3. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. If you are using whole mustard seeds, follow step 2 first then do the following. Add the chopped pepper, onion, peanuts, and chana dal. If you are using ground mustard seed, add it after a few minutes. Stir-fry until onions soften and turn a golden brown.
4. Turn down the heat, add the lime/lemon juice, and then stir in the remaining ingredients.
5. Take off the heat, add the mixture to the cooked rice, and mix well. Enjoy!

Note: If you have a low tolerance for spicy food, or a high one!, you may want to adjust the quantity of pepper in the recipe.