Recipe: Tamarind Rice w. Peanuts

I forgot to mention that my wife is Indian, so a lot of the recipes I’ll be posting will be Indian dishes. I also like Chinese, Thai, Greek and Lebanese, Italian, and Mexican food, so you’ll see some of those as well, plus the occasional American or European dish. The lemon rice recipe I posted previously is an Indian recipe, and this tamarind rice recipe is also Indian, perhaps more so. Tamarind is a pod that produces a chocolate brown, sweet-sour pulp. You should be able to find jars of tamarind concentrate paste in your local Indian store (unless you are unfortunate enough not to have one).

Tamarind Rice with Peanuts

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked sona masoori, basmati, or regular long-grain rice
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts
• 1/4 cup split and hulled black lentils (urad daal) (optional)
• 3-5 dried red chilies
• 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate paste
• 1 cup water, approximately
• 1 teaspoon salt (or salt to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne/red chili powder

Recipe

1. Start cooking the rice. I usually use a rice cooker.
2. Heat the oil in a large high-walled skillet or sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds. Break the dried chilies in half and add them too, seeds and all (unless you’re a wuss). Once the mustard seeds begin to pop, cover the sauce pan and wait until the popping stops.
3. As soon as the mustard seeds are ready, add the urad daal. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the peanuts. Cook for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the salt, turmeric, and cayenne pepper. Stir for 30 seconds or so. Inhale that wonderful aroma.
6. While you’re doing the previous steps, or before you start cooking, dissolve the tamarind paste in approximately 1 cup of water (add more if needed). After step (5), pour the mixture into the sauce pan. Cook on medium-high for about five minutes or until the sauce is reduced (much of the water is cooked off). You should be able to run the back of your spoon through the liquid and see the bottom of the pan for a little while. Be sure to leave enough liquid to coat the rice. The purpose of this step is to cook the tamarind.
7. Take off the heat, dump the rice into the sauce pan 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.