Coriander Pulav / Coriander Rice

Memory Lane: We had a small grocery store (natar kadai/nadar store) and a vegetable shack around the corner of our street. On saturdays and sundays we'll run errands for our mom, mostly to buy eggs or coconut. I really enjoyed those trips, that small store's front had a horizontal wooden shelf with jars of colorful sweetmeats and the shopkeeper (customers will call him natar or annachi) will stand inside and take our orders.
        The vegetable lean to shack! It was owned by a lady (It's in the front area of her house)  She would be sitting cross legged in the middle of mounds of colorful vegetables and have a hand scale, small cash box and assorted  sizes of weights near her. If we want to buy any vegetable, she'll hold the scale in her hand and weigh the vegetables and put it in our bag. Most of the time she'll toss curry leaves and coriander leaves without us asking for it. Those leaves are important in our south indian cooking. It's used to temper, garnish and flavor the food.

It contains anti oxidants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander 

Coriander Rice

Ingredients

2 cups       cooked basmati rice / long grain rice
1 med        onion -thinly sliced
1               clove, cardamom, star anise
1''              cinnamon
1 tsp          lemon juice
1 handful   cashew nut
2 tbs          cooking oil
1-2 tsp       ghee

To grind...

To grind:  
6-10          green chillies  
3tsp           coconut
3 cloves     garlic- crushed
1bunch       coriander/cilantro 
1tbs            oil
Method:

1. Heat oil and ghee in a pan. Add clove, cardamom, s.anise, cinnamon and cashew nuts.

2. Stir for a few minutes then add the onions and fry till it gets a golden hue, remove it from the pan. 

3. Heat oil (low) in the same pan add chillies and garlic fry for few mins, add coconut and stir it, now add the coriander leaves and cook, till it gets wilted.

4. Add lemon juice and salt, grind the mixture to a paste.

5. Mix the fried onion mixture and the ground coriander masala with the rice.

6. Transfer the rice to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves. 
      Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. If you try this recipe, please comment on it. I like to hear how it came out.

                                                             ENJOY :)