Quarantine Episode 1: Fennel Rice and Semi-South Indian Dal, with Cucumber Raita and Cabbage Salad

By popular demand, Cooking in Real Time is back after nearly 11 years, with a pretty long and rambling session of cooking basic rice and legumes, with plenty of shortcuts and substitutions from limited pantries.

NOT-shopping list

* rice, ideally basmati, but whatever you have* one big onion, or one small one, or whatever you have* garlic* fresh ginger (dry ground ginger is OK in a pinch)* ghee (clarified butter) or vegetable oil* whole spices: black pepper, fennel, cumin, black mustard seeds, or…yeah, whatever you have* ground turmeric* ground cumin* hing (asafetida), of course only if you happen to have it* curry leaves (if you just happen to have them)* yellow split peas, lentils, beans, etc, etc* plain yogurt* cucumber (or some veg you can eat raw)* tomato, fresh or canned* grated coconut (if you have it)* spinach, frozen or fresh, if you like* fresh cabbage* lime or lemon

Simple Indian-spiced buttery rice pilaf

Not a model pilaf — so clumpy! But tasty.

In the recording, I lament the fact that I don’t have any basmati rice, so I’m using Japanese short grain rice. That pretty much sets the tone of use whatever you have. The idea here is just to cook rice that has some nice spice and onion flavor. I use fennel and black pepper for the spices, but you could sub in a stick of cinnamon and a couple of cloves along with the pepper. If you don’t have whole spices, you can use ground, but don’t let the fry in the oil for more than a couple of seconds.

3-4 servings

1 cup rice

1 small onion or half a large one

2-3 Tbsp ghee or vegetable oil

1 Tbsp each whole black peppercorn and fennel seeds

Salt

Rinse rice and let it soak while you slice the onion — long vertical slices is fine, but half-rings is more “Indian” looking.

Rinse the rice again and let it drain.

In a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, melt the ghee or add the vegetable oil. The bottom of the pot should have a decent layer. When the fat is hot (look for a little shimmer), throw in the whole spices and stir for a few seconds, just until you can smell them.

Add the onion and turn the heat down a bit; add salt. Stir and cook until the onions have mostly softened (no need for color).

Add the rice and stir and fry until the grains are well coated with oil/ghee. In an ideal world, with basmati, each translucent grain would start to turn a little opaque. You may want to turn the heat up a little for this, to cook away the water stuck on the rice grains.

Add water in proportion to the kind of rice you’re using (1 1/4 cups is usually good for basmati; short-grain takes about 1 1/2 cups; brown rice can take up to 2 cups). Cover and turn heat to simmer and cook till tender.

When the water has cooked away, turn off heat and place a clean dish towel over the top of the pot, fixing it in place with the lid. This absorbs any extra steam that would make the rice gummy.

South Indian Yellow Split Peas with Tomato and Coconut

Great, inspiring book! Highly recommend.

This recipe is sort of from Chitra Agrawal’s Vibrant India book. I follow her basic technique and cut away some of the ingredients and sub some others. You can really use any legume (bigger beans, brown lentils, pink lentils, etc),