Butter Rice (Ghee Rice)

Ghee is an essential element in Indian cuisine. Ghee Rice is rice fried in clarified butter (ghee) along with aromatic spices and then cooked to perfection. It is finally seasoned with Fried onions, Cashews and Raisins. This greatly aromatic dish is a perfect complement to many foods and it stands well as a meal.

Ingredients

Cooking rice

2 cups Basmati rice

2 tbls Ghee (Clarified butter)

1 medium thinly sliced onion (150g)

1 Cinnamon stick

¼ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp Fennel Seeds

4 cups Water

½ tsp Salt

Method

Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a deep pan and add fennel seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and sauté for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Rinse the rice, transfer to a rice cooker and cover with four cups of water. Add ghee mix to rice and cook. When cooked, allow the rice to breath by fluffing it up.

Seasoning mix

2 tbls Ghee (Clarified butter) (30g)

½ cup Cashews (75g)

¼ cup Raisins (40g)

½ cup Crispy Fried Onions (50g)

Method

Heat 2 tbsp ghee in frying pan, add cashews and raisins. Sauté until cashews are lightly brown and the raisins become fleshy. Add the crispy onions.

Add the fried cashews, raisins and onion to the cooked rice and mix everything lightly.

Note: Crispy fried onion can be bought in most Asian grocery shops. The alternative is to fry your own onions or thinly sliced shallots. Ghee rice can be served as a simple side dish or as a complete vegetarian meal. Other variations of flavour are to experiment by adding ginger, garam masala to the mix or even chili powder. If you want more nutrition and substance in your ghee rice meal, then add a variety of vegetables to the plate.

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