Jeera Rice or Cumin Rice

Jeera rice or cumin rice, whatever you want to call it, it's good.
Jeera means cumin in Hindi. The cumin seeds are gently roasted with cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns and bay leaves until they nicely browned and nutty.
This is another Gordon Ramsay recipe from his book 'Great Escape'

If you like Indian food than you have to give this a go!



Of course you don't eat the bay leaves nor the cinnamon stick - I left those in an attempt to make the picture look more fancy!

Print this Recipe

To serve 4 you will need:
300g of good quality basmati rice (I always use Tilda)
2 tbsp ghee or melted unsalted butter
a handful of cashew nuts
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
4 black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick - broken in half
3 cloves
1 onion - finely sliced
400ml water
1 tsp salt - or to taste

How to do it:
Wash the rice in cold water and then leave to soak in fresh cold water for 30 minutes.
Heat the ghee or butter in a large saucepan and add the cashew nuts. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes until golden - keep stirring to be sure not the let them burn.
Remove the nuts from the pan and set aside.

To the same pan add the cumin, bay leaves, peppercorns and cinnamon. Fry for a bit until the spices begin to smell lovely.
Now add the sliced onion and cook gently for about 6 minutes so they get nice and soft and just start to colour a bit.
Drain the rice well and tip into the saucepan and stir to coat well with the spices and the ghee.
Pour in the water, add the salt to your taste and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cover with a lid.
Simmer for about 10 minutes,the rice will be almost cooked and most of the water absorbed.
Turn off the heat and leave the pan there still covered to for another 5 minutes.

Fork through to separate and stir through the cashew nuts.
Serve immediately whilst still hot.