Ghee Rice or nei chor as it is commonly called is a famous delicacy of south India and is extremely easy to make. It is a speciality of the Malabar coastal region in Kerala. The rice is roasted in ghee with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and cooked to perfection and finally garnished with roasted cashews, raisins and onions.
Preparation Time: 25 Minutes
Cooking Time: 40 Minutes
Serves: 12-15 persons
Ingredients for Ghee Rice
- Basmati Rice – 1 kg (around 9 cups)
- Onion – 10 medium (sliced)
- Tej Patta (Bay leaf) – 3
- cardamom – 4
- Cinnamon stick – 1 inch
- Cloves – 4
- Ghee – 5 tbsp
- Vegetable Oil – 6 tbsp
- Salt- to taste
- Water– 18 cups
- Kaju (cashews) – 50 grams
- Kismis (raisins) – 50 grams
Procedure for Preparing Ghee Rice
Soak the rice for 15 minutes. then drain off the water and spread the rice on a clean newspaper and let it dry.
Meanwhile in a big vessel pour 3 tablespoons of Ghee and heat it and put bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and fry.
Now add the rice and put 3 more tablespoon of ghee and fry for 5 minutes.
In another vessel take 18 cups of water(exactly double of the rice taken) adding the required salt and boil it. Now pour this boiled water on to the rice and once again bring to boil.
Take off the flame and cover it with a tight lid, clip it up and put a heavy weight on it so that steam doesn’t escape. Keep it covered for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile in a frying pan put 2 tablespoon oil and fry the kaju and kismis and keep aside. Now add 4 more tablespoon of oil and put the sliced onions i9n it and fry till it turns brown in colour and keep that aside too.
After 30 minutes when you open the lid of your rice vessel you will find it cooked with all the water gone. Now garnish the rice with the kaju, kismis and the onions that we have fried and also put the oil remaining after frying on top of the rice.
Ghee rice is now ready. Serve it hot with hot spicy chicken curry, raita and pappad.