Tomato Rice / Thakkali sadam / Thakkali chorru

 

        This is my another super recipe from my mom that we love. She makes it soooooo perfect and tasty. My sister has this on her menu when she invites her friends for lunch. Today I am happy that am making my mom's tomato rice the way she does. Though my family and friends love my rice, I still am a fan of my Mom's :).

Ingredients: (Serves : 4 People)

Rice - 1-1/2 cups(I used Indiagate basumathi/any cooking rice)

Onion - 1-1/2 cups(Finely chopped)

Tomato - 3 cups(Finely chopped)

Oil / Ghee - 3 tablespoons

Ginger garlic paste - 1-1/2 teaspoons

Green Chilli - 4 no's

Fennel seeds - 1-1/2 teaspoons

Curry leaves - 5 no's

Bay leaf - 3 no's

Cinnamon stick - 1 inch sized

Red Chilli powder -  1-1/2 teaspoons

Coriander powder - 3 teaspoons

Coriander leaves - hand full chopped

Water - 1-1/2 cups

Salt - as needed

Method:

• Heat Oil//Ghee and add Fennel seeds, Cinnamon stick, Bay leaf, Curry leaves, Green chilli and saute.

• Add Onions and saute until they are golden brown.

• Add Ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.

• Add Tomatoes along with salt, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt. Saute until tomatoes are soft and oil leaks out.

• Add coriander leaves and rice and fry the rice for 2 minutes.

• Add water, mix and check for salt. pressure cook in medium flame for 1 whistle.

• Remove the lid after pressure is down and mix well. Serve with Raitha.

My Notes:

• I do not prefer Mint leaves / Pudina but adding is totally acceptable. 
• Sauteing Tomato until we see the oil leaking out in sides is very important for the perfect taste in this rice else am sure rice would clearly taste like raw tomato.
• Water measurement and Pressure cooking time for cooking rice depends on the type of rice used so would request to adjust according to your rice cooking consistency.
• I never soaked basumathi rice before cooking nor I would suggest as it leads to overcooking the rice. 
• Tomatoes always leak water so I would suggest not to add any additional water other than the requirement for the rice used.
• I normally add 1:1-1/4 ratio(1 cup rice : 1-1/4 cup of water). In this case as Tomatoes leak water I reduced the water to 1:1 (1 cup rice : 1 cup water).