Tomato Coconut Rice

This is another one-pot rice dish and a quick lunch-box preparation when you are short of time in the morning. It pairs well with raita and pickle.

Ingredients

Rice  - 2.5 cups

Ghee or oil - 1 tbsp

Spices

   Bay leaf - 1

   Cardamom - 1

   Star anise - 1

   Cinnamon - 1" stick

   Clove - 2

Salt - as needed

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Tomato - 3 big, chopped roughly in chunks

Water - as needed, see notes below

Method

1. Soak the rice in plenty of water for atleast 10 min. Drain it.
2. Grind the tomato in big jar of the mixer, and keep it aside. This will be around 2 cups.
3. Grind grated coconut with some water (around 1/2 cup) in the same jar and keep aside. This will be around 2 cups. If you have enough time, you can use coconut milk instead of ground coconut.

Note : Measure the amount of tomato and grated coconut mixture. For 2.5 cups of rice, you'll need around 6 cups of liquid. So for the remaining amount of liquid, add water. In this case, add around 2 cups of water.

4. In a wide-mouthed vessel, add ghee / oil and add the spices. Stir in between, wait for about 30 seconds.
5. Add the drained rice and stir gently in ghee. Let it fry for about 30s.
6. Add the ground tomatoes, coconut and required amount of water. Close tightly with lid and let it cook in the lowest flame.



It will take about 12- 15 minutes for the rice to cook. After around 10 min, open the lid and check if the rice is cooked. If yes, fluff the rice gently with fork, switch off the stove. After this, do not close the lid tightly.

Serve it with some raita and pickle.