A very comforting one-pot meal with rice and squid…
Some days are not meant to be the way it is meant to be. Like, for the past couple of weeks, traffic has been at its worst and reaching office and going back home has been a nightmare. I would sheepishly admit to my colleagues that more than working, it is the driving (or rather sitting in the car idle!) that is making me feel tired. Once you are home and you are late, you are definitely in no mood to do any cooking, but then you have to, so what you try is minimal cooking! 🙂
This is my mom’s signature dish. My mom makes it to perfection and my elder daughter, Rasha loves it so much that this is the only meal that she goes for a second serving!!! I have made it a couple of times and it has turned out great, even though I will not compare it to how umma cooks this! Squid is something that I can’t eat except in boiled condition, due to allergy reasons, and that explains why this is the only squid meal I enjoy making and eating. Yes, you can call me selfish!!! Hehe… I’m jotting it down here, so that I can refer back to it anytime I forget the steps (and it always happens!) and you guys can try as well. This is comfort food at its best, I should say!!!
Updated with new pictures and small recipe modifications on February 19, 2022: This is one recipe I have been wanting to update since a very long time. It is one of my oldest post, plus this is one of our favorite meals too. My girls absolutely love it. Each time I get good squid, I automatically make this rice, there is no other option that is taken. Also, I have already posted the parippu recipe separately sometime ago, since it is eaten along with neychor too in our side, and hence the separation was very much needed. One thing I have noticed with this recipe is that it is very unique to our side of Tirur. I haven’t heard anybody saying that they cook this rice, just like our style of thenga chor. Isn’t it amazing that some dishes are confined to a very limited place? I always feel that such recipes need to be shared and spread, especially if it is this easy to cook… 🙂
Keeping the old picture as usual…
Koonthal Chor | Malabar Squid Rice
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 cups Palakkadan Matta brown rice
- 500 gm squid cleaned and cut into pcs
- 3 green chlillies minced
- 1 tbsp fenugreek
- Handful curry leaves
- 5-6 shallots sliced
- 1/2 cup grated coconut
- Salt to taste
- 1 litre water
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients for the koonthal choru into a large pressure cooker and give it a nice stir.
- Keep the cooker on medium-high flame till the first whistle comes through.
- Lower the pressure and cook on your lowest flame for another 5 minutes.
- Switch off the flame and let the pressure go on its own.
- Open your cooker and mix the rice once more to combine all ingredients well.
- Serve hot with dal, any pickle and pappadam!!!!
Cooking with squid is very new to me…never heard before…innovative…must be delicious…
Thank u Niru…yes it is delicious! My mom's best dish… 🙂
quite interesting recipe….never tried like this motta rioce
my umma's special basically… we just love it as it is, with no curry, just the parippu, pappadam and achar will do!!! 🙂
Grind coconut without ginger&fennel seeds,add garlic,small onion and cumin seeds instead of that..more tasty..never had squid rice …will try this dish soon…looks yummy…
thank you for the tips, lotus… normally i do the mix that you have said for rotis and chappathis, the above mix goes well for rice, especially neichoru… appreciate your comments!!! 🙂
first i thot that it was basmati rice,, i never tried a variety with matta other than choru or kanji… i luv squid and I'm gonna try this soon..
thank u fr the entry Rafeeda…
glad that u liked it, hasna… 🙂