Malabar Dum Choru (Rice)

Rice is an Indian staple. I don’t think there is any state in India which don’t have rice in one form or the other. Even if we don’t have rice in its complete form, it is either powdered or ground and used up in some or the other form in our cooking. Somehow, though today’s generation is more health conscious and consider rice as being a culprit for weight gain, I feel that the bias towards rice is totally unjustified. Our forefathers have been eating rice and that too in higher quantities than us, but then MaShaAllah they have been hale and hearty. I normally prepare rice only twice a week – on Fridays in the form of biriyanis or spiced rice and on Saturdays at normal matta (brown) rice with curries, fish fry and a stir fry. Since rice is so predominant in our cooking, I thought of doing a three back-to-back recipe series with “Rice” as the theme. I already have quite a lot of rice recipes on the blog, so just adding on three more to it for now! 🙂

The first one in the series is Dum Choru. Dum Choru is basically nothing but a mild rice prepared in biriyani way. With a simple onion masala and layered with dum ingredients, and passed through the dum process, this rice is delicious to have. When you want a simple rice to go with, this is a very nice alternative. A very close recipe to this, which I love to make often is the Masala Chor. If you see the process, it is the same as biriyani, except that there are no vegetables or meat added to it. You can accompany it with some raita and a pickle for a simple meal or have a spicy dish to it, if you are in an elaborate mood. The recipe is adapted from the book “Malabar Pachakam” by Sheeba Rahman. Off to the recipe…

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5 from 3 votes

Dum Choru/ Rice

Course Rice

Cuisine Malabar

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• For masala:
• 1 tbsp oil
• 3 meduim onions thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp fennel powder
• 1 meduim tomato chopped
• Salt to taste
• For rice:
• 3 cardamom
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 10 peppercorns
• 3 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 2 1/2 cups basmati rice
• Salt to taste
• For dum:
• 1 tsp ghee
• 10 cashewnuts
• 15-20 raisins
• 3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Instructions

• Heat oil in a saucepan. Saute onions till soft.
• Add in the ginger garlic paste and saute till raw smell is gone.
• Add in the powders and saute for a couple of minutes.
• Add in the tomatoes and cook till the masala is nicely cooked and wilted. Adjust salt. Set aside.
• In a saucepan, heat lots of water with the whole masalas and some salt.
• Wash the rice well and set aside to drain. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, add the rice.
• Keep on high flame till it boils again and then keep on meduim flame. Cook till the rice is 90% done. Drain immediately.
• Heat ghee in a frying pan. Fry the cashew nuts and puff up the raisins.
• Heat a tawa. In a saucepan, put a layer of rice at the bottom. Spread the masala on top.
• Add in the remaining rice. Sprinkle the fried cashewnuts, raisins and the ghee, as well as the chopped coriander leaves.
• Close the lid tight and keep on the hot tawa on low flame for 15 minutes.
• Switch off and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Toss up well to give a nice mix. Serve hot with any spicy curry.