I couldn’t stop myself from trying- and sharing- one more recipe in Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street: The New Home Cooking book. 🙂 This recipe was inspired by Madhur Jaffrey’s tomato rice recipe in Vegetarian India.
This quick and versatile dish can be served as a side with seafood, chicken, or, as Kimball suggests, a simple fried egg. We ate it as a light meal with sautéed chard with garlic and cumin. I loved the layers of spices. I used serrano chiles instead of bird’s-eye chiles.
Yield: Serves 3 to 4
- 1 cup white Basmati rice, rinsed
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 2 T tomato paste
- 2 T grapeseed or other neutral oil (I used canola oil)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp brown or black mustard seeds
- 2 serrano or bird’s-eye chiles, stemmed and halved lengthwise
- 1 garlic clove, finely grated
- 1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- In a bowl, combine the rinsed rice with enough cold water to cover by 1 inch. Let soak for 15 minutes. Drain the rice very well
- In a 2-cup measuring cup, combine the 1 1/4 cups water and tomato paste; whisk until dissolved. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan over medium, combine the oil, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, chiles, garlic, and ginger. Cook until the seeds begin to pop and the mixture is fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in the rice and salt and cook, stirring, until coated with oil, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in the water-tomato paste mixture and bring to a simmer.
- Cover, reduce heat to low and cook until the water has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, add the tomatoes and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the cilantro, fluffing the rice with a fork.
