Thengai Sadam/Coconut Rice

Variety rice are always a welcome change from the regular Kootans/Kuzhambus. And they are life saviour on busy week days. Moreover, kids have a special affinity to these kind of rice varieties and hence it finds its way into the kids lunch boxes very often.

Growing up, I don't remember my mother or grandmother preparing the rice varieites too often. They were restricted to special days like Kanu Pongal - the day after Pongal or on the day of Aadi Perukku. Apart from these days, we would have either lemon rice or puliyumchadam packed for our train journeys.

All said and done, they are hasslefree to prepare and pack and are definitely a treat to the taste buds. The coconut rice is one such and is a breeze to prepare if you have some scraped coconut at hand. This is one of my personal favorites. I just love the heady aroma of the coconut and the coconut oil.

What you'll need

1. Cooked Rice – 3 cup
2. Fresh Scraped Coconut – 1.5 cup, tightly packed
3. Green Chilly – 1 or 2 (adjust according to taste)
4. Dried Red Chilly – 1 (adjust according to taste)
5. Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
6. Channa Dal – 2 tsp
7. Urad Dal – 2 tsp
8. Peanuts - handful
9. Curry Leaves – few
10. Coconut Oil – 2 tbsp
11. Salt to taste

Method

1. Heat a Kadai with oil, add the mustard seeds, and once it splutters add the urad dal, channa dal, peanuts and dried red chilly.  Fry till the dals turns golden and the peanuts are fried
2. Add the green chilliy and curry leaves and then add the scraped coconut and sauté for few minutes on low heat, until the coconut turns light brown.
3. Now add the cooked rice and salt to taste and stir gently taking care not to mash the rice.
4. Serve warm with some papads.