Ellu Sadam - Sesame Rice

              This week had been a busy one again. Probably it is becoming a cliche to keep saying my days are busy. But it is also a fact that cannot be ignored. Mixed rice and quick to make recipes have become by saviors. So another mixed rice to save time and to heal the hunger pangs of those at home. What will my life be on weekdays if these quick to make recipes never existed in life. I cannot imagine that.

     A combination of Ellu Sadam, Curd Rice and Papads to cover the lunch of a busy weekday.

Ingredients :

              White Rice  - cooked from 1 Cup of rice

To grind :


              White Sesame (Til, Ellu)seeds - 1 Cup ( some use black til as well)
              Channa Dhal - 2 tablespoon
              Urad Dhal - 2 tablesoon
              Red Chillies - 5 to 6 long red chillies, broken into halves
              Peanutes - 2 tablespoon ( optional), pepper - 1 Spoon ( Optional)
              Salt

To make Tadka:

              Channa dal - 1 spoon
              Curry leaves - 1 spoon
              Cumin seeds
              Curry leaves
              Sesame Oil

Way to go:

             Cook the rice enough to serve the people you are targeting. I used a 2 ltr cooker and it was done in a short span of time. Once rice is done, allow it to cool and spread on a plate and ensure rice is not mushy.

•             Dry roast the white til to very slight brown color and it might pop while roasting. Do not over roast it or burn it. Take it and keep it aside.
•             Now dry roast Chana dhal , urad dhal ( and dry roast peanuts if you are adding it) separately to slight brown and keep it aside.
•             Add a spoon of til oil and roast the broken red chillies in medium low flame. Ensure you do not burn it or over roast it.
•           Now combine all the above ingredients, add a little salt and grind them to a fine powder. Keep this sesame powder mix in a bowl.
•            Taste the powder mix and this is the right stage to adjust it for salt or spiciness. 
•            Spread rice on a large plate and allow it to cool. Ensure rice is not mushy.
•            Now heat a spoon of oil in kadai for tadka, crackle cumin seeds, and add chana dhal and urad dhal, curry leaves. Roast them slightly. Turn off the flame.
•            Quickly add this tadka to the rice.
•            Add the sesame powder mix prepared earlier to the rice in small quantities and in parallel mix the whole stuff with fingers gently without mashing them up.
•           Your sesame rice is ready.

Drizzle Til oil one or two spoons if you find it too dry to the sesame rice and mix gently. If you want it warm, you can quickly warm the rice in your microwave oven before you serve. Serve it with Papads or fryums.

A Tip:  If you end up making more quantity of "Sesame Powder Mix", do not worry. It comes with a long shelf live and you can store it in a container for future use. Else if you observe closely, the ingredients are same as "Milagai Podi". So you can adjust the ingredients of Chana dal, Urad and red chillies to get your Milagai podi. Refer my recipe for Milagai Podi.