Jeera Rice
Jeera Rice - light fluffy cumin rice made with long grain basmati rice, salt, cumin seeds and ghee in an Instant Pot just like restaurants style!
Servings: 5
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 2 cup Long Grain Basmati Rice
- 1½ tbsp Oil for less fat, use 1 tbsp
- 1½ tbsp Ghee for less fat, use 1 tbsp
- 1 tbsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 3 Cloves
- 3 Whole Peppercorn
- 2 Small Bay Leaf
- 1½ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Lemon Juice
- 2½ cup Warm Water
- 2 tbsp Chopped Cilantro
Instructions
- Wash and soak long grain basmati rice in warm water for 15-20 minutes or so.
- Once rice is soaked, Put Instant Pot on saute mode. Or start heating up Indian style pressure cooker (if using) on medium heat.
- Add oil, ghee and whole spices in the pot.
- Once the whole spices start to fragrant, add cumin seeds and let it get golden brown.
- Drain soaked rice completely and add it to the pot. Mix well and saute for couple of minutes while stirring couple of times.
- Add 2½ cup of warm water, salt and lemon juice to the pot.
- Mix well, bring it to simmer and close the lid of Instant Pot. Make sure the valve is secure and closed. If using Indian style pressure cooker, close the lid with whistle on.
- Put IP on either rice setting, or manual on 6 minutes low pressure. If using Indian style pressure cooker, make 2 whistles.
- Once the IP timer is done with cooking time, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Release rest of the pressure manually. If using Indian style pressure cooker, take it off the stove after two whistles and let the pressure release naturally all the way.
- Once the valve is released, open the lid carefully, gently fluff it with a fork and garnish with some fresh cilantro. Serve it with dal or any curry!
Notes
Some key pointers to get perfectly fluffy rice!
- adding lemon juice to rice helps with bright white color and fluffy grains
- adding dollop of ghee or oil to rice helps with not too sticky rice
- cooking them in a wide shallow pot helps with even heat, vs using narrow deep pot where the bottom of the rice gets cooked too much from the heat up above
- having water level just above the rice level, assuming you are using wide shallow pot for cooking, is right amount of water to cook the rice
- Older the rice, less sticky it is upon cooking