Ghee Rice/Neiy Chor

Ghee rice of Neiy chor (Neiy means ghee and chor means cooked rice in Malayalam) is a very famous Malabar delicacy. It tastes best with a typical Kerala style chicken curry or mutton curry or for that matter any meat curry. My family loves it with chicken curry and a nice bowl of cold raita. As the name suggests, this requires a generous amount of ghee (clarified butter) and though for our home purpose, I act a bit stingy and health conscious and reduce the amount of ghee:) I mostly get kaima rice (small thin flavourful rice) from Kozhikode or Malappuram or Palakkad whenever I visit these places. It’s almost similar to the “jeera samba” rice that is available in Tamil nadu or the “Ambe mohre” rice available in Mumbai. I prefer to make my biryanis also with this rice rather than the long basmati rice. Anyways, these are all personal choices 🙂

Ingredients:

• Kaima rice 2 cups
• Salt to taste
• Ghee 2-3 tbsp
• Oil 1-2 tbsp
• Whole spices as required
• Onion 1 big
• Bay leaves 2-3
• Cashew nuts 8-10
• Kismis 1 tbsp
• Green cardamom 1-2

Method:

• Wash the rice and drain it well. Keep it aside for atleast half an hour.
• Slice the onion finely.
• Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a heavy bottom pan and roast the cashew nuts and kismis and keep it aside.
• Add little more ghee and fry half of the sliced onion till it’s golden and crispy.
• Now add the remaining ghee and oil and add the bay leaf and saute for a minute.
• Now add the whole spices ( I have used cloves, cinnamon, star anise, pepper corn) and cardamom along with the remaining sliced onion and saute well till it’s translucent.
• Now add the drained rice and mix gently. Saute it for 3-4 minutes.
• Now add 4 cups of water and salt to taste.
• Once the water boils, reduce the flame and cover the pan.
• Cook the rice for 12-15 minutes or more till the water fully evaporates and the rice is cooked well.
• Switch off the flame and let it remain undisturbed for 10-15 minutes.
• Garnish with the roasted nuts, kismis and fried onions.
• Serve with any non vegetarian curry and raita.

Notes:

• My family doesn’t like roasted cashew nut and kismis in rice, so I have avoided it.
• Also I make a “potli” of the whole spices in a clean muslin cloth and then cook it along with the rice. I remove it along with the bay leaves once the rice is cooked. You can add 3-4 cloves, a big piece of cinnamon, 7-8 pepper corns and 1-2 star anise.
• If you are ok for an occasional indulgence, you can sprinkle some more ghee in top while serving.