I love tomatoes in every form, so this was my favourite in childhood. We often had food festivals home as kids. Rice festival, Dosa mela, sandwich parties we even had dessert week. We would try inventing and producing different dishes pertaining to the theme that particular week. Whenever we had a rice week, tomato rice was a sure entrant. I miss those days, when there were five mouths to feed and mom was in charge, my sis and me just apprentices. With my hubby and me the portions get smaller and when one of us votes a dish out the possibility of it hitting our charts get rarer. My hubby has no patience for variety rice and is an absolute roti fan but I force fed him on this once, and he did not complaint which roughly means he did like it. In many states in India, tomato and rice are cooked in slightly variant form like tomato pulao, tomato bhath. Even the tomato risotto to me is an Italian version of our tomato rice. The best part of this dish is that it needs minimal ingredients. Something I always resort to when there are no veggies home and the fridge is empty except for those last few tomatoes. So here's my favourite rice for you people. What is yours?
Ingredients for Tomato rice
Tomatoes- 4-5 diced
Onion- 1 sliced
Green chillies- 3
Curry leaves- few
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Ghee- 2 tbsp
Rice (Basmati)- 2 cups
Water- 4 cups
Salt- 2 tsp
Directions
Wash and soak the rice for half an hours don't let it stay in water for long because rice tends to break. In a pan heat the ghee and saute the curry leaves, chopped onions, green chillies for 5 minutes. When the onions are half brown add the tomatoes and the salt. Saute till the onions and tomatoes become juicy and once it is a thick paste add the turmeric powder.
Once the tomatoes are well squashed add 4 cups of water and let the water boil. Once the water starts boiling add the rice and let it cook.
By the time the rice is well cooked the water would have evaporated completely. Since basmati doesn't require more water this measurement works perfectly leaving the rice cooked just right and never over cooked. If you use any other rice you need to know how much water it takes to cook.
Once the rice is done serve it hot with papad, pickle and youghurt
