Ellu Sadam / Sesame Rice Recipe

I love sesame seeds. Whenever a recipe calls for 1 tsp of it, I dunk in 1 tbsp. The same goes for coriander powder but that's a totally different topic that should be discussed in a different context. For now, let's stick to sesame seeds rice.

I am a huge sucker for variety rice. I am very South Indian like that I guess. But this is one recipe I had never heard of until I was gifted Chandra Padmanabhan's 'Southern Spice'.

In ingenious and I am still wondering why it took me this long to finally get to it.

Its great to pack for a trip and tastes best at room temperature with some raita. Now, how many South Indian Variety Rice recipes can you say this for?

Ellu Sadam / Sesame Rice Recipe

Source: Southern Spice by Chandra Padmanabhan

What I Used:

1 cup cooked rice
Salt to taste

For the Spice Powder:

1/2 cup white sesame seeds / til / ellu

2 tbsp grated coconut

4 dry red chillies

1 tsp oil

For Tempering:

2 tbsp gingelly oil / nallennai

1 tsp mustard seeds

3 tbsp shelled peanuts

1/2 tsp cumin seeds / jeera

2 dry red chillies, halved

1 tsp urad dal / ulutham paruppu

1 tsp channa dal / kadala paruppu

A few curry leaves

How I Made It:

1. Dry roast the sesame seeds and grated coconut separately in a pan until nicely browned. Add oil for spice powder and lightly fry the red chillies, taking care not to burn them. Cool, grind to a fine powder and set aside.

2. Heat oil for tempering and add the roasted peanuts. When almost fried and brown, add the rest of the ingredients. When the mustard seeds pop and the dals turn golden, remove from heat.

3. Stir in the rice and the spice powder. Serve at room temperature with raita.

This goes to Priya's Cooking With Sesame Seeds Event.