Cranberry Rice

Hope you all had a very good Thanksgiving. We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving this year. Most of the time we make travel plans during thanksgiving. But, this year we decided to stay home and relax.
Moreover we got back from a trip to a beautiful resort just last week and did not want to travel again.
We had a potluck at a friend's place and I made the curry leaf chicken and this cranberry rice. Sometimes it feels so good just to sit back and relax.
So, do you have any cranberries left from the cranberry sauce you made for Thanksgiving? If so, you can try your hands at this simple cranberry rice. This is a colorful and vibrant looking rice. The pink cranberries and the yellow turmeric blend together to give this beautiful color to rice. This is similar to the South Indian lemon rice, I used cranberries instead of lemon. Even the taste is kind of similar to the lemon rice.

Ingredients:

• Long grain white rice(Cooked): 2 cups
• Fresh cranberries: 1/2 cup
• Chopped onions: 1/2 cup
• Salt to taste
• Green chillies: 3
• Oil: 1 tbsp
• Cilantro(finely chopped): 2 tbsp
• Grated ginger root: 1/2 tsp

Tempering:

• Oil: 2 tbsp
• Urad Dal: 1 tsp
• Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp
• Curry leaves: 4-5
• Dried Broken Red Chillies: 2
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
• Asafetida: a pinch

Procedure:

1.  Make a paste of fresh cranberries and green chillies and set it aside.
2. Add oil to a pan and when the oil is heated, add the chopped onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Now add the grated ginger and the cranberry paste and cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Add the cooked rice to a mixing bowl and apply the cranberry paste to the rice mixing gently. Add salt.
4. Now take a small pan and add the oil and turn on the stove. When the oil is heated, add the tempering ingredients one after the other in the order mentioned and when the seeds start spluttering, turn off the stove and add it to the rice in the mixing bowl.
5. Mix the rice gently and do a taste test to check the salt. Adjust the salt and garnish with cilantro.

Note: Change the number of green chillies according to your spice level. You can even omit the green chillies. You do get little spiciness form the red chillies in the tempering.