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Mrs Bailey’s Jeera Rice
Cumina my house…
MRS BAILEY’S JEERA RICE
Historically, even on Mars most Indian families have preferred to keep their daughters at home until they marry. Change is coming, as barriers erode between one culture and another, but it is still slow. Even so: every new intake at the Crater School brings a few more youngsters whose families hailed from the subcontinent, be they fresh-come or long-established here.
Mrs Bailey already has a wide repertoire of traditional Indian dishes, gleaned from many sources, but of course she is ever keen to collect another. This particular recipe she had from a shy child whose roots lay in an ancient community on the Malabar coast, the St Thomas Christians they called themselves. (Sister Anthony said they were a sect, and probably heretical at that; Miss Harribeth was not so sure, finding convincing historical evidence that Doubting Thomas had indeed voyaged to India to preach the Risen Christ, and a continuous recorded line of faith from those days to these.)
Jeera means cumin, but wherever in India you meet this rice, you will find other spices also buried in its fragrant depths. Which particular ones varies inevitably from region to region, dependent on sourcing and local preference; this particular version is particularly rich in flavour, as so many of the world’s spices pass through the ports of Malabar on their way to perfume homes all across the Empire and further yet.
200g basmati rice
25g butter
a bay leaf
a few cloves
a cinnamon stick
three or four green cardamom pods
one thread of mace
one star anise
a couple of green chillies, left whole
half a teaspoon of salt
Wash and soak the rice according to your own preferred method.
Melt the butter in a sturdy pot, add all the whole spices and the green chillies and fry until fragrant, a minute or two. Don’t let the cumin seeds burn.
Add the rice to the pot and fry gently for a couple of minutes, until it turns opaque. Stir occasionally, but don’t agitate it too much; you don’t want…