OraLukallu Chitranna - Spicy Red Chili Rice

Wish you all a Happy Navarathri / Dasara!

We arrange dolls for Navarathri every year and every year we try to make it a little different from the previous years. Check out some more pics of this year’s Gombe here.

I’ve been so so buys these days, with the Navarathri arrangements, guests at every hour of the day, office, functions, we visiting friends/families and also cooking some snacks for Bombe-Bagina - some snack to be given to guests who come home to see the doll arrangements. But then being too pressed for time, I’m not being able to click pics of all of them, write and post.... So they’ll all come some time later, when I’m relatively free.

For now, here is a traditional rice item, mostly made for festive meals, called OraLukallu Chitranna. OraLukallu, in Kannada, means the traditional grinding stone they used to be preset in every kitchen before we had these mixers, grinders and food processors. We can still find them in some houses.

The spices for this chitranna will be ground fresh in the OraLukallu and thus the name. However, now we make it using our dear mixie, in a jiffy! It is quick, spicy, yummy and makes a perfect rice for your festive meal.

Here’s the recipe....

OraLukallu Chitranna

Preparation time : 5 min, excluding time to prepare rice
Cooking time : 10 min
Serves : 4

Ingredients:
Cooked rice - 4 cups, sona masuri variety
Grated coconut - ½ cup
Dry red chilies - 5-6, as per taste; Use Byadagi variety for a nice color
Asafetida / hing - a generous pinch
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Tamarind - a small marble sized ball
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste

For tempering:
Cooking oil - 1-2 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Peanuts - 2 Tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 Tbsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste

Method:

• Spread the cooked rice in a wide bowl and add a teaspoon of oil so that the grains do not stick
• Keep aside for 5 minutes to cool
• Grind the red chilies, asafetida, coconut, tamarind, salt, ½ tsp of mustard seeds in a mixie to form a coarse mixture. Do not add any water
• In a skillet heat oil, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
• Add groundnut seeds and fry for a few seconds
• Add Bengal gram dal and urad dal and fry till golden
• Add curry leaves and turmeric and fry for a minute or two till all the ingredients are crisp
• Add the ground mixture and mix thoroughly, with the heat on
• Once the mixture is well sautéed, turn off the heat; don’t make the mixture too crumbly
• Add this to the spread rice and mix thoroughly
• Serve warm or pack it off for lunch box!

Notes:

• Make rice with a bit lesser water, so that the grains are separate and not sticky