Pepper jeera rice, also called Milagu jeeragam rice is a very simple but tasty way to have an otherwise plain rice , especially on the days when you are down with a cold, the spicy rice will heat you up nicely!

Traditionally this is offered as a prasadh ./ neivedhiyam to Lord Nataraja in Chidambaram.
Also called Samba saadham in Tamil. This is typically served with a tongue tickling tangy tasty eggplant dish called Gothsu , which I have already posted in this blog. Do check it out and try to have this combination. Simplicity at its best.Now to the recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
3 tsp pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1/2 tsp mustard seeds for tempering.
5 broken cashewnuts
3 tbsp ghee or oil
salt to taste.
sprigs of curry leaves for garnish.

Method

1. Pressure cook the rice after washing as usual.

2. Take a pan, add pepper and cumin seeds and dry roast them separately. When cooled, powder them coarsely.

3. Take another pan, add the ghee or oil , fry the cashew nuts till golden. Keep this aside and add some oil and crackle mustard seeds, add the cooked cooled rice, salt and the powder. add the roasted cashewnuts.

4. Mix well, garnish with sprigs of curry leaves. and serve with Brinjal Gothsu as is always done.

5. Serve with a small dollop of ghee if it is very spicy.