Preparation

1. Cook the sona masuri rice and set aside to cool down.
2. Dry roast sesame seeds on a medium heat, until it turns light brown in colour. It will start to pop and release aroma. Once cooked, remove from the pan and let it cool for sometime.
3. In the same pan, dry roast dal and spices- chana dal, urid dal, mustard seeds,  cumin seeds, black peppercorns, whole red chillies and 5-6 curry leaves. Keep stirring till it turned into light brown colour, remove from pan and place aside to cool.
4. Till spices cool down, start making tamarind water. If using tamarind concentrated paste, dissolve it into 1 cup of hot water or if you’re using whole tamarind, make into a small lime-sized ball and place into hot water for 15-20 minutes and then squeeze out all the pulp with the help of strainer.
5. When sesame seeds have cooled completely, grind them and set aside for garnishing.
6. Grind roasted spices to a coarse powder.
7. Now you can prepare the tamarind rice. Heat the oil on a medium heat, once hot, add mustard seeds and simmer till they pop.
8. Then add the whole red chilli and 4-5 curry leaves, sauté for a minute.
9. Add the peanuts and roast till they turn light brown.
10. Then add the tamarind water.
11. Add the freshly ground spice powder, turmeric powder and salt – keeping in mind the amount of salt specially if you have already added salt to rice.
12. Mix everything together and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
13. Cook mixture until it thickens and becomes a paste-like consistency.
14. Then add cooked rice.
15. Mix gently until all the masala paste has evenly coated the rice.
16. Lastly, garnish your tamarind rice with the ground sesame power. For extra texture, add whole roasted peanuts for taste and serve.

Serve with fresh yogurt or raita.