I had some left over rice and was wondering what to do.  I wanted to do some thing quick and simple.  Making fried rice or vegetable biryani will take a lot of time.  So I settled with the sesame rice which is easy and quick to make.  I mixed white and black sesame seed for this recipe.  Black sesame seed has high nutritional value since it has the skin.  Also black sesame seed has a much stronger taste and flavor.  But you can completely replace the black sesame seed with white one.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked basmati rice
• 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon white sesame seed
• 1 teaspoon shredded unsweetened coconut (optional)
• 3 dried red chilies
• 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
• 1/8 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon urad dhal
• ½ teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 strand curry leaves

Method:

• Dry roast sesame seeds until they start splattering
• Dry roast one red chili and coconut until coconut is quite dry (lightly golden).  If not using coconut, just dry roast chili for a few seconds (make sure it does not get burned and start smoking)
• Add sesame seed oil to a saucepan and add mustard seed
• When they start splattering, add urad dhal and fry for about 25-30 seconds in low flame
• Now add cumin seed, curry leaves and the rest of the dried red chilies (bread the red chilies into 3-4 small pieces) and sauté for about 30 seconds
• Add rice, ground sesame seed mixture and salt to the saucepan and cook on low flame for about a minute.  Sprinkle just a little bit water and cover the saucepan.  This is to keep the rice moist and soft
• Serve warm with appalam or moar milagai (curd chili)