Jeera Chawal (Cumin Rice) with fennel

So here is my Jeera Chawal with fennel. This goes really well as a side dish for curries or as a stand alone snack. I have to admit this is a personal twist and not really "authentic". I really love fennel, I find it has a  delicate anise taste which I adore. And of course it's fragrance is of amazing liquorice! So I wanted to incorporate that into my Jeera chawal. In a stroke of (dare I say it) genius I thought of  using fennel seeds in place of the cumin seeds! But I still wanted to have that peppery earthiness of cumin, which goes really well with fennel anyway, so I added ground cumin in instead of over powering the dish with more seeds. Hooray! It actually turned out really yummy and the flavours were well balanced. I'm sure you'll love it just as much as I did.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups basmati rice
• 3 cups water
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 2-3 whole cloves
• 2-3 juniper berries
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and soak the rice at least for an hour. This helps the rice to be fluffy and less sticky.
Heat sunflower oil in a deep, thick bottom saucepan (which has a lid). Add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves and juniper berries. Add fennel seeds and ground cumin.
When the seeds crackle, add the soaked rice and saute for 5 minutes.
Add the water and season with salt and black pepper. Make sure the heat is turned on to high. Try to minimize stirring or mixing with a spoon when cooking basmati rice as they can easily break.
Once you see that the layer of water above the rice has evaporated (takes about 7-10 minutes), reduce the heat to medium, cover with a lid and cook for another 5-7 minutes or till the rice is done. Remove bay leaf etc as desired and serve.

notes:

"You can add peas when sauteing the rice as well"
"As a stand alone dish add fried onions"
"If you don't have juniper berries (or don't like them) you can use whole black peppercorns instead"