Lemon Rice

Lemon Rice or 'Chitranna' is a common in Southern parts of Karnataka and many parts of South India. It's an item, what you can call a poor man's dish. The ingredients and steps are almost the same as in Avalakki... the only difference is soaked cooked rice replaces soaked Avalakki.

Prepare vaggarni as explained in Avalakki post and mix it to the rice. However, the rice needs to be cooked well in advance so that it's cool and the grains are separate.

You can add peanuts into the vaggarni or add thin mango or carrot shreds as a topping to give chitranna a different flavor.

Chitranna can be had for break-fast, lunch or dinner or even evening snack. It's light on the tummy. Try it out once.

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Sheera and Kesaribath - what's the difference?

Sheera and Kesaribath are two sweets made from the same basic ingredient 'Rava' but are different in looks and taste. Going by the names, Kesaribath is the word used in South Karnataka and Sheera in North Karnataka.

Sheera is simple compared to Kesaribath, the other ingredients are water, sugar, clarified butter (or refined oil), cardamon, raisins and cashews. Kesaribath has two additional things- milk and Kesari (saffron). This is how the name has derived. Pineapple pieces are also added to give Kesaribath a flavor.

Sheera is pale while Kesaribath is bright and defnitely Kesaribath tastes better than Sheera.

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