Lime Rice (Lemon Rice) / Kayi Sasuve chitranna

If Mac N Cheese, PBJ sandwiches are common in every household in U.S, lemon rice is one of the common dishes in Southern Indian households. This is actually Lime Rice and in India, limes are called lemons. (There were no lemon in India back then.) Anyways, most of the people make this in the same manner, but for my mother. I have seen people garnishing the lemon/lime rice with grated coconut, but never grinding the masala for it. It is actually derived from another recipe which is based on coconut and mustard seeds. But, this is the best lemon/lime rice that I have tasted in my life. - I meant the recipe. The ground paste adds tons of flavor and because of that reason, I never make the simpler version of this.

One Year Back - Chocolate Chip Bread
Two Years Back - Cream Cheese Sweet Bread, Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup uncooked ( you can use sona masoori, basmati or any long grain non sticky rice)
Water - 2 cups or more to cook the rice (Most sona masoori takes 2 1/2 - 3 cups for every cup of rice)
Turmeric - a generous pinch
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 - 1 1/2 TBSP (Use only flavorless oil or peanut oil)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 2 broken
Curry leaves - few
Chana dal/Kadale bele / dehusked split chickpeas - 1 tsp
Urad dal/Uddina bele / Black gram dal - 1 tsp
Peanuts - 2 - 3 TBSP (Or use cashews)
Lime - half of a big juicy one or 1 small one
Cilantro - 2 TBSP chopped 

To grind:
Coconut - 1/2 cup grated
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida / hing - generous pinch
Green chillies - 5 - 6 or as per taste

Method:
Cook rice in enough water by adding the turmeric. Rice should be cooked but not mushy. Fluff it with a fork and spread on a platter to cool. Take all the ingredients mentioned under 'To Grind:' in a blender and make a paste without adding water. If it is too hard, you can use not more than 2 tsp of water.
Take the ground paste and place it on the cooled rice as a heap in the center. Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add red chillies, curry leaves followed by the dals and peanuts. Let the dals and peanut get toasted well. Turn off the heat and pour the entire content of the pan on the ground paste sitting on the rice. Add salt to the entire mix and mix well with two spatula so that the whole thing gets mixed very well. Squeeze the lime juice and mix one more time. Adjust the salt if needed and add the cilantro and mix. This tastes better an hour or two after it was made. Serve as is or with yogurt rice and pickle.

Notes:
I sometimes add vegetables to the same base. My favorite ones to add are green peas. You can either cook the peas along with rice or saute it in a bit of oil and add.

Enjoy.