Vegetable Pulao

Somedays you just act on instinct. You just pull out ingredients from the fridge and start chopping and cutting randomly. Suddenly a dish starts to form on its own and you know it is good. Thats the thing about improvisation - you add this here and that there - and construct your own dishes making them taste good and impress everyone around you. Making pulaos is an art, you need to have just the right ingredients, the right flavors and the right techniques. And there can be disasters - oh yes they can be - but if you can get it right everything is good.

 This is not exactly a proper pulao. In fact, it is a cross between pulao and a fried rice. And to make things easier, you can make it in a rice cooker so you can just let it cook at the flick of a switch. This recipe is a celebration of the vegetables in the supermarket. It contains leeks, red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms and cucumbers. And lets me clarify - the cucumber is for the raita that goes so well with this pulao. This contains some really mellow flavors making it perfect to have with any type of curry or sabzi with raita. This recipe is a good one to have in your repertoire when you have people over the dinner or a special Sunday lunch. You can add different vegetables like cauliflower when they are in season, beets, peas or even fry paneer[just repeat the mushroom process] and make a really hearty rice dish for a grand occasion.

Ingredients:
1 leek sliced
2 onions sliced
6 gloves garlic chopped
1 green chilly chopped
1 red bell peppers sliced
1 yellow bell peppers sliced
2 carrots sliced
6 green beans sliced
1 packet of button mushrooms sliced
1 and 1/4 cup rice
1tsp pepper
2tsp red chili powder
2tsp garam masala
salt to taste
Oil for cooking
Water for cooking rice
Juice of half a lemon
Coriander leaves chopped

Method:
Switch on your cooker. Add the oil and wait for two minutes.
Add the leek and onions and fry for 6 to 7 minutes. You dont need it browned just softened and infuded into the oil.
Add the garlic anc chilly. Cook for two minutes. Tip in all the vegetables and fold everything in.
Add the rice and sprinkle the pepper, red chili powder and garam masala. Fold in the rice. Add twice as much water. Cover with the lid and let it cook.
Toss the sliced mushrooms with red chili powder and garam masala. When the rice is done, heat the oil in a frying pan. Fry the mushrooms till browned.
Mix the mushrooms into the rice. Sprinkle lemon juice and a handful of chopped coriander leaves. 
Toss everything together and serve.

Thursday Pulao

When you are running errands, picking up groceries and finishing up the final stages of your presentations you have three options for dinner on a Thursday - order takeout, re-heat leftovers[probably the takeout from Wednesday night] or throw something together for a tasty dinner for family or friends. Some days you go with the first two options - I mean life is so demanding these days - but on other days you need a home cooked meal to soothe away all those frustrations of the day. And, on those days, only a lightly spiced pulao will do.
Okay, I have to be honest here. This recipe was a spur of the moment throwing together of ingredients. There was no method or template involved. And it was good [at least that was the general consensus]. And so I felt like sharing this recipe in this post. The pulao is the ultimate making lemonade out of leftover lemons. All you need to do is to chop some carrots and thaw frozen peas. While the peas are thawing, slit a chilly and assemble your spices. This recipe is made in a rice cooker so as to cut down on cooking and cleaning time.

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice[soaked]
1 green chilly slitted
2 medium carrots chopped
1/2 cup peas
1tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies broken
1 cinnamon
2tsp nigella seeds
2tbsp oil
Water for boiling

Method:
Press the cook option of the rice cooker. Heat oil. In a couple of minutes, the oil should be ready to temper the spices. Add in the dried red chilles, cinnamon and cumin seeds. Put in the green chilly as well. Fry for a minute.
Add the carrots and saute everything. Add the soaked rice, kalonji and fold in with everything. Pour in twice the amount of water and cover. Let the rice cooker do its work. If you need water, add 1/4 cup of water into the cooker and cook for ten more minutes.
I served this rice with channa masala made from canned chickpeas. It is quick and easy and perfect for the weekday dinner. Enjoy.

Mint rice

There is nothing better than a pulao well-made. You need to make sure that the rice is perfectly soft and fluffy. The spice added to it should compliment and not detract the flavor of the rice. And when you finally eat, it should be the perfect canvas for every curry or sabzi that you make. Most of the time when you make this dish, it involves a lot of work. But, it does not have to - not every time. For me, when it is Friday night and you need to something quick and delicious - you make this rice. This is an adaptation of the rice recipe that my aunt makes so as to wire it for convenience.
All you need is rice, mint, onion and chillies. And, lots of pepper. You can make all of this in a rice cooker. That will cut down on the cooking and the utensil time. A one-pot wonder for any occasion.

Ingredients:
A bunch of mint
1 medium onion sliced
1 green chilly chopped
1and 1/2 cup of rice soaked
salt to taste
3 cups of water
2 tbsp of pepper
Oil for frying

Method:
Heat oil. Saute onion and chillies. Cook till onions are light brown.
Add the mint and pepper. Steam it for two minutes. Add the rice and salt. Fold in all the ingredients. Pour in the water and set it to cook till the rice it soft. Add a little water if you think the rice is a little chewy. Fluff the rice with a work.
I served this rice with egg curry and dahi baingan. But, this dish is so versatile that you can serve it with any curry from vegetarian to non-vegetarian. Happy cooking!

Wholesome food

For a nice wholesome lunch or dinner, a plain khichdi with an easy curry forms the ideal recipe. My mother - being the domestic goddess that she is - makes this recipe with ghee, cauliflower, toasted dal and rice - the works. The author likes her food a little simply prepared with as little fuss as possible. Except when she decides not to. This particular dish was created out of a desire to eat something - anything - other than the mess food. Usually I just throw everything in the rice cooker and then let the machine do all the work. The 35 minutes that it takes, you can chop up some potatoes and spinach for a quick sabzi and assemble a salad. This menu is healthy and tastes warm and delicious on a cold, foggy evening. All that is required is a few minutes of work and you are good to go.
This is also a good recipe when you have leftovers in the fridge and want to finish it off before market day.  Quick and tasty, this recipe takes so little and gives so much flavor back.

Ingredients:
1cup rice
2cup dal[preferably moong dal]
2 small onions, sliced
2 medium carrots, sliced
1/2 large capsicum, chopped
a handful of beans, chopped
1/2 cauliflower, chopped
2tsp red chili powder
1tsp coriander powder
1/2tsp turmeric
1tsp cumin powder
1tsp garam masala
salt to taste

Method:
Soak the rice and dal in the cooker. While they are soaking, you can chop all the vegetables.
Add the vegetables except capsicum to the pre-soaked rice and dal. Sprinkle all the spice powders. Adjust the salt.
Add around nine cups of water to the cooker. That is the rule of thumb. You should always add thrice the amount of water to rice and dal combined. Close the lid and cook.  If you are doing it in a pressure cooker then around four to five whistles should do it.
Before the last five minutes add the capsicum and close the lid again. In the pressure cooker it should be before the last whistle.
You will know when the khichdi is ready when the dal melts into the rice. If you like, sprinkle a little lemon juice before serving. 

The Taste of Laughter and Memories

I think the first time I tasted peas pulao was when me and my friends were at some restaurant and wanted to order something different than the usual jeera or fried rice. The other dishes I forget but I still remember the taste of white steamed rice flecked with green peas and cumin and the way it meshed well with the curries and sides that we had ordered. I remember I had then gone back home, found the recipe from the internet and begged my mother to make it. She did, one Sunday lunch, with chicken curry, paneer makhani and dal fry served with assorted papads and salad. From then on, it became a family favorite.
That particular dish now, being so far away from home, has become flavored with those sunny days of play and no work when you did not have to worry about the next paper or conference. You could read all your beloved classics well into the afternoon until called to the family table - overflowing with food and where there was no dearth of conversation.

Now that winter is here, peas make an appearance back to the markets where you can see the green pods smiling happily among the shiny red peppers and cauliflowers and just essentially opening your mind to all those memories and with it culinary inspirations. So it was no wonder that I came back laden with a load of green peas for a light and I should say healthy dinner. What I did was divide the peas for two dishes - the favorite peas pulao and lightly spiced Aloo matar to go along with it. The pulao has been made simpler by the use of the rice cooker. While the rice bubbles away, you can toss spices, onions, potatoes and peas into a hot pan and voila! By the time the rice is done the curry side dish will be ready and everything will be served together instead of any sequential waiting around for the dishes to be finished.

Mise-en-place:
Shell peas. Slice onions. Slit chilies. Chop tomatoes. If using, boil potatoes with a little salt for twenty minutes.Otherwise, dice potatoes into small cubes. Boil peas[ for the curry] for ten minutes.

Peas Pulao:

Ingredients:
2tbsp mustard oil
1tsp cumin seeds
1 medium onion
1 slit green chilly
1 cup peas
1 cup rice soaked
2 cups water
salt to taste

Method:
This is a little tricky but making the rice in the rice cooker cuts down on so much cooking time.
Turn on the cooker. Add the mustard oil and heat for a minute.
Splutter cumin seeds. Add the onions and cook till they are translucent. The onions should not brown but should have just softened. This should take around five minutes.
Add the chilly and peas and fold everything together. Add salt to taste.
Drain the rice and then add to the cooker. Fold in. Add the water. Cover and let the rice cook. When the cooking button goes off, open the lid and fluff the rice with a fork.

Aloo Matar:

Ingredients:
2tbsp oil
1tsp cumin seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 medium onion
2 slit green chilly
2 small tomatoes
2 large potatoes
1 cup peas
2tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1tsp Red chilli powder
1tsp Coriander powder
1tsp Garam masala
salt to taste
water as required

Method:
Heat oil in a frying pan. Splutter the whole spices.
Add onions and brown for fifteen minutes. Add the ginger-garlic paste and green chilies.
Cook for five minutes. Add the tomatoes and a little water in case the masala sticks to the pan.
Cook until the tomatoes have melded into the masala. Add the spice powders and the salt. Cook for two minutes.
Add the peas and potatoes and coat them with masala. If you are using uncooked vegetables, add 1/2 cup water and let the potatoes cook for twenty minutes. If using boiled ones then cook for five minutes to let the flavors soak into them. Adjust seasonings as necessary. The resultant curry should be somewhere between a dry and gravy dish with just enough sauce to coat the pulao.
The dining experience was heady with flavors and memories - definitely something to go back to and enjoy.