Mixed Vegetable Pulao ~ Subz Pulao ~ With Stepwise pictures

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During my last two visits to India, I bought a lot of cookbooks with the hope that I would get a chance to try  something or the other from these books at some point. But routine day to day cooking does not provide me much time to browse through books to figure out what to make from them. Occasionally over the weekend when I am watching something on tv, I do end up glancing through some recipes and vowing to try some of the recipes "one day". Sometimes one of the recipes will capture my interest enough to make me want to try it out immediately.  

One such recipe that caught my attention was a subz pulao or mixed vegetable pulao in a Nita Mehta book that looked interesting. Specifically the spice paste used in the pulao intrigued me. Usually the pulao I make has whole spices, this one had a paste that I thought would definitely add more flavor to the rice. Curious to know how it worked out, I gave it a try that very weekend. And I loved it, it was a very easy, yet flavorful pulao that was very different from my usual pulao. I have made this recipe a few times now, and have been tweaking the recipe a bit each time. This final version is the one I like the most and this rice is perfect for a quick meal or for a hearty weekend lunch.

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Ingredients and Method to make Mixed Vegetable Pulao
1 cup basmati rice (chawal/arisi)soaked in water for 30 minutes
2 small carrots (gajar) cut into small pieces = 1/2 heaped cups of cut pieces of carrots
20 to 25 beans ends snipped off and cut into small pieces = 1/2 heaped cups of cut beans
1/2 cup green peas (matar) (frozen)
1/2 cup cauliflower florets (gobi)
1 large red onion cut into small pieces (pyaaz/vengayam)
2 small bay leaves or 1 large bay leaf (tej patta)
2 tbsp clarified butter/ghee/nei or oil (use oil for a vegan version)
1/2 Tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
1/2 tsp lemon juice (limbu)

For the masala paste
3 cloves of garlic (lehsun/poondu)
1 tsp chopped ginger (adrak/inji)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/jeeragam)
1/2 tsp coriander seeds (dhania)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf/sombu)
1 clove (laung/lavang)
1/2 inch stick of cinnamon (dalchini/pattai)
seeds of 2 green cardamom (elaichi/ellakai)
1 dry red chili (optional)

Soak rice in sufficient water for at least 30 minutes. Prep the vegetables and keep aside.

Place all the ingredients of the masala paste in a small jar of a blender/mixer, add a little water as required and grind to a smooth paste. Keep this masala aside.

Heat ghee/oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, then add bay leaves and onion and stir until onions are translucent.
 

Add masala paste and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, then add vegetables, kasuri methi and stir for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add 2 cups of water, salt to taste, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, drained rice and bring to a boil.

Cover with a lid, lower heat and cook for approximately 12 to 17 minutes on very low heat until the rice is cooked. Remove from heat and keep covered for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve hot with raita and papad/chips or with a curry of choice for a more hearty meal.

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Tomato Rice

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As I mentioned in this post, weeknight dinners are usually the time when I look for simple meals that are hearty and satisfying. Nothing fancy or elaborate looks appealing then, I just want something that is quick and tasty. And this tomato rice fits the bill perfectly. It is super easy, requires a minimum of ingredients and yet is big on flavor and taste. Or maybe it's just because I am a tad bit partial towards tomatoes :)

I usually pair this with a hearty mixed vegetable raita such as this one or sometimes with this palak raita (spinach yogurt dip) , but you can just as easily pair this with any kind of curry if you wish. So if you are a tad bit partial to tomatoes too, give this easy peasy rice a try and as always, let me know what you think about it :)



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Ingredients and Method to make Tomato Rice
5 cups of cooked rice (see notes) (chawal)
1 large onion cut fine (pyaz/ vengayam)
4 medium large tomatoes cut fine (Yielded 3 cups of cut pieces) (tamatar/ thakkalli)
1 Tbsp oil
4 Thai or Indian variety green chilies slit lengthwise (or to taste) (hara mirch/ pachai molagai)
3/4 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ kadagu)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/ jeeragam)
salt to taste

Cook rice and spread on a plate to cool. If you are using day old rice, then you can just proceed to the next step.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add mustard seeds to it, when the mustard seeds splutter, add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds sizzle, add green chilies and stir a few times.

Add onions and saute until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, a pinch of salt and stir until the tomatoes are cooked and soft.

Add cooked rice, salt to taste and mix well. Allow the rice to heat on low to medium low heat for a minute or so until it heats through, stirring gently so as to not break the rice.

Remove and serve hot with any kind of curry or with any kind of raita and chips/ papad on the side.
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Suggested variation : Add 1 Tbsp of tomato ketchup to give this rice a slightly saucy taste:)

Notes:
You can use either brown short grain rice, brown basmati, white basmati rice or short grain white rice for this recipe. Just cook the rice until it is done, yet each grain is separate and firm.

I usually make this with brown basmati rice.After rinsing the rice, I soak about 1.5 cups of brown basmati in about 2.25 cups of water for about 30 minutes, then I pressure cook it until done. Remove from the pressure cooker after it has subsided, spread to cool and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

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Spring Onion Pulao ~ With Stepwise Pictures

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Spring onions are something I use often in curries, especially this curry with the combination of spring onions and chickpea flour is one of my favorites and is something I make often. I have rarely seen spring onions featured as a star ingredient in a pulao. So when I first came across an idea for spring onion pulao in a Sanjeev Kapoor book I was intrigued. With just cumin, garlic, garam masala and spring onions the ingredient list for the rice seemed very short and perfect for a simple lunch.



I tweaked the recipe a bit, and paired it with this low fat, protein rich mung bean curry that is also one of my favorites. I loved the simplicity of this pulao, in a way it reminded me of this jeera rice (cumin flavored rice) that I make occasionally.  This rice would also be great with more rich and creamy curries like paneer curries too, but since I was in the mood for simple this time, that's the combination I went with, although I would probably try this rice with some kind of paneer curry next time:)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Spring Onion Pulao
1 and 1/2 cups of basmati rice rinsed and soaked in sufficient water to submerge the grains for at least 30 mins.
7 spring onions cut fine (reserve 3 tbsp chopped greens for garnish) (hara pyaz)
2 cloves of garlic cut very fine
3 tbsp clarified butter/ ghee/ nei (can be substituted with equal quantity of any oil for a vegan version)
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/ jeeragam)
salt to taste
3/4 tsp garam masala ( to make your own garam masala check out this post)

In a large heavy bottomed pan, heat clarified butter/ ghee. Add cumin seeds to it, when the seeds sizzle, add garlic and stir until the garlic browns.

Add spring onions and stir until almost cooked.
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Drain rice and add to the spring onion mixture and stir gently a few times.  Add 3 cups of water, salt to taste,  garam masala and mix well. Allow this mixture to simmer on low heat with the lid closed until rice is cooked.

Once rice is cooked and soft, remove from heat. Keep this covered for another fifteen to twenty minutes. Fluff with a fork, garnish with reserved green onions, and serve hot with your choice of curry/ dhal/ raita. 

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Mushroom Rice (Mushroom Pulao) and some fun riddles :)

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It's been a while since I have posed any riddles for my readers. Here are a couple of them that I came across recently that made me go hmmm...., I wanted to share it with you all and see if you are able to figure these ones out. Here is the first one....

What gets wetter and wetter, the more it dries ?

and the second one....

What goes around the world but stays in a corner.

Looking forward to hearing all your responses to the riddles. Will post the correct answers in my next post:)

In the meanwhile, I have used mushrooms in myriad versions of curries, sometimes alone and sometimes in combination with other vegetables and have always enjoyed it. For some reason though I have rarely used mushrooms in a rice dish. Recently when I was browsing one of my cookbooks by Nita Mehta I came across an idea of  kind of pulao that used onions seeds and mushrooms in it. Now this recipe really piqued my interest and I decided to give the combination a try.

My adaptation of this recipe uses brown rice and I have tweaked the proportions slightly to our taste. The onions seeds are definitely the star ingredient in this simple rice dish, and even though this rice dish uses very minimal ingredients, it is very flavorful. Combine this with a curry and you have a delicious meal. If you have any plans to make something with mushrooms this week, give this rice a try and tell me what you think :)


 

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Ingredients and Method to make Mushroom Rice
1 1/2 cups brown basmati rice washed, drained and soaked in 2 and 1/4 cup of water for 30 mins
(can be substituted with white basmati rice too, see notes)
1 large onion cut fine
12 medium mushrooms cubed
2 tbsp oil/clarified butter (ghee/nei) / butter (use oil for a vegan version)
1/2 tsp onion seeds (kalonji)
1 thin sliver of ginger grated fine or minced
1/2 tsp minced garlic
salt to taste

Place the basmati rice in the rice cooker along with the water it has been soaked in and set the rice setting to the kind of rice you are using, white for white rice and brown for brown rice. Or cook the rice in the pressure cooker and keep aside.

In a large heavy bottomed pan, heat oil/ butter/ clarified butter on medium heat and add onion seeds. Stir the onion seeds for 20 to 30 secs.

Then add onions and saute until onions are transparent. Add garlic and ginger and stir a few times. Add mushrooms and stir for a few minutes until it is cooked. Add salt to taste and mix well.
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Either add the mushroom mixture to the cooked rice in the rice cooker, mix gently and allow it to stay on warm setting for a little while before serving, or add the cooked rice to the pan, mix gently and allow to heat through on low heat for a couple of mins. That's it, the rice is done, really fast and easy peasy isn't it ?
Serve this hot with any curry of choice  or some raita for a quick and satisfying meal :)

Notes:
If you want to sub white basmati rice instead of brown basmati rice, wash, drain and soak in water  in the ratio recommended on the packet. Usually the ratio for rice to water is 1 : 1.5 cups and proceed with the rest of the recipe as above.  

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Spinach with Black Bean Brown Rice

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One dish meals are indispensable in the weekly menu, especially for rushed weeknight dinners when making a lot of different types of dishes becomes a little too much. And one dish meals that combine veggies and some form of protein are the best kind. Healthy, filling and nutritious, what's not to like about it :) Here is one that I make from time to time, this one combines spinach, tomatoes and black beans. I do not use too many spices or flavoring in this rice, just keep it simple.

 Usually I serve this with some kind of raita (a salad made with veggies and yogurt), this time I decided to try an apple raita to go with this rice. And I loved the combination, the spices from the rice were perfectly complemented with the cool, slightly sweetish apple raita.Will post the recipe for the apple raita soon. Of course, this rice works just as well with a curry on the side or any kind of raita or even just plain yogurt. So if you are looking for a rice that can be made in a jiffy with very little effort, give this rice a try :)



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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach with Black bean rice
5 Cups cooked brown rice (can be substituted with white rice) (see notes)
1 large red onion cut fine
4 medium tomatoes cut fine
2 packed cups chopped spinach (palak) leaves
1 cup cooked black beans
a sliver ginger, grated very fine or minced
2 cloves of garlic cut very fine
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp garam masala (can be substituted with any other curry powder)
To know how to make your own garam masala check this post

Prep all the vegetables and rice.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add onions and saute until it is translucent. Add garlic and ginger and stir for a minute or so, until the garlic begins to brown slightly. Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

Add chopped spinach leaves and stir for a couple of minutes until it wilts. Add all the spices, cooked rice and salt to taste and mix well.

Add cooked black beans and mix again. Adjust salt if required and allow the entire mixture to heat on low to medium low heat for a minute or two.

Remove from heat and serve hot with curry of choice or some raita.
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I served this with apple raita (will post the recipe soon) and the combination of spicy rice with a sweetish raita worked perfectly :)

Notes
For the brown rice, I soaked 1 and 1/2 cups of brown basmati rice in 2 and 1/4 cups of water for about 30 minutes, then pressure cooked it until done. It yielded me approx 5 cups of cooked rice. You can easily use any kind of cooked rice, white or brown or even leftover rice in this recipe. If you use white rice, I would suggest you make sure it is well cooled before using in this recipe, as white rice breaks a bit more easily than brown rice.

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Carrot Coconut Rice ~ Gajarwale chawal

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First the question, are you a morning person or an evening person ? I ask because it seems to me that everyone seems to have one preference, either they find it easy to get up early in the morning or find it easy to stay up until late at night but find it difficult to get up early. I come in the latter category, staying up at night is always easier for me than getting up early in the morning. But since getting up early is the only option nowadays, I have learned to deal with it. Read that as, I now know how loud the alarm needs to ring to wake me right up :)

But there is one thing that always makes me glad that I got up before daybreak.... the sunrise. Every day the sunrise is so beautiful that it fills me with a sense of awe just to look at it. The different colors streaking across the sky just before the sun makes an appearance looks fantastic. The sky never looks the same on any two days,each day brings a different color palette and something beautiful to look at and admire. The only thing that remains the same is the sense of serenity and the awe I feel every time I see the sunrise :) Here are a few pictures that I managed to capture of the sunrise a few days this last week.....

 

And this one was just the day before yesterday......

 

Beautiful isn't it ?

Moving on here is a carrot coconut rice that I just came up with last week. I wanted something light, yet something simple which did not take too long to make. This rice is what I ended up making that evening.

 

I have never used this kind of combination of ingredients to flavor rice and was a little worried that  it might not work out. But I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful this rice turned out. It turned out to be exactly what I was looking for, light and flavorful and with a bowl of vegetable raita, it was a perfect dinner :)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Carrot coconut rice
1 1/2 cup brown basmati rice + 2 1/4 cup water (see notes)
2 to 3 small bay leaves
3 cups shredded carrots (gajar)
salt to taste
2 to 3 tsp clarified butter (ghee/ nei) (can be substituted with oil for a vegan version, I would suggest coconut oil)
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut (can be substituted with frozen coconut thawed to room temperature)
handful cilantro (coriander leaves/ hara dhania) cut fine

Grind together
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf/ sombu)
1/2 tsp whole black pepper (miri/ milagu)
4 whole dry red chilies ( or according to taste)
1 inch piece of cinnamon (dalchini)

Wash and rinse rice and let soak in 2 1/4 cup of water for about 30 minutes.

Place in rice cooker, add bay leaves to it and set to brown rice settings.

Powder fennel seeds, whole black pepper, dry red chilies and cinnamon to a fine powder in a blender/mixer/spice grinder and keep aside.

In a medium sized pan, heat clarified butter and add shredded carrots to it and stir a few times.  Add the spice powder and stir a few more times, then add salt to taste mix well. Remove from heat and pour entire mixture on the semi cooked brown rice. Mix well and allow the rice to cook completely.
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When done, adjust salt to taste if required and garnish with grated coconut and cilantro and mix well.

Serve hot with curry of choice, raita (vegetable salad with yogurt)/ chips or papad.

Notes:
You can easily make this with white rice too, just rinse and drain white basmati rice, add water as required for it and place in rice cooker with white rice setting and proceed with the rest of the recipe ( usually the proportion of water to rice for white long grain basmati is 1 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice)

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Capsicum Brown Rice and can you identify this ?

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On my recent trip to Coimbatore (a city in India) I came across these bright and attractive greens. My mother in law tells me that this is an edible green, and a lot of folks in that region use it much as they would spinach. I have no clue what this is called or how it tastes , but I am curious to learn more about it. I would love it if any of you could identify this and give more information about it. Looking forward to your responses :-)
 


In the meanwhile,  moving on from unidentifiable greens to a much more well known green veggie. I am referring to green bell pepper also known as capsicum in some parts of the world. Green bell peppers are among my favorite veggies, these peppers seem to enhance the flavor of any dish that they are used in.This green bell pepper rice is something I make when I am looking for a quick, flavorful one dish meal. I just add some raita or salad and some chips or papad and I get a complete meal.




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Ingredients and Method to make Capsicum Brown Rice
1 1/2 cups brown basmati soaked in 2 1/4 cups of water for 30 minutes and cooked in the rice cooker with 1 tsp clarified butter (ghee/nei) see notes
2 green bell peppers (capsicum/ koda molagai) de-seeded and cut into thin strips
1 large onion cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2 tsp clarified butter (ghee/nei) or oil
Additional 2 tsp clarified butter (optional) (if you want a little richer taste)
3/4 tsp mustard seeds
salt to taste

Garnish with
4 tsp lemon juice (or to taste)
4 tbsp finely cut cilantro (coriander leaves/kothamalli)

For the masala
(Dry roast each of these items separately until aromatic, cool and grind to a fine powder)

2 tsp coriander seeds (dhania)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera )
2 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal/ulatham parappu)
3 dry red chilies (or to taste) ( I used byadgi variety)
6 tsp raw peanuts with skin

Soak brown basmati in water as mentioned above for 30 or so minutes, then place in a rice cooker, add 1 tsp clarified butter and cook until it is done. 

Dry roast each of the ingredients mentioned under masala separately in a heavy bottomed pan until aromatic.
Remove and keep aside to cool. Grind in a spice grinder to a fine powder.

Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan, add mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splutter add onion and saute until the onions turn transparent.

Add bell pepper and stir fry until it is cooked yet crisp.
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Add cooked rice, salt to taste, masala powder and mix well.

Just before serving add lemon juice and cilantro and mix well.

Serve with raita/ chips/ papad or any curry of choice

Notes:
Brown basmati can also be cooked in the pressure cooker if you prefer, just  make sure that the rice is cooked yet each grain is separate.

This dish can also be made with white basmati if you prefer, just cook the rice as you would for pulao. Then cool it a little by spreading on a plate, then add to the cooked capsicum and proceed as above. The reason you do not need to do this for brown basmati is because brown basmati holds its shape better and does not break when hot the way white rice does.

The masala can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container for convenience.

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Coconut and Peanut flavored Mixed Vegetable Rice and information about a food recall

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Phew, what a long title to this post...... seemed unavoidable though, mainly because I could not think of any other name for this dish that described it as well. Anyway first about the recall,  I heard yesterday that there is a recall of products from Trader Joes that contain cilantro. Luckily for me I haven't purchased anything on the recall list from them, but if any of you have purchased any products from them, do check the link here for details of this recall.

Moving on to the mixed vegetable rice.......I love one dish meals because they are so convenient and quick. This coconut and peanut flavored rice is something that I came up with when I wanted something "different". I just kind of made up the dish and the masala for it as I went and had no real plans on posting the recipe on this site. But when we tasted it, the rice was so flavorful and delicious that we both loved it. I had to make it one more time, so that I could take pictures and write down the recipe, not that I am complaining about it............ Anyway if you too are looking for something "different" and flavorful you might want to consider this one dish meal :-)



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Ingredients and Method to make the Peanut and coconut flavored mixed vegetable rice

1 1/2 cup brown basmati rice (see notes) cooked in 2 1/4 cups of water
1 green bell pepper (capsicum/ koda molagai)
2 cups of mixed vegetables (any combination of cauliflower, beans, peas, carrots and such other veggies)

For the seasoning
1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 Thai or Indian variety green chili (or to taste) (optional)
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (hing/perungayam)

Roast in
1 tsp of oil
1 1/2 tbsp split yellow chick pea lentil (chana dhal/ kadalai parappu)
1 1/2 tbsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
3 tbsp brown sesame seeds
5 tbsp raw unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup of fresh or frozen grated coconut (if frozen then thaw to room temperature)
3 dry red chilies (or to taste) (I used byadgi variety of red chilies)

Dry roast each of the ingredients mentioned under roast separately until each of them turns reddish and aromatic and keep aside to cool. In case of dry red chilies it changes color and looks a little dark red and brown sesame seeds begin to pop a little, then it is done and can be removed from heat. Keep these roasted ingredients aside separately to cool.

In a spice grinder powder the lentils + red chilies first, does not have to be very fine can be a little coarse. Then add sesame seeds and peanuts and powder in short bursts of powder, since over grinding can cause clumping. Finally add the roasted coconut and give it a couple of turns with the rest of the powder. Keep this powdered masala aside.

In a small pan heat oil, add mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splutter add green chili and asafoetida powder and stir it a couple of times. Add bell pepper to it and saute until the bell pepper is cooked yet retains a little crunch. Keep this seasoning and bell pepper aside.
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If you are using brown rice, then place it along with water in a rice cooker, and set it to cook on the brown rice setting. At around halfway point, add the vegetables and allow it to cook along with the rice as well.

When done, add salt, mix well then add powdered masala, and seasoning + bell pepper and mix well. Serve hot with pappad and raita on the side or with any other curry of choice.

Notes:

You can substitute white basmati rice or even short grained white rice instead of brown in this recipe.

If you plan to make this with white rice, cook the rice in the pressure cooker or rice cooker with water as required so that the grains of the rice do not get mushy but retain their shape, cool this rice a little by spreading on a plate. Steam cook all the vegetables except bell pepper until soft yet firm and keep aside. 

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil and proceed with the seasoning and sauteing the bell pepper as above. Then add the vegetables, stir a couple of times, then the cooked and cooled rice, salt to taste and the masala. Mix well, heat on low to medium low heat without stirring it often, and serve hot with pappad and raita or with any other curry of choice.

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Brown Rice and Lentil Cutlets

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Leftover rice can sometimes provide a bit of a challenge to me. Sufficient quantities of rice quickly get turned into a rice dish and consumed. But if there is very little leftover it cannot be used in rice dishes and I have to rack my brains trying to figure out what else I can make with it to use it up. Sometimes I use up the rice by making muthias, but this time around, I came up with the idea of making some cutlets with leftover rice.

I added some lentils and vegetables to make it more nutritive. I was a bit wary that the rice would stand out in the cutlet especially because I used brown rice. But surprisingly the ingredients blended together amazingly well, the rice did not stand out at all. We enjoyed these cutlets as a snack and equally enjoyed the cutlets stuffed in a sandwich. If you have been wanting to start using brown rice in your diet, this cutlet could be a great place to start.......



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Ingredients and Method to make Brown Rice and Lentil cutlets

2 cups mixed vegetables ( I used a combination of carrots, peas, beans and corn)
1/2 cup split red lentil (masoor dhal) (see notes for substitutions)
3 cups pre cooked brown rice ( I used brown basmati)
1 cup loosely packed whole wheat bread crumbs (can be substituted with any other kind of bread)

1/2 tsp red chili powder (or cayenne pepper) (or to taste)
1/2 tsp coriander powder (dhania)
3/4 tsp cumin powder (jeera)
1/2 tsp garam masala (or any other curry powder)
2 pinches dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi ) (optional)
salt to taste
2 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste) (optional)
A few drops of oil to shallow fry the cutlets

Cook the vegetables in the microwave or the stove top, only adding water as required, until the veggies become soft but not mushy, keep aside.
Cook the lentils on the stove top or in the microwave, only adding water as required until the lentils are cooked and mushy.
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Place a medium/ large pan on heat. Add cooked vegetables, all the spices, salt to taste and mix well. Add precooked rice and lentils and mix well.
Add breadcrumbs and mix well. When the bread crumb is added it will make the entire mixture a little thick and firm. Add more breadcrumbs if required, I did not need any more this quantity worked perfectly.

Allow this mixture to cool to room temperature, then shape into cutlets. Heat a flat pan/griddle/tawa and place a few cutlets on it, add a few drops of oil and allow the cutlets to cook for a few seconds. When the lower side turns golden brown, flip over and cook the other side. When the other side is golden brown as well, remove and serve hot with ketchup/sauce as an appetizer or snack, or stuff in a sandwich or use in a burger or even serve it with some hearty soup to make a complete meal.
Yield will depend on the size and thickness of each cutlets.

Notes:
Red lentil can be substituted with split pigeon peas (tur dhal) or split mung bean lentil (moong dhal). The reason I chose red lentils was because it cooks really fast.

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Javarsi Oats Dosai ~ Sabudana Oat Dosa ~ Savory Oat and Sago crepes

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As I mentioned in this post, R and his family frequently talk about the sago dosais they tasted when they visited Bandipur park in south India. That dosai has become a legend in my home and the story of that dosai was my main inspiration to adding sago seeds to dosai for the first time. Sago seeds lend a great deal of softness to dosai, my only reservation with it is that, as far as I have been able to research it, sago seeds do not seem to have any great amount of nutrition in them. It seems to contain mainly starch and because of this I do not frequently use it, even in dosais.

 

On the other hand I really do enjoy the extra soft quality to dosais that comes from adding sago and from time to time feel tempted to try my hand at another variation of sago dosai.  This time around when I thought of adding sago seeds to dosai I decided to add some oatmeal to it too. The idea behind adding oatmeal was to add a bit of additional nutrition and I thought it would assauge my guilt over using both sago and white rice in this recipe. This dosai turned out to be "oh so soft" and was very delicate and lacy. I loved this version of dosai so much I could have happily had this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn't............but I definitely could have....I loved it that much:-)

 


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Ingredients and Method to make Oat Sago Dosai
1/2 cup brown rice ( I use brown basmati ) (can be substituted with white rice)
1 cup white raw rice
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi/ mendiyam)
1/2 cup black gram lentil (without skin)(whole udad dhal/ muzhu ulundhu) (can be substituted with split black gram lentil/ udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
3/4 cup sago seeds (sabudana/ javarsi)

In a large bowl add all the ingredients except sago seeds. Mix well, fill with water and swirl with your hand and drain water. Fill with water about double the quantity of the grains and allow to soak for at least 3 to 4 hours.

In another bowl add sago seeds and fill with just enough water to submerge the seeds. Allow the seeds to soak for about 3 to 4 hours as well.
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Using your blender/grinder, grind the grains and oatmeal in batches adding a little water until it forms a smooth batter. The batter should be a little thick and not too runny.

Grind sago seeds adding a little water until it turns to a smooth paste, this does not take very long, just a few turns in the blender. Add the ground sago seeds paste to the batter made from grains and mix gently. Add salt to taste, mix well.

Alternatively you can add sago seeds to the last batch of grains after it is a little smooth and add some more water and grind until sago seeds are smooth. This second method makes it easier for the sago seeds to blend in with the batter. Proceed as mentioned with salt etc

Keep the batter covered in a large container (at least twice the size of the batter) and keep in a warm place to ferment for about 7 to 8 hours.

After the batter is fermented, mix it well and you can store this batter in the refrigerator if you do not plan to use it immediately. It can be stored for 4 to 5 days.

When making dosais (crepes)heat griddle/tawa/ heavy flat pan,when hot, pour a little batter in the center and immediately spread into a thin circle. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the circumference of the dosai. Allow the lower side to cook for a few seconds until it is evenly golden brown, then flip and cook the other side until it has brown spots.

Here is a video clip of the process...........................



Remove and serve hot with your choice of chutney/ sambar/ molaga podi/ potato masal curry or any combination of the above four.
Proceed with the rest of the batter in the same manner.

Notes
When adjusting the consistency of the batter, err on the side of making a little thicker batter, that can be corrected easily then when it is too runny. When adjusting the batter, remove a little batter in a bowl and add a little water and mix it in, this way if it is too thin you can add some more thicker batter to it and get the right consistency.

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Chawli/ Black Eyed Peas Pulao

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 Most of you might have heard about CSN stores by now, for those of you who haven't, CSN stores is made up of more than 200 online niche shops offering a wide range of products. Whether you want a bathroom sink or some cookware, CSN stores seem to have just about everything. This time around I have been contacted by CSN stores to do a product review. So watch this space for the review in the near future!

Moving on to the other reason for this post. This pulao with black eyed peas was something I put together for a sunday lunch to go with methiwale gajar matar curry.The idea was to make something simple and flavorful  yet unique. I also wanted to try using some type of beans in the pulao. The reason I used black eyed peas was only because I conveniently had some on hand and wanted to use it up soon. Any type of beans like chickpeas or red kidney beans would have worked in this recipe.  With some raita this pulao could easily double as a one dish meal too :-)



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Ingredients and Method to make Pulao with black eyed peas
1 1 /2 cups of brown basmati soaked in 2 1/2 cups of water for 30 minutes
2 cups frozen black eyed peas (Chawli/karamani)  (thawed to room temperature)
1 large onion cut fine
2 1/2 cups of mixed vegetables (any combination of cauliflower, peas, beans, carrots, corn )
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste
3 bay leaves

 Masala
1 inch piece of cinnamon
2 whole green cardamom
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 dry red chilies (or to taste)

Grind together the ingredients mentioned under masala, to a fine powder and keep aside.

Cook the black eyed peas on the stove top or microwave until it is half cooked, just a little soft but not very soft. Keep this aside
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In a small pan, heat oil, add onions to it and saute until onions are transparent.Add the vegetables and stir them for a few minutes. Add the ground masala powder and stir a few times.

Place this sauteed vegetables, bay leaves, salt to taste and the soaked rice along with the rice soak water in the rice cooker container, place in rice cooker and set to brown rice setting.

When done, gently mix everything lightly and serve hot with curry of choice/ dhal / raita

Notes:
If you want to use dry black eyed peas , soak them in sufficient water for 6 to 8 hours. Drain water and semi cook them until almost done and proceed with the recipe as above.

You can make this with white basmati as well, just substitute with the same quantity of white basmati with water in the proportion of 1 : 1.5 or according to your manufacturers directions and set your rice cooker to the white rice setting.

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Slow Cooker Bisi Bele Bhath ~ One dish meal with rice, lentils and veggies

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The slow cooker is turning out to be quite useful in my kitchen. When I first bought it, I thought I would use it mainly for dishes like dhals, rajma and payasams/Kheers, which need slow cooking and a lot more attention on the stove top than I am willing to devote to it. I never really thought I would end up using it to make rice dishes like bisi bele bhath. Bisi bele bhath is a traditional dish from southern India made with rice, lentils and vegetables. It is a perfect one dish meal and quite filling especially when made with brown rice instead of white rice. My stove top version of this dish can be found here

This dish requires the rice and lentils to be well cooked making it the ideal for the slow cooker. The first time I made this in the slow cooker, I cooked the rice and lentils entirely in the slow cooker and it took me about 5 to 6 hours to complete it. But the last couple of times I made this in the slow cooker, I pre cook the rice and lentils a little and then use the slow cooker, this reduces the slow cooker time to just around three hours making it perfect for weekend lunches, when I can set it and go about my errands and find lunch ready when I return :-)




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Ingredients and Method to make Slow Cooker Bisi Bele Bhath
1 1/2 cups brown rice (or white rice, see notes)
3/4 cup split pigeon peas (tur dhal/ tuvaram parappu)
small lime sized tamarind soaked in sufficient water to submerge the tamarind (imli/puli)

1 large onion cut into 1/2 inch pieces or 2 handfuls of pearl onions/ shallots (pyaaz vengayam)
2 carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
7-8 small Indian eggplants cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup fresh or frozen green peas (optional)
(or about 2 to 3 cups of any other combination of vegetables like cauliflower, beans,peas etc)

2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ sarson/ kadagu)
1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing/ perungayam)

For the masala
1 Tbsp split yellow chick pea lentil (chana dhal/ kadalai parappu)
1 Tbsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
2 Tbsp coriander seeds (dhania/ kothamalli virai)


12 2  inch pieces of dry coconut (copra) or 1/4 cup fresh grated coconut

5 dry red chilies or to taste

Place rice and tur dhal in a large container, fill with water and swirl with hand a couple of times, then drain. Fill with 4 cups of water and let the rice and lentils soak for about 30 minutes.

Soak the tamarind in sufficient water for about 15 to 20 minutes, when soft, press tamarind and extract juice from it. Repeat once or twice until all the juice from the tamarind is extracted. Discard the pulp and seeds. I got about 2 1/2 cups of tamarind juice.

Dry roast the ingredients mentioned under masala until reddish and aromatic separately . If you are using fresh grated coconut instead of dry coconut, dry roast the fresh coconut separately until it turns reddish.Cool to room temperature and grind to a fine powder. If you are using fresh coconut, powder all the other ingredients, except the coconut and then add coconut too and powder again.

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Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add mustard seeds to it, when the seeds start to splutter, add asafoetida powder and stir for a few seconds. Add onion and saute until transparent. Add other vegetables and saute for a few minutes, not long enough to cook them just enough to start the process of cooking. Remove vegetables and place in container.

In the same pan, add tamarind juice and rice + lentils and the water it is soaked in and allow to come to a boil, then lower heat and allow the rice + lentils to cook for 15 to 20 minutes until at least half of the water has evaporated and the lentils and rice are half cooked and the tamarind has lost its raw flavor.

Remove and place the rice + lentils in the slow cooker, add vegetables, 2 cups of water and allow to cook on high for 3 hours. Add ground masala powder and salt to taste at half way point and stir a couple of times in between to ensure even cooking. Check to see if there is enough water and add more at half point if required.

Serve hot with chips/ papad, boondi raita or just enjoy it on its own.

Serves approximately 3 to 4

Suggested variation:
You can reduce the red chili by 1 and add 1/2 tsp of whole black pepper instead for the masala.

Notes
You can use white rice instead of brown basmati, but in that case you may need to set the slow cooker for lesser than 3 hours since white rice cooks faster than brown rice.

The masala can be made a day or two ahead to make things a bit faster when actually preparing the dish. Store bought masala can be substituted for the ground masala powder but I recommend trying the ground masala at least once, it really makes a huge difference to the taste of the final dish.

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Miloni Tahari (Mixed Vegetable with Rice) in a rice cooker

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Have you met some one who plans their lunch/ dinner menu, days or sometimes even weeks in advance. I really admire such people, it must make life easier in respect to shopping for groceries and such..... I, on the other hand, have never managed to plan my lunch/dinner menu even a few days in advance, let alone weeks. Sometimes I do plan my dinner menu a day or so in advance but that is it, I have never yet planned my menu a week or weeks in advance except if it was for a party or I was entertaining friends or something like that...

Most days this is not a problem, I manage to come up with something that works for us. Sometimes though, I find myself staring at the veggie tray looking for inspiration. As if just by looking at the vegetables, some new recipe is going to somehow telegraph itself from the vegetable to my brain :-) One such day when I was looking for ideas on what to make for Sunday lunch and my brain was refusing to come up with ideas on its own, I turned to a cook book. More precisely Nita Mehta's cookbook on Indian vegetarian cooking. I found two items there that sounded interesting and which I thought would work well together.

The first one was this Mushroom peas curry that I posted sometime back. The second was this rice dish with the name Miloni Tahari. I have never heard of this rice dish before and frankly I have no idea what the two words mean, if any of you know the meaning do share. Anyway the recipe itself sounded very interesting and I decided to try it.  I tweaked the recipe slightly, used brown basmati instead of white, changed the spices a little and made it in the rice cooker instead of the stove top. The result was a very flavorful and delicious rice dish that was a great fit with the curry I mentioned earlier.





Here is another closer view of the mixed vegetable rice.......



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Ingredients and Method to make Miloni tahari

2 cups brown basmati rinsed and soaked in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes (see notes)
1 large carrot cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 head of cauliflower broken into florets
2 med to med large potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup fresh or frozen peas (if frozen thaw to room temperature)

2 tbsp oil
3 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 small bay leaves
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste ( I used approximately 1 1/2 tsp for this quantity)

Grind together
1 large onion
3 medium tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 inch piece of ginger

Grind onion, tomatoes ginger and garlic in a blender or spice grinder to a smooth paste adding only as much water as is required to move the blades. Keep the paste aside.

Heat oil in a medium sized heavy bottomed pan, add the onion tomato paste and saute until it is dry and the onion loses its raw smell.

Add cloves and cinnamon stick and stir a few times.Add vegetables and saute for approximately five minutes or until all the vegetables are semi cooked.

Add garam masala,bay leaves, salt to taste and stir a couple of minutes.

Add these vegetables to the container that goes into the rice cooker. Add the soaked rice with water to the same container. Add lemon juice, mix everything well.
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Then set the rice cooker to either brown rice setting or white rice setting (depending on which rice you use to make this) and forget about it until done :-)

Just before serving, gently fluff up the rice and mix the vegetables if any that are settled at the bottom and serve hot with raita/ curry of choice.


Serves approximately 2 to3

I served this with raita and mushroom peas curry but this rice can be served like pulao with just some raita too.

Notes
You can substitute brown basmati with white basmati too, just follow the same steps as brown basmati. You may need to reduce the quantity of water by quarter to half cup when using white rice since it does not need as much water as brown rice.

Here is the latest bit of humor that had me in splits, check it out if you have a minute.........

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Mixed Vegetable Rice with Sesame seeds and dried Coconut and the answer....

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In my last post I had posed a riddle, the question was.......


What English word retains the same pronunciation even after you take away four of its five letters?

The answer is.................... "Queue".
Some of you promptly guessed the right answer and I was moderating comments on the post, so that the others would get a chance at the riddle too ! Anyway I have published all the comments that contained answers in them now. You can head out there if you are curious to see how many readers got it correct :-)

Moving on, some days I want nothing more than a single dish meal that is nutritious,flavorful,  filling and quick. This variation of savory sesame rice (ellu saadam) that I thought up one day fits the bill perfectly. This rice is more like a cross between coconut rice (thengai saadam) and savory sesame rice (ellu saadam) with a chock full of vegetables to make it more healthy. If you are looking for something quick and flavorful to take to a potluck with a south Indian theme, or are cooking for someone who is avoiding onions and garlic or simply looking to make a one dish meal for dinner, then this is the dish for you :-)





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Ingredients and Method to make Mixed Vegetable Rice with Sesame and Coconut
6 cups of cooked brown basmati rice (see notes)
2 green bell peppers(capsicum) deseeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 head cauliflower cut into florets
1 cup sweet corn kernels (optional)
2 carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (hing/ perungayam)
1 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
1 dry red chili (optional)

For the masala
1 tbsp split yellow chick pea lentil (chana dhal)
1 tbsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
1 tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)
6 tbsp brown sesame seeds (ellu/til)
2 tbsp dried curry leaves
30 1 inch pieces of dried coconut (copra)
5 dry red chilies (or to taste) (see notes)

In a heavy bottomed pan, dry roast each of the ingredients mentioned for the masala separately, chana dhal and udad dhal until they turn light brown/pinkish brown, the coriander seeds until it browns lightly, the sesame seeds until it browns and starts popping,curry leaves for just a few seconds,dried coconut until it browns and red chilies until it starts to turns a little darker. Remove and allow these spices to cool to room temperature.

Using a spice grinder, grind these lentils and spices to a fine powder.Use short bursts of power to do this as over powdering can cause sesame seeds to start lumping.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add udad dhal and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter and udad dhal starts to turn pinkish, add asafoetida powder and dry red chili if using. Stir a few seconds and quickly add bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower and sweet corn kernels.
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Stir vegetables frequently until they are all evenly cooked, yet not mushy.

Add cooked rice, salt to taste and mix well. Add the powdered masala and mix well.

Allow to heat through and serve hot with raita and papad/chips or any type of south Indian curry if you chose.

Notes
You can make this with white basmati rice or white short grained rice too. If you use white rice you may have to lower the amount of dry red chilies used in the masala powder because white rice will not hold as much heat/spice as brown rice.

Use quantity of dry red chilies as per taste, my current batch of red chilies are very mild so even with this quantity of red chilies I only get mildly spiced rice.

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Vegetable Fried Rice ~ Indo Chinese Vegetable Fried Rice

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Indo Chinese cuisine generally refers to an Indianized version of Chinese cuisine. This cuisine is so popular in India that most restaurants serving Indian food around the world offer some kind of Indo Chinese cuisine on their menu. As I mentioned in the past, R is very fond of Indo Chinese cuisine and he is the one who first introduced me to this cuisine. 

The classic combination with vegetable fried rice is usually vegetable manchurian. Manchurian consists of fried vegetable dumplings served with soy sauce based gravy. We love this combination, but I rarely make it any more, mostly because the idea of fried food does not  appeal to me these days , err did I say me? I meant my  weighing scale :-)

Anyway I found a solution to this "problem" when I started baking the dumplings for the manchurian ( I will post the recipe for baked Manchurian this week too) . Now this combination of vegetable fried rice with manchurian has begun to appear more frequently in my menu again :-)

Edited to add : The link to the baked manchurian post can be found here



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Ingredients and Method to make Vegetable Fried Rice
7 cups cooked rice (see notes)
4 cups of finely cut vegetables of choice (cauliflower, beans, carrots, peas, corn, bell pepper/ capsicum)

2 Tbsp oil
2 green chilies cut very fine
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 and 1/2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or to taste)
1/2 Tbsp vinegar (or to taste)
1 Tbsp green chili sauce (optional)
1 Tbsp red chili sauce (chinese style) (see notes)
salt to taste

Optional garnish : 
2 to 3 Tbsp of finely cut spring onions (only the green part)

Pressure cook rice, or cook in the rice cooker until soft  and keep aside. If you are making the rice on the same day, spread on a tray/ plate to cool thoroughly For this recipe, rice has to be really cold, so that it does not break and it retains its texture. So cool the rice thoroughly, or  make rice ahead. You can even use day old rice if you want.

Heat oil in a large wok/ heavy bottomed pan/ kadhai, add green chilies and stir for a few seconds.

Add the minced ginger garlic, stir for a couple of seconds and quickly add in the vegetables.

Keep stirring the vegetables on medium high heat until the vegetables are cooked until tender crisp (they should be cooked but should be firm and retain their shape)

Add the soy sauce, vinegar, red chili sauce, green chili sauce and stir a couple of times.
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Lower heat and add the cooked rice, salt to taste and mix well. Allow the fried rice to heat through, garnish with spring onions if using and serve hot with manchurian or  Indo chinese style steamed vegetables or other veggie dish

Serves approximately 3 to 4

Notes

Rinse the rice a few times in water until the water runs clear, then soak in water.

For this quantity of rice, I soaked 1 and 1/2 cups of basmati rice in 2 and 1/4 cups of water for 30 minutes then cooked it in the rice cooker. I have also used the pressure cooker with the same quantity of rice and water and it turns out fine. The ratio of water to rice is 1.5 cups of water for every 1 cup of basmati rice.

This fried rice can be made with both long grain and short grained rice.  So you can use any short grained rice for this dish too, if you use any other rice soak it for 30 minutes and cook until each grain is cooked yet separate. It is just my personal choice and preference to use basmati for this rice, I find I like the taste and texture of basmati in this style of rice.

For the red chili and green chili sauce, I usually use chings brand and find it tastes good.

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Thai Fried Rice with Pineapple and Brown Rice

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Barely three weeks into spring and we are seeing record breaking heat in the mid nineties in our neck of the woods. It feels like the weather transitioned from winter to summer with no stop in between for spring. And this time more than others I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring, because we had a very bitter winter and I was looking for a little warmer weather to get a break from the chill . Now three weeks into spring, I find myself in the same place, eagerly looking forward to spring, only now I am looking forward to pleasant weather to get a break from the heat :-) Ironical huh ?

Moving on, Thai cuisine appears far more frequently in my kitchen these days, I find that I prefer the homemade version of this cuisine when compared to the restaurant ones. At home I can customize it to our taste, and make it as healthy as possible. This Thai fried rice with pineapple is one of my favorites, it is simple and quick to make, with a touch of sweet from the pineapple and raisins providing a good combination of hot and sweet. If sweet and spicy combination is your thing then this fried rice is something you will surely like...




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Ingredients and method to make Thai fried rice with pineapple
2 cups brown basmati rice soaked in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes

1 large onion cut fine
1 cup green peas (either fresh or frozen)
2 large carrots cut into 1/4 inch pieces (yielded about 1 heaped cup of cut carrots)

3 Thai or Indian green chillies cut very fine (or to taste)
3/4 tsp minced garlic
a sliver of ginger minced
3 Tbsp oil

1/4 cup dark raisins
1 cup pineapple chunks

4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or to taste)
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp vegan red thai curry paste (I used the Thai Kitchen brand since it is vegan)
handful cilantro for garnish

Cook brown basmati rice in a pressure cooker or rice cooker until done and keep aside.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add onion to it and saute until transparent. Then add green chilies, garlic and ginger and stir for a few seconds.

Then add carrots+ peas and keep stirring until the carrots and peas are cooked but should not be mushy. They should be soft but firm.

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Add soy sauce and stir a couple of times, then add raisins and stir for a few seconds until the raisins begin to puff up slightly.

Add pineapple chunks, red thai curry paste, mix well.

Now add cooked rice, salt to taste, sugar and mix well on low heat.

Garnish with cilantro (coriander leaves) and serve hot with choice of thai curry.

Serves approximately 3 to 4

Notes
If you are a vegan or vegetarian, when buying Thai curry paste in the stores, do go through the labels since some of them contain fish sauces in them, make sure the paste you buy is suitable for vegan/ vegetarians

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