Vegetable pulav

This is Venkatesh’s recipe, few years back when i was still learning the basics of cooking he taught me how to make this pulav. I loved it so much that i make it atleast once a month. What makes this pulav special is we grind our spices fresh right before we make the pulav. Whenever we have family or friends coming over I make this pulav and everyone enjoys it as much as we do. Cucumber raita compliments this spicy pulav very well.

You need:
(Serves 2 to 3 people)

• 1 cup Basmati Rice
• 2 cups of veggies ( beans, potato, peas, carrot and cauliflower)
Roughly about- 15 to 20 beans, 1 medium potato. ¼ cup green peas, 1 carrot and 6 florets of cauliflower)
• ½ cup chopped tomato
• Chopped medium sized onion - 1/2
• Vegetable oil- 3 tbsps
• Lemon juice and salt.
• Water- 1 3/4th cup

Dry spices:

• Small bay leaves- 4
• Cardamom- 4
• ½ inch Cinnamon stick or 1/ 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• Cloves- 6
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Coriander seeds- 1 ½ tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4th tsp

Wet masala ingredients:

• Small green chillies- 6
• Fresh coconut- 3 tbsps
• Garlic cloves- 3
• Ginger – ½ inc long
• Chopped Fresh mint- 2 tbsps
• Chopped cilantro- 1 tsp

If you happen to have ginger garlic paste from store you can use ½ tsp of it.

For tempering:

Few cashews fried in oil/ ghee.

Procedure:

Grind all the dry spices except for bay leaves and keep it a side.

Now grind the wet ingredients with little bit of water (just measure how much water you have used for grinding and reduce that amount while adding water for rice, the point is the total water amount should be not be more than 1 3/4th cup. Otherwise the pulav will become too soft).

Now in a skillet add the oil, once it’s hot add the bay leaves and onion. Cook for 3 minutes till onion becomes little soft. Now add the beans and cook for a minute. Then add the dry spices, fry for 30 seconds and add the chopped tomato. Cook for 2 minutes and then add the other veggies accompanied by wet ingredients. Add some salt and let the whole mixture cook for 10 minutes in medium heat.

Then add the basmati rice with water, and stir the whole mixture together. You can finish cooking in the same pot, but I generally transfer this whole mixture to a rice cooker and I finish cooking my pulav in there.

Meanwhile in a small pan add some ghee and fry the cashews.
Sometimes I also add bread to my pulav. What I do is I cut the white bread into small cubes and fry them in little bit of oil (it will look like croutons).

Once the pulav is done, let it rest for 10 minutes, then add the fried cashew, bread and lemon juice. Taste and re season accordingly and enjoy the pulav with cucumber raita.

Note:
• Beans take more time to cook then the other veggies. So its important to add beans in the beginning itself.
• You can reduce the amount of mint, If you dont want your pulav to look too green.
• In case you do want to add the fried bread, make sure its nice and crisp.

Recipe: Venkatesh

Coconut Pulav

My best friend Sandhya visited me this weekend from Seattle. After moving to U.S we have been constantly talking via phone, but we never met. After a span of seven years, she made the move to visit me. We are friends since our college days in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. We were very happy to see each other after such a long time. Though the journey was a rollercoaster (she spent about 17 hrs traveling because of the bad weather in Philly), we had such a good time and the three days went by so fast.

Instead of me cooking for her, she ended up handling my kitchen. She made this Coconut pulav, which was so good in taste and flavor that I am totally addicted to it now.

To go with the Coconut pulav Sandhya made Potato kurma. Kurma was just the perfect match made for this scrumptious pulav.

Coconut Pulav Recipe:
(Serves 3 to 4 people)

• Basmati Rice- 2 cups
• Coconut milk- 2cups
• Water- 1 1/4 cups
• A big bunch of mint and coriander leaves (chopped finely)
• Green chilies- 4
• Medium tomatoes – 3
• Cloves- 5
• Cardamom- 4 to 5
• Whole Black pepper- 7
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• Small bay leaves- 6
• Ginger garlic paste- 1tsp
• Onion- 1

Soak the basmati rice in water for 30 minutes.

In a pot put few teaspoons of oil, add the cloves, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Fry for few seconds then add the green chillie and onion and cook till the onion becomes soft. Now add the ginger garlic paste. After a minute add the tomato and cook till they become nice and soft.

Add the chopped mint, cilantro and cook for couple of minutes. Now add the rice and cook for five minutes, so that the rice can absorb the flavors of all the spices. Then add the coconut milk with water and salt and let it come to a boil.

At this point you can finish cooking the pulav in the same pan or you can transfer the whole thing to a rice cooker and finish the cooking in there.

We finished our pulav in a rice cooker. I prefer it this way, I just feel this way I don’t have to keep an eye on pulav while cooking.

Sandhya generally finish cooking her pulav in the same pan. (Instead of 1 1/4 cups of water she adds 2 cups of water)

Once the pulav is done, let it sit for few minutes before serving.

Enjoy this pulav with the potato kurma.
( will be posting the recipe for potato kurma soon)

Thank you Sandhya for such a great recipe.

Recipe: Sandhya

Vangi bath (Eggplant rice)

The cuisine of Karnataka has some interesting and unique dishes . To name a few- Bisibele Bath, Saaru, Vangi Bath, Khara Bath, Akki Rotti, Ragi mudde and uppittu. Though these dishes are made in all parts of India, I still  feel these have very unique flavor and taste when eaten in Karnataka.

I came to know more about Karnataka cuisine only after i got married to Venkatesh.  Among the dishes mentioned above, i make bisebele bath and vangi bath more often. The great thing about making the bisebela bath and vangi bath is, the pre made spice powder. Having this masala powder handy makes these dishes very simple in making and most of all less time consuming. I generally get the home made masala powder made by my co-sister from India. This masala powder can be easily found in any Indian grocery store.

Note: In my in-laws house, we use the same masala powder for both bisebele bath and vangi bath.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice (uncooked)
• 6 small brinjals or 1 medium italian egg plant
• 2 tsp vangi bath powder
• curry leaves
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt

Procedure:

Cook the rice with 2 cups of water.

Cut the brinjals 1/2 inch lenght wise. For reference see the picture below.

Take a large non-stick skillet put 3 tbsps of oil, few mustard seeds, few curry leaves and then add the brinjal with some salt. Cook till the brinjal becomes tender. Now add 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp vangi bath powder and just cook for a minute and then turn of the stove.

After five minutes remove the brinjal mixture from the skillet and place in a plate. Now in the same skillet put the rice with 3 tsps of oil, 1 tsp of vangi bath powder,1/2 tsp of salt and lemon juice. Gently mix all the ingredients, with out breaking the rice.

Once the spices are well incorporated in the rice, add the brinjal mixture to the rice and mix it well. Taste and reseason accordingly.

Its ok to add the oil and vangi bath powder directly to the rice. The hot rice takes away the raw smell from the oil and also cooks the spice powder. This trick is something i learned from my sister in-law.

                                           Cooked brinjal

Mixing oil, vangi bath powder, lemon juice and salt to the rice

                                            Vangi bath

Recipe: Venkatesh’s family

Vangi bath masala powder:

(I got this recipe from a cook book)

• chana dal- 3 tsp
• urad dal- 3 tsp
• fenugreek (methi seeds)- about 4 seeds
• dry coconut- 3 tsps
• red chillies- 5 to 6
• jeera (cumin)- 1 tsp
• coriander seeds- 1 tsp
• cloves- 2
• cardamom- 1
• cinammon stick- a small piece

Fry all the above ingredients in 1 tsp oil. Grind to a smooth paste and use 2 tsps of this mixtue for the vangi bath.

Mango rice (Maamidikaya puliharam)

Mango is one of my favourite fruits. I like it both sweet and sour. I remember eating sour mango all the time when i was in India, with some salt and chillie powder. I am very fond of sour food and so obviously this rice is one of my favourites. We call it maamidikaya puliharam in andhra. I look forward to cooking this rice from summer through fall, when the mangos are at their peak in taste and flavor. In the weekend when i was in the Indian store i managed to get some nice sour mangos, so thought of making it.

Such a simple recipe but so versatile in its flavor, taste and smell.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice (uncooked)
• 1 large green mango (grated)
• about 8 green chillies
• few curry leaves
• cilantro
• peanuts and
• salt

Procedure:

• Cook the rice with two cups of water. Remove the lid and let the rice dry a little bit.
• Grate the mango using a food processor or any other grater you have.
• In a pan put some oil and fry the peanuts till they become crisp. Once done, remove and keep them a side.
• In the same pan add few more tsps of vegetable oil and prepare the popu or tadka( few mustard seeds, 1 tsp chana dal, 1/2 tsp urad dal, few curry leaves and three pinches of Asafetida ).

.

• Now add the green chillies. once the chillies are fried add the grated mango , cook just for a minute and turn off the heat.
• Add the peanuts, cooked rice, cilantro and salt to the above mixture and serve.

Note: If the mango is not sour, you can add some lemon juice to the rice.

  Recipe: amma

Vermicelli pulav (Semiya pulav)

 This is one of my favourite breakfast items which my mom used to make. It’s mostly like a vegetable pulav, but unlike a regular pulav where we make it pretty spicy, semiya pulav is little milder. It has the chillies and spices but I make sure the spices are not overpowered. It goes well with the Perugu pachadi (Raita) which I make with cucumbers and tomatoes.

Ingredients: 

Vermicelli – 1 ½ cup

Green beans- ½ cup

Med size carrot- 1

Peas and lima beans – ½ cup together

Small potatoe-1

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp

Med green chilies- 4 to 5

Large onion-1

Bay leaves -3

Cinnamon sticks-2

Cloves-5

Cardamom-3

Cilantro

Lemon

Few cashews (optional)

Procedure:

In a skillet add half teaspoon of oil and vermicelli and fry them for about 5 minutes. When the vermicelli is changing color remove and keep it on the side. Now grind one cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom to fine powder.

Now turn the skillet (to med heat) on by putting 4 teaspoons of oil, and then add bay leaves and the other cinnamon stick. After few seconds add the chilies, onion and the ginger garlic paste. Once the onion becomes little soft add the spice powder so that the hot oil brings out the flavor of the spices. Now add all the veggies and ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook the veggies for about 10 minutes.

Pour 2 ½ cups of water and cook the veggies in medium heat for about 10 minutes till they become soft. Now add the vermicelli and ½ teaspoon of salt and stir it cooking in a medium low heat for another 10 minutes. Once all the water is absorbed and the vermicelli is cooked threw add chopped cilantro and freshly squeezed lemon juice. You can also fry some cashews in oil and add to the pulav.

             

                                          Vermicelli pulav with cucumber raita

Recipe: amma

Depending upon the level of spice, you can either increase or decrease the quantity of spices and the chillies. The recipe which I gave proportionately gives a medium spice pulav.