Beetroot Aur Mewa Pulao ~ Arusuvai Friendship Chain Season II Recipe

Arusuvai friendship chain season II is back. Thanks to Sayantani for reviving it. This friendship chain was kick started by Lathamma and Srivalli and Bharthi took it forward. In the first season, I received the mystery ingredient from Gaurav and I had sent to Harini/Sunshinemom. And I am glad I could be a part of this during the second season too. 

I received a lovely parcel from Veena . She sent me a lovely recipe book along with a hand written letter. Thank you so much, Veena. The book that came with the ingredient is right for the season with summer recipes from Chef. Sanjeev Kapoor. Veena mailed me saying she forgot to scratch the ingredient name in the hurry to mail the parcel. So asked me to take a guess at the ingredient with out looking at the label. On the first look, I thought it to be dried dates. But on closer look, I knew it was apricot. I made two dishes using the apricot. I made a pulao and had packed it for my husband's lunch box.  My  husband who doesn't give a feedback unless asked for, remembered to tell me the lunch was good, when he was back  from office. 

I followed the recipe from here and had scaled down the ingredients quantity to suit the amount of rice I had
taken.

You need

• Basmati rice/ any long grain rice - 1 cup (I used Surti Kolam)
• Water - 2 cups
• Beetroot - 2 small ones
• Ghee - 2 tblspn
• Pepper - 15 nos
• Bay leaves - 2 nos, torn
• Onions - 2 medium, julienned
• Raisins - 2 tblspn
• Almonds,cashews - 10 each
• Apricot - 5 nos, quartered
• Fig - 5 nos
• Garam masala - 1/2 tspn
• Mint leaves - 10 nos
• Salt to taste

Method

Wash and soak rice in 2 cups of water for half an hour. Heat ghee in a kadai or thick bottomed vessel. I used pressure cooker vessel. Add pepper,bay leaf and onions. When onions turn pink, add raisins, cashew, almonds, fig and apricot. Saute for few seconds. Drain the rice and reserve the water.Add rice, saute for three  minutes and then add the drained 2 cups of water.  Bring it to a boil. Add salt, garam masala and torn mint leaves. Cover and cook on a medium heat. When the rice is half cooked, add the grated beetroot and gently mix. Cover and continue to cook till it is done.

After adding the grated beets, don't mix it thoroughly. Give a gentle mix so that the rice doesn't turn red fully. And you will have shades of light red and dark red in rice as shown in the original recipe. I gave a thorough mix only to realise later what the 'mix lightly' in the recipe intended. This is only for the visual appeal and doesn't affect the taste at all.

If you find the water is less, you can add little amount of water so that it cooks well and also doesn't get stuck at the bottom.

This dried fruits and nuts beet pulao  along with a bowl of raita and roasted potatoes made a tasty lunch. The pulao did not taste on the sweet side even with the beet and the dried fruits added to it. The pepper sufficiently balances the taste.

P.S. Sayantani could not assign any blogger so that I can send the ingredient and keep the chain going. She says she either doesn't have the confirmation or the address of the blogger to give me. So, if any of you would  like to receive from me, please send your mailing address to Sayantani at -  ahomemakersdiary@yahoo.in. You can leave a comment here and I shall co-ordinate with Sayantani and get in touch with you.

Vegetable Pulao - One Pot Meal

One pot meals make a quick and filling lunch or dinner. Since its winter here, its mostly phulkas for dinner. Once in a while, I make this pulao for dinner. Pulao when served hot with a side of pickle and chips is always welcome. A medley of vegetables and spices with rice cooked in a pressure cooker makes a quick meal too.  I don't stick to this recipe every time I make pulao. But this is the basic recipe and I make changes according to my mood like adding some coconut milk or tomato puree etc. The vegetables that go in also add up to the taste of the pulao. The aroma when the cooker is opened, is enticing enough to bring your family to the table.

You need

• Long grain rice/Basmati rice - 1 cup
• Chopped Vegetables - 1 cup (carrot,french beans, potato, peas)
• Red chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
• Salt - 1/2 tspn

 To ground to paste

•  Green chilly - 2 nos
• Ginger - 1" piece
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Garlic - 2 pods
• Onion - 1

For Seasoning

• Ghee/butter - 1 tblspn
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Fennel seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Cloves - 4 nos
• Cinnamon -1" stick 2nos
• Bay leaf - 1 no
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Method

Wash and soak rice in 2 cups of water for half an hour. Make a paste of the ingredients under to made to paste. Don't add water. Moisture from the onion is enough to make the paste.

Heat a pressure cooker. Add ghee or butter. When hot, add the seasoning ingredients. When the seeds turn light brown, add the ground paste. Saute till the raw smell goes. Tip in the chopped veggies and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the water from rice and reserve the water. Add rice and continue to saute. Add chilli powder and salt and the reserved water. Stir well. Close the pressure cooker and cook for two whistles and cook in the lowest flame for 5 minutes or till another whistle blows. When the pressure is fully released, gently fluff with a fork. Check salt and add if needed.  Serve with some chips or raitha.

To make it more rich,you can add  julienned  and sauteed onions till brown, roasted cashews and raisins too.

Poha BisiBeleBath

During our last trip to Mumbai, we made it to Shirdi too. On our return trip to Mumbai from Shirdi, we travelled by the day bus and reached my uncle's house at 10 p.m. We were all tired by the journey and just wanted to have some curd rice (That's the comfort meal especially after a tiresome journey) and hit the bed right away. Our bus was expected to reach by 8:30 p.m. Lalitha mami had made bisibele bath (BBB) and curd rice for dinner. As I said we were in no mood to relish BBB. On first look, the texture of BBB was different and with the taste of the first morsel, I asked what went in the BBB. It was made of poha. Poha has blended in well. I felt BBB with poha was light on stomach too. Here is my version of it with poha. I have followed the same method as I did with broken wheat before.

I washed and pressure cooked poha for 2 whistle. Just add enough water to moisten the poha. Take care to use the thick variety of poha.  Else it will get dissolved on cooking. I used the thick brown variety which is more nutritious too.

I used two cups of poha. Rest of the ingredients are same. The quantity was enough to serve 4. On my first attempt I didnot pressure cook the poha. I soaked it for 15 minutes and drained it. I mixed it along with the veggies and cooked. I felt the poha was dry and not soft and the pressure cooked method gives soft poha and it blends well. You can choose to MW also.

Spinach Carrot Pulao & Paneer Fry

One dish meal is always a life saver. Served with a simple raita, can make a very good satisfying meal. This pulao can be made in a jiffy. Not much chopping required. If you have the chopped veggies at hand, this is very simple and no grinding of masalas needed. I wanted to make a tasty one dish meal with minimum work and finally it turned out to be the way I wanted. It was very flavorful with the whole spices and crunchy while biting into the crisp carrots.

Ingredients

Chopped spinach - 2 cups Carrots chopped into small cubes - 1/2 cup Rice - 1 cup Onions sliced - 1 nos Red chilly powder - 1/4 tspn Ghee/oil - 1 tblspn saunf - 1 tspn Cardamom - 2 pods Cloves - 3 nos Cinnamom - 1" Poppy seeds - 1/2 tspn Wash and soak the rice in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes. If you are hard pressed for time, you can avoid soaking. Still it comes out well. Heat ghee/oil in a pan. Add all the spices. Roast till fragrant. Add sliced onion and suate till they turn pink. Add chopped carrots and cook till it is tender but crisp. Add chopped spinach and cook till the they wilt. Drain the rice and reserve the soaked water. Tip off the soaked rice. Saute for 5 minutes. Add salt and red chilly powder. Add the reserved water. Cover and cook in the same kadai. Stir the rice in between. Rice will be cooked in 20 minutes. You can either microwave for 25 minutes or pressure cook for 2 whistles. I have served with MW roasted papad, pan roasted paneer and cucumber raita. Cucumber Raita Grated cucumber, 3 slit green chillies, a teaspoon of jeera/cumin powder and salt is mixed to a cup of whipped curd. Garnish with some chopped coriander. Paneer fry Cubed paneer - 15 nos For marinade Hung curd - 1 tblspn Tomato sauce - 1 1/2 tblspn Pepper powder - 1/2 tspn salt Beat all the ingredients of marinade till smooth. Marinate the paneer for 30 minutes. Sprinkle few drops of oil on a tawa. Place the paneer pieces and cook on low flame. When one side is browned, flip the paneer and cook the other side too. This makes a good starter too. Spinach Carrot Pulao is going to Srivalli's Rice Mela JFI:Carrots hosted by The Cooker Sapadu Ready Event hosted by Aartee of Nalabagham

Wheat in Bisibelebath and a salad

Bisibelebath with broken wheat

I use broken wheat for making pradhaman. Other than that it doesn't feature in our regular menu. So when bought for making payasam, usually there will be left over, since only a small quantity is required for the preparation. When I had some broken wheat to be used up, I was thinking of recipe where I can replace rice with wheat. I had posted pongal with wheat before. The next trial was making bisibelebath out of broken wheat. Broken wheat is not the same as wheat rava. This is coarser. Believe, broken wheat made good substitution for rice. Unless told, you cannot make out the difference. From then, I have been regularly including broken wheat in my shopping list.

Only when I searched my archived to link this to bisibelebath post, did I realise, that I haven't posted the recipe yet. So here is my recipe.

Broken wheat - 1 cup ( Usually rice is used)

Toor dal - 1/2 cup

peas(fresh/dried) -1/2 cup

chopped veggies - 1 1/2 cups (carrot/beans/potato/capsicum)

shallots/pearl onion - 15 nos

tamarind -small lemon size

sambhar powder - 1tspn (optional)

turmeric powder

salt

Seasoning

Oil

mustard seeds

red chilli - 2 nos

curry leaves

For masala

red chilli - 6 nos

coriander seeds - 1 tspn

cloves - 4

cinnamon - 1" piece

hing - 1/2 tspn

grated coconut -1/4 cup(kopra is preferred.)
If fresh coconut is used, saute them till lightly brown. Grind all the ingredients for the masala to a smooth paste.

Soak tamarind in warm water for 10 minutes and extract pulp.

Wash, broken wheat,dal and peas.If dried peas is used, soak them for 5 hours.Pressure cook them together. Keep it aside

Heat oil in a pan, add the seasoning ingredients. Saute the onions till golden. Add the chopped veggies, turmeric and salt. When it is half cooked, add the tamarind pulp. When the mixture starts boiling, stir in the ground paste and mix well. Cook for 10 minutes. Mix the cooked wheat-dal mixture to the cooking masala and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes till the flavors seep in the wheat-dal combo.Heat one tablespoon of ghee in a seasoning pan. Add a teaspoon of sambhar powder and pour on top the cooking mixture. This step is optional. But it does enhances the flavor of bisibelebath. Remove from fire. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with papad.

Sprouted Wheat berry salad

I buy whole wheat to make dosa. My co-sister always sproutsome of the soaked berries. Ever since she told gave me the idea, whenever I soak berries for dosa, I keep aside a handful of the soaked berries for sprouting and use that in salad. Steam cook the berries before using for salads. These will be chewy, but very tasty. Toss in any veggies(I have used grated cucumber and carrot, onion and tomato) you have and sprinkle some salt, pepper and lime juice and teaspoon of olive oil for dressing. You can have the bowl of healthy salad as a meal by itself or use it in wraps.

Wheat berry salad is my entry to EC's : WYF- salad/soup/starter

Diet friendly bisibelebath and salad is making to Divya's Diet Food Event

Broken wheat kichadi

I had two packets of broken wheat to be used. I remembered reading a pongal recipe using the same. I tried making pongal with some veggies added. It was very bland. So next time decided to make it in the lines of Pongal's counterpart ie. Kichadi. This is a spicier version of Ven-pongal - (rice+ moong dal+cumin+pepper)

broken wheat - 2 cup

moong daal - 1/2 cup

water - 5 cups

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

chili powder - 1 tspn

cumin powder - 1 tspn
black peppercorn - 5nos

cumin seeds - 1 tspn

cinnamon - 1 "

crushed cloves - 3 nos

green chili chopped - 2 nos
Finely chopped veggies - 1 cup

I used onion,carrot and bell pepper. You can use any available veggie.

salt to taste
ghee -1 tblspn

Wash broken wheat and dal together. Take a pressure cooker. Heat a tablespoon of ghee. Add cumin seeds, peppercorn,cinnamon, crushed cloves and green chilli. When cumin seeds splutters, add the chopped veggies. Saute for 3 minutes till onion turns translucent. Add rest of the ingredients - broken wheat, moong dal, turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder. Stir in water. Add salt to taste. Mix well.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles and cook for 5 minutes lowering the flame. Open the cooker, when the pressure is released. Mash with a spatula.
While serving add a dollop of ghee and serve with papad or raita.

Note: Next time, I will increase the turmeric quantity to get a better visual appeal. But for that, it was very tasty and filling.

This complete meal is heading to One Dish Meal Event hosted by Archana