Pulao – a easy to cook rice variety with lesser ingredients yet we get a flavorful dish at the end. Lets prepare it in a rather unknown style and taste it with our relatives and friends.
Ingredients
- Rice – 500 grams
- Onion – 250 grams (Medium sized onions – 3)
- Tomato – 200 grams
- Ghee – 125 ml
- Green Chilli – 3
- Cardamom – 4
- Cinnamon – 2
- Clove – 4
- Black Cardamom – 1
- Salt – 1 tablespoon
- Tamarind – lemon size
- Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tablespoon
- Chilli powder – 1/4 tablespoon
- Water – 800 ml
- Green Peas – 200 grams – If we are buying whole green peas from shop, then need to buy 400 grams, so that when we peel skin and get the beans alone it will weigh around 200 g
Things to be done before we start cooking
- Rinse 500 grams of basmati rice in clean water – wash the rice and drain the water – repeat the process again to clean the rice well and drain the water. Now pour a little of water to immerse the rice and keep the bowl aside. Let rice soak.
- Tamarind – take tamarind the size of a lemon and soak it in a bowl with water.
- Green peas – 200 grams, soak it in a bowl with water.
- Peel the skin of 250 grams of onion, chop them into thin slices.
- Peel the skin of 100 grams of ginger and 100 grams of garlic – then grind them together to get the required ‘ginger-garlic’ paste.
- Cut tomato and green chilli to small pieces.
Steps to Prepare
1. Place a pan (3 litres capacity or more) on the stove, turn on the flame to HIGH mode.
2. Put 250 grams of chopped onions into the pan.
3. Pour Ghee – 125 ml. Then add the below and stir well –
- Cardamom – 4
- Cinnamon – 2
- Clove – 4
- Black cardamom – 1
Stir the contents in high flame till onions turn golden brown. Now, turn the flame to LOW mode.
4. Pour 100 ml of water (please be cautious when pouring water into pan as we have hot ghee inside pan – the hot ghee may spray out causing harm to our skin). Stir a little.
5. Close the pan with a lid. Let the contents cook for just 60 seconds. Then remove the lid. Add 2 tablespoons of ginger-garlic paste that we have prepared. Stir well.
6. Add the below –
- Green chilli – 2 (cut into small pieces)
- Tomato – 200 grams (cut into small pieces)
- Chilli powder – ¼ tablespoon
- Salt – 1 and another ¼ tablespoon
Stir well till tomatoes cook well and get smashed to a paste.
7. Now add the green peas (drain water – then add). Stir a little. Then add the tamarind along with the water that was used to soak it. Stir well.
8. Pour 800 ml water, stir well. Close the pan with a lid. Keep the flame in high – once water boils, we need to turn the flame to LOW mode. Let the contents cook in low flame for another 15 minutes.
9. After 15 min, remove the lid, stir gently. Then, add the rice (after draining off water). Mix well and make sure all the rice immerses fully in the water.
10. Now, take a little water from the middle, taste it to check level of salt and spiciness. If needed, we can add a little salt or chilli powder.
11. Turn the flame to high mode, stir gently for some time (say 60 to 75 seconds). Then, turn the flame to LOW mode – close the pan with lid. Make sure the lid has no holes (if small hole is there on top of lid, close it with wet dough). Let the contents get cooked in low flame for the next 10 minutes. (This is the dum process).
12. After 10 minutes, remove the lid, stir gently till bottom. Turn off the flame. Again, close the pan with a lid, let the contents stay in for another 10 minutes. After that remove the lid, and we can serve the dish hot.
