Green Peas Pulav with Toor Dal for Taste & Create

Dear All, First of all, here's wishing you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi, may lord ganesha bring happiness and wealth to everyone!

For this month's Taste & Create I was paired up with the very talented Shaista Tabrez from MixCalculations. She has some really good collection of recipes so do check out her blog. I chose to make Green Peas Pulav and Toor Dal from here blog and I am so glad both turned out fantastic. It was a perfect sunday night dinner for me and so simple to make! I did make few changes to the original recipe like omotting garlic in the pulav and addition of jaggery in dal. The recipe below will serve 4. This entry is off to Taste&Create event started by Nicole of ForTheLoveOfFood and is hosted by Min of BadGirlsKitchen Green Peas Pulav is also off to Chaitra's RiceFeast event and Toor Dal is off to MyLegumeLoveAffair-14 hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. Nandini and Ammu both have passed the below awards to me, thank you dears, thats very sweet of you gals. Ingredients for Peas Pulav: 1 cup basmati rice soaked in water for 30 mins 1/2 frozen cup green peas 1 medium onion thinly sliced 2 green chillies slit 2 Bay Leaf 1 cinnamon stick 2 whole star anise 2 tbsp cashewnuts 3 cardamon pods 3 cloves 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp butter 1 tsp oil

Salt to taste 2 cups water Procedure for Peas Pulav:

• In a heavy bottom pan heat together butter and oil, add in cashews and sliced onions.
• Fry them for 3-4 mins until golden brown. Remove them and keep aside.
• In the same pan add in cardamon pods, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds and slit green chillies. Saute for 2 mins.
• Now add in the rice, green peas, salt and water.
• Cover and cook until the rice is cooked properly.
• Garnish with brown onions and cashews.
• Serve hot with dal or raita.

Ingredients for Toor Dal: 1 cup toor dal (Yellow pigeon peas) 2 medium onions finely chopped 2 tsp ghee (clarified butter) 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp mustard seeds 2 cloves 2 green chillies slit 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp jaggery Salt to taste Procedure to make Toor Dal:

• Pressure cook toor dal along with turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder. Add enough water about 2 cups.
• In a vessel, heat ghee, add in cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cloves , split green chillies, ginger paste and onions.
• Saute onions for 3 to 4 mins, until they are lightly browned.
• Now add in the cooked toor dal and jaggery along with little water if the dal is too thick. Simmer on medium heat for another 5 to 6 mins.
• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.
• I had some left over onions and cashews so i used the same for garnishing.

Broccoli Pulav

Last few days have been crazy, tight schedules, meetings and loads of work had kept me busy and away from blogging. This will go on for a while but i'll try and post few recipes weekly. Few days back I made this amazingly easy and delicious broccoli pulav. I wasnt familiar with Broccoli until few years back. For a common man in india broccoli is hardly used in their daily diets, even in a city like Bombay broccoli's are considered to be rich man's food as they are very expensive, although this scenario has changed over a period of time. As we all know broccoli is member of cabbage family and closely related to cauliflower. It was originated in Italy, "Broccolo" its italian name means "cabbage sprout". Did you know Broccoli fights against various cancers like ovarian cancer, blaader cancer and when teamed up with tomatoes it helps to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. It also helps to detoxification of body cells, helps in sun damaged skin and also makes bones stronger. You can find the detailed health benefits here. Broccoli by itself does not taste that good, personally i like my broccoli with spices. The recipe below serves two and I would suggest to use fresh broccoli florets.

Ingredients:

I big broccoli , chopped into small florets

1 cup rice washed and soaked for 30 mins

1 bunch of spring onions finely chopped

2 green chillies slit

1 tsp ghee

1 bay leaf

3 cardamon (elaichi) roughy crushed

1 small cinnamon stick

4-5 whole peppercorns

1/2 tsp pulav or biryani masala

1/2 tsp lime juice

1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

Salt to taste

2 cups warm water

Procedure:

• Heat a tsp of ghee in a vessel, add in chillies, peppercorns, cinnamon,bay leaf and cardamon seeds. Saute for few seconds.
• Now add in the chopped spring onions (keep little aside for garnishing) and broccoli florets and saute for few mins.
• Season with salt, sugar, pulav or biryani masala and mix well.
• Add in the soaked rice and water, cover and cook for 15 to 20 mins until rice is cooked.
• Drizzle some lime juice and garnish with spring onions.
• Serve hot with plain curd or any raita.

Saffron Rice - A Classic

The moment Nags announced the Monthly Mingle theme as "Ravishing Rice" the only dish came to my mind was "Saffron Rice". I have made this many times and it has always been a hit in my house, never had any left overs with this dish. In indian restaurants this dish is the most expensive one with the use of saffron and dry fruits in it. I have always liked the home made versions better than the restaurant ones, ofcourse there are always few exceptions. This dish is very easy to prepare and results are outstanding. Recently I had been to london on a short trip and i got many small boxes of saffron from there. You get very good quality saffron in UK at very reasonable price and I always ask my friends and relatives to get some for me when they are visiting. Saffron should be stored in cool and dry place and it stays fresh for years. I love this herb, i use it in desserts, veggies and even in my face packs :) Saffron may seem to be very expensive but one little dab of this delectable herb is needed to make something classy and spectacular. I simply adore the aroma and flavor saffron brings out in the food making it so exotic and delicious. Sending this to Monthly Mingle : Ravishing Rice guest hosted for this month by Nags of Edible Garden, master mind of Meeta. Hema from Salt to Taste as passed "I Love Your Blog" award to me, thank you so much girl, it means a lot to me.

Ingredients: 1 cup basmati rice 1/2 cup milk 1/2 tsp saffron strands 8-10 cashews cut into half 10-15 raisins 1 onion sliced thinly 1/2 cup chopped carrots and green peas 5-6 cardamon pods (elaichi) broken 2 small cinnamon sticks 2 green chillies slit 4-5 whole peppercorns 2 small bay leaf 1 tbsp ghee Salt to taste 1 1/2 cups of water Procedure:

• Wash and soak the basmati rice in cold water for about half an hour.
• Warm the 1/2 cup of milk and add the saffron strands and let it sit for 5 mins.
• In a big vessel, preferrably non stick heat ghee, add in cardamon, bay leaf, pepper corns, slit green chillies, cinnamon sticks, cashews and raisins.
• Saute the dry fruits for about a min, now add in sliced onions and saute for another 2 mins.
• Now add in soaked rice, carrots and peas and saute for another 2 mins. Rice grains should be nicely covered with ghee.
• Mix together saffron milk and 1 1/2 cups of water and add in the rice.
• Season the rice with salt to your taste and cook on medium slow heat for about 15-20 mins.
• Make sure you donot add more water as we dont want to make rice mushy.
• Garnish with few saffron strands and fresh coriander.
• Serve hot with raita and pickle.

Masala Khichdi

Khichdi, its one of the most simplest and easiest to make. You can never go wrong in making khichdi. I remember when i had started cooking way back when i was in school one of the dishes I learnt first was khichdi. Its said to be mild for stomach and considered to be a comfort food. Most of the doctors suggest to eat khichdi in sickness. Khichdi is very famous in gujaratis and we prepare it almost once or twice a week. Its best for bachelors and when you need something in jiffy as this dish can be prepared in minutes. Traditionally khichdi is prepared using Toor Dal and Rice and its mildly spiced with salt and turmeric powder. Spoonfuls of ghee is drizzled over it and served with Kadhi. I know lot of you out there must be thinking about the extra calories, but believe me its all worth it :) I have prepared this dish using split green gram lentils and added whole spices and masalas, hence the name Masala Khichdi. The recipe below serves 2. This is my fourth entry to Single Serving Recipes event started by Sahaja of SpicyRasam. Ingredients: 2/3 cup rice 1/3 cup split green gram 1 big red onion chopped finely 2 tbsp peanuts 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp red chillie powder 1/2 tsp garam masala powder For tempering: 1 tbsp oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 3 whole cardamon pods split into half 1 stick cinnamon 3-4 whole black peppers 1 bay leaf 2-3 anise flowers 2-3 cloves 2 dry red chillis broken into half 1 pinch asafoetida

Procedure:

• Wash the rice and green gram together, keep it aside.
• In a pressure cooker, heat the oil add cumin seeds, elaichi, black peppers, cinnamon, dry red chillies, bay leaf, star anise, cloves and asafoetida.
• When cumin seeds start spluttering, add in peanuts and saute for about 2 mins.
• Now add in onions, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and salt. Saute the mixture for about 5 mins.
• Add the rice and green gram along with 2 1/2 cups of water. Pressure cook on medium for about 3 to 4 whistles or until cooked.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with curd.

The best part about this dish is that you can eat it just as it is without any side dish, its a whole meal in itself. I like mine with pickle and curd.

Variations: You can also add in some veggies like carrots, green peas cauliflower etc to give it a healthier touch.