Mushroom Pulao

I have served this yummy Pulao for our Christmas Lunch last year, The use of coconut milk added a nice flavor to the dish.

Ingredients:

• Basmati or any fragrant rice - 2 cups
• Mushroom - 1 pack, cut longitudinally
• Raisin - a handful
• Coconut Milk - one pack
• Onion - 2 , chopped
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp each
• Green chilli - as per taste
• Salt, Sugar,
• Whole Garam masala

Clean, wash and soak the rice for 15-20 mins. Clean and chop the mushrooms too. Chop Onions too.
Heat oil in a pan. Add bayleaf, cinnamon, clove and green cardamom. 

When it splutters, add the chopped onion and saute well. Add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw aroma subsides.

Add the chopped Mushroom and saute with a pinch of salt till the Mushrooms are half cooked. 

Add the soaked rice and chopped green chilli. Saute over low heat till the rice is coated with Mushroom masala mixture and become translucent. 

Add a cup of coconut milk and a cup of water and mix well. Cook carefully adjusting the amount of water as required. 

The rice should be cooked through and water should be completely absorbed by the rice.
When almost cooked, add a spoonful of sugar a handful of raisin. Stir carefully not to break the rice.

Keep covered for 15 minutes. Serve with Chicken with Mushroom.

Thor Pulao-Banana Stem Pulao

We Indians are amazing in utilzing anything to its fullest extent. We don't like wasting any part of the food. e.g We don't only eat bananas, we eat its stem and flowers too. The flowers are processed in an elaborate way to make a delicacy known as 'Mochar Ghonto' and the stems, known as 'Thor' in Bengali, are processed and cooked in various ways. One of this is 'Chal Thor' or Thor Pulao. The goodness of Banana Stem with aromatic Gobindabhog rice and Ghee gives a divine combo and makes this dish a winner in the dinner table.

Ingredients

• Thor or Banana stem - 2 pieces
• Gobindabhog / aromatic rice - 1 Cup
• Ginger Paste = 1 tbsp
• Green Chilli - As per taste
• Cashew nut - 1 tbsp
• Raisins - 1 tbsp
• Whole garam masala - Bayleaf, Cinnamon, Cloves, Green Cardamom
• Ghee - 3 tbsp
• Salt, Sugar, Turmeric, 
• Coriander Powder
• Kashmiri Chilli Powder
• 
  

Cut the banana stem into thin strips and steam it lightly. Steaming is not required if the banana stem is tender. Keep aside. In a cup of water, add salt, turmeric, coriander powder, kashmiri chilli powder and ginger paste and mix well. Keep aside.

In a pan, add ghee and when it is hot, add the whole garam masala. Let it sizzle.

Then add the banana stem and mix well. Fry for a minute or two.

Add the masala water and stir to coat the banana stems well.

Next goes the gobindabhog rice. Fry for some time till the rice become opaque.

Then add slitted green chilli and a cup of hot water. Cover with a heavy lid and cook on low heat till the rice and banana stem is cooked. Check the water, if required, give a splash or two. 

The water should be fully absorbed into the rice. When the rice and banana stem is cooked, add salt and a sprinkle of sugar. The dish should be a bit sweetish in nature. Add the dry fruits after soaking it in water for some time.

Mix it and keep covered for 10 minutes. Serve the delicious Chal Thor or Thor pulao as part of typical Bengali Lunch.

sending this post for Kolkata Food Bloggers' Durga Pujo special event:

Ilish Bhate

Can't find an equivalent English name for this dish. You can faintly term it as Ilish Pulao, but for a true Bengali, the 'Ilish Bhate' is the most appropriate name. It is a one pot meal where aromatic gobindobhog rice is slow cooked with ilish machh and some masalas. In the process, fishes are cooked in steam and remain very juicy and soft. 

Ingredients

• Hilsa fish - 4 pieces
• Gobindabhog rice - 1 cup
• Green chilli - as per taste
• Kalojire / kalonji seeds - 1 tsp
• salt
• turmeric
• Cumin powder - a pinch
• Mustard oil

Marinade the fish with salt, turmeric and cumin powder for 15 minutes. Wash the rice and keep aside.

Heat mustard oil in a pan, then fry the fishes for 30 seconds each side. Keep aside.

In the same oil add kalonji seeds with slitted green chilli, let it splutter.

Next add the rice. Fry for 4-5 minutes. Then add salt and turmeric and mix well. Fry till the rice becomes white and opaque.

Add a cup of hot water and cook with the lid on. When rice is 80% done, remove the lid and add the fried fish carefully.

Cover the fishes with rice from the sides and cook again with the lid on. Sprinkle some water, if required. 

Cook till the rice is cooked through and water is evaporated completely. Keep covered for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Egg Biryani

Took a french leave just to be with my dear son! He is growing up so fast, sometimes I just want to sit beside him, help him study, giving him comfort, *sigh*, not always possible for a working mom, you know what I mean !! So the day I was home, I thought to cook something special for him for lunch. But my pantry doesnot have anything exotic, all regular stuffs like the eggs, rice, garam masala, potato, and I was wondering for that 'Special' dish that I can cook for him and suddenly this 'Eureka' plan came to my mind. The kind of biryani lover he is, why not try an unusual Egg biryani?  A quick googling, something from here, something from there, and this lovely dish is born. And that happy face....

Ingredients

• Basmati rice - 1 and 1/2 Cup
• Eggs - 3, I have used duck eggs
• Potatoes - 2, halved
• Onion - 1 cup, sliced
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
• Curd - 3 tbsp
• Fresh Mint leaves - a handful
• Biryani masala - 1 tbsp
• Green chilli, chopped, as per taste
• Rose water - 1/4 tsp
• Keora water - 1/8 tsp
• Oil
• Ghee
• Milk - 1 small cup
• Safron strands - a few
• Bayleaf 

Boil the eggs with potatoes. Shell and make 3-4 slits on the eggs. Sprinkle some salt, turmeric and kashmiri chilli powder and keep aside.

Cook the rice with a bayleaf till it is 3/4th done. Drain the water and cool it immediately by spreading.
Fry the marinated eggs and potatoes till brown and remove from heat.

In the same oil, fry half of the chopped onions with a pinch of salt and sugar till crisp. Keep aside.

Add some more oil to the pan, if required. Fry the remaining onions with pinch of salt and sugar till golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste and fry. Next add the chopped green chilli.

When the raw smell is gone, add the curd and fresh mint leaves.

When the curd is incorporated well, add kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric and 3/4th of Biryani masala and continue frying with a splash of water.

Next goes the fried eggs and potatoes. Mix well with a splash of water and cook for 5 minutes till oil comes out. Adjust the seasoning.

In a cup of milk, soak the saffron. Add keora water and rose water and mix well. 

Mix salt, sugar and ghee to the rice in a light hand and keep aside. Make sure the rice don't break.

For the final part, to arrange for biryani, take a heavy bottomed pan and smear ghee all over. Now make a layer of rice at the bottom. Put half of the egg potato mixture along with masalas and fried oniosn. Sprinkle a pinch of biryani masala too.

Put another layer of rice onto it, then again put egg masala and finally the rice. The idea is, the top and bottom layer should always be rice. Sprinkle the remaining fried onions. Now carefully pour the saffron infused milk all over the rice.

Seal the pan with aluminium foil, put a lid with a weight and keep it on low flame for 20 -25 minutes. The rice will be cooked of its own steam.

Remove from heat and serve with Vegetable Raita or Burhani.