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.
I don't really recall from where did I get the idea from, may be from some recipe book or magazine or may be from the net, but the unusual combination caught my fancy instantly and I have given it a try. Oh boy... it was really delicious.
Ingredients
- Gobindabhog rice - 2 cups
- Mug dal - 3/4 cup
- Musur Dal - 1/2 cup
- Onion - 1, chopped
- Fish head - 1, cleaned and broken into pieces
- Green chilli - as per taste
- Turmaric, Coriander powder, Salt, Kashmiri chilli powder
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Bayleaf, Whole red chilli
Soak all the ground masalasa in a cup of water and keep aside.
Fry the fish heads with salt and turmeric and keep side.
In a pan, heat mustard oil and then add bayleaf and whole red chilli.
Add the onion after 30 seconds and fry well.
Then add the ground masala water and fry well till the water evaporates.
add soaked rice and two types of dal and mix well with the masalas.
Let it fry till the water evaporates and the mixture is dry and well coated with masalas.
Add the slitted green chilli at this point.
Now put everything in a pressure cooker with the fried fish heads.
Add 2 cups of hot water and put on the lid.
Cook for two whistles. Let the steam subside naturally, then remove the lid carefully. If the khichuri is too dry, add some more hot water and boil for 2 minutes. Adjust the seasoning.
Sprinkle some garam masala powder and a dollop of ghee and serve hot.
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.
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.
