Riot of color Pulao

Thanks for all those who participated in the first event at Saffron Trail. The Weekend Breakfast Blogging table was filled with breakfast foods from around the world. Check out the round up with the guidelines to WBB#2 here.

Pulao is so common-place and biryani is so much effort. I like a pulao that’s simple to make and yet has all the exotica of the biryani. This was the first time I was using some finely chopped beet in a rice recipe, the result was a beautiful colour and a subtle sweet taste. The raisins and dried apricots added another layer of taste and texture. Though we make it a point not have rice more than once a week-in order to avoid refined carbs, this kind of veggie-rice mix makes sure we don’t load up much on rice.

It looks like a lot of ingredients down there, but you will readily find most of the stuff in your pantry. Things that you don’t find can be easily replaced.

Natural colours

Riot-of- colour Pulao with Yogurt Curry

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

Basics

1 cup rice Basmati heaped long grained fragrant like

Aromatics

2 Bay leaves
4 - 5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 - 3 star anise
1 tsp cumin seeds
black pepper corns Few
1 tsp ginger finely chopped fresh
1 tsp chopped garlic finely

Vegetables / Fruits:

1 beet small finely milled (You can pretty much add any vegetables that you have at home)
1 carrot large - cut into sticks
handful peas frozen
1 onion large - sliced
1 potato large - cut into sticks
handful raisins *
5 - 6 apricots dried - sliced (Use any dried fruits you have)

Others

1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder coriander cumin my homemade / use any - based powder (will share my recipe soon)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
to taste Salt

For Curry (Also called Kadi)

1 1/2 cups yogurt sour
1 1/2 cups water
1 gram flour (T) heaped
1 green chilli finely chopped
pinch turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt

Method

Recipe for Pulao:
Wash rice in plenty of water. Soak it in hot water for 30 minutes.
In a large wok, heat oil. Put in all the aromatics except ginger-garlic. Once cumin seeds start popping, add the ginger and garlic. Saute for a few seconds.
Add all the chopped vegetables, dried fruits, chilli powder, curry powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, salt. Saute for 4-5 minutes on a medium flame until all the ingredients come together nicely and the vegetables are half cooked.
Add the drained rice to this. Saute for 2 minutes. Add one cup water to the wok, cover with a lid which has a steam outlet, or leave some space between wok and lid. Keep the flame on SIM, and do not keep stirring the rice. After 7-8 minutes, check if rice is cooked. If not sprinkle some more water and cook till rice is done.
Check for salt and serve piping hot with yogurt based curry.
Pulao served with Kadi
Recipe for Curry(Also called Kadi):
Put all the above ingredients in a saucepan. Whisk the mixture well, so that the flour doesn't stay in lumps.
Keep the pan on a medium flame, and keep stirring the curry continuously or else the yogurt will separate out.
Let the curry come to a boil, take it off the flame.
In a small kadai / ladle, heat a tsp of oil. Add some curry leaves, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 3-4 cloves and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds.
As they splutter, put the tempered oil into the curry. Stir well and garnish with coriander. Keep a lid on the pan until you serve it.

Notes

Note:

*I used Organic Greek Currants bought from the Spice Shop in London on my recent trip

Check out:

~Are you getting ready for the Jihva for Flour-event hosted by Santhi's Kitchen? Details here.

~Meeta's innovative BPW event here.

~Barbara's It's too darned hot round up Part 1 over here.

This is my entry for Cate's ARF Tuesdays.

Comments

KrishnaArjuna says: July 17, 2006 at 1:18 pm

That’s quite a colorful pulav Nandita!

afp763389 says: July 17, 2006 at 1:42 pm

🙂 nice site… can even imagine this refreshing smells…take care & a nice evening

Sumitha says: July 17, 2006 at 1:50 pm

It looks delicious Nandita!Very nutritious recipe too!

nandita says: July 17, 2006 at 5:53 pm

Thanks Krishna and Sumitha!- did you girls check out the breakfast spread?AFP-thanks for dropping over.

Vaishali says: July 17, 2006 at 8:17 pm

Pulao with dried fruit is a nice idea. Actually, for me anything with dried fruit is a good idea. 😉

Priya says: July 17, 2006 at 9:22 pm

Even I havent tried using beetroot with rice, will try this out soon. And rice just once a week..!! My God !! You should be a store-house of tiffin items then …no wonder your event theme was Breakfasts..!! 🙂

Meeta K. Wolff says: July 18, 2006 at 7:03 am

Looks good Nandita. Never tried it with dreid fruit but is worht a go!

Anonymous says: August 6, 2006 at 6:24 am

Hi,I am kavitha from bangalore. Never tried beets in my pulao. Tempted to try it seeing the beautiful color of ur pulao..and the result is awesome..and i got lots a appreciations :))I tried it with only raisins and Used my rasam powder for the curry powder.Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe.Cheers,Kavitha.

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Riot-of- colour Pulao with Yogurt Curry