Sunday, November 6, 2011

Pulao with Coconut Milk



As I have mentioned in one of my earlier entries that I have been maintaining a diary full of recipes since my girlhood days when I didnt even know the a,b,c,d of cooking, but just out of curiosity and interest I used to take down whatever recipes came to my notice, published in a journal or newspaper supplementaries. This recipe of Pulao with Coconut Milk was scrawled neatly across the pages of my diary, but somehow I always missed trying this one. In satisfying the demands of my family, today I decided to cook Pulao with this recipe for lunch. Must I say, the dish turned out really nice and my family savoured it with pleasure.

The dish involves very simple preparation. Rice cooked in coconut milk exudes an enchanting aroma that adds to the flavour. Abiding by the original recipe, I used 'gobindobhog' rice, but since 'gobindobhog' breed of rice is difficult to get anywhere else easily other than West Bengal, you may use long grain Basmati instead. In Bangalore I get the availability of gobindobhog in Hal Market only.

I have used 1/2 tsp of ghee and 1 tbs of white oil for browning the rice and vegetables. If you prefer, you may use 'ghee' for browning, but keeping health in mind, I skimped on ghee and combined it with white oil.

One more thing you ought to keep an eye on is the quantity of water for cooking rice. Some rice need 1 cup and some else need 2 cups of water. Depending on which rice you are using, you have to decide on the water. Since I have used 1 1/2 cup of coconut milk, I measured out 3 1/2 cups of water for cooking 300 gm of gobindobhog rice.

Ingredients:

3 cups of Gobindobhog (about 300 gm)

1 1/2  cup of coconut milk (I used canned coconut milk available easily in the market)

1 cup of fresh green peas (boiled)

50 gm of broken cashew nuts and raisins

2 1/2 tbs sugar

salt to taste

White oil or ghee as you prefer

For phoron (sauting)

2 green chillies (slit in the middle)

2 bay leaves

2 cardamom seeds

3 cloves

1 tsp ginger (chopped)

Method:

1) Wash the rice nicely and drain the water. Heat oil in a non-sticky pan and when oil turns piping hot, add the ingredients for sauting and saute for few seconds till they start spluttering.

2) Now add the gobindobhog rice and stir to mix well. Reduce the heat to low and throw in the peas, salt and sugar. Lightly fry the peas and rice on low heat for 1-2 minutes.

3) Pour coconut milk along with the measured water. Increase the heat to medium. When water starts bubbling up, put the lid on and simmer on low heat till rice is cooked through and water completely evaporates.

4) Serve hot.

2 comments:

  1. Hi this is really interesting, can u help me with one specification, where is HAL market, i m travelling by old airport road from marathahalli. Also which shop, and what should i ask them, do they have a local name for gobindobhog chaal.

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  2. u can send ur reply to treena.sengupta@gmail.com. Many thanks

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