Pressure cooker Vegetable Pulav ( step by step ) and Autumn in Pictures

Eventhough autumn comes as a warning of the next horrible 4-5 months of chilly weather, I love the season for its beauty ! For us its almost like a ritual every year going out to enjoy the season to  capture the  fall colours. This year we went to a nearby park and the park was so beautiful with a big carpet of yellow leaves scattered all over. We walked through the crunching leaves watching squirrels rushing off with Acorns storing up for the harsh winters. They seemed very dedicated and hardworking ! Lil A wanted to help the squirrels as well, so we picked up few acorns and kept it outside the squirrels little cosy house ! I tried hard to take a look inside the house, but it was way too dark inside for us to see :)

Coming to todays post, its such an easy pulav anyone can make in less than 30 minutes if you  soak basamathi rice beforehand. This pulav finds it way to my hubbys lunch box often and he loves it.

Ingredients ( serves 2-3 )

Basmathi rice - 1 1/2 cup
Fennel seeds/ Perum jeerakam - 2 tsp
Cinnamon stick/ patta  - 1 small stick
Cloves/ Grambu - 2-3
Cardamom/ Elakka - 2-3
Star Anise/ thakkolam - 1 ( optional)
Bay leaf - 1-2
Chopped beans - 1/2 cup
Chopped carrot - 3/4 cup
Fresh/ frozen Green peas - 1/3 cup
Potato -1 ( chopped)
Green chillies - 3 ( optional, I didnt use it )
Boiling water - 2 3/4 - 3 cup
Ginger - garlic paste(Inji - veluthulli paste ) - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/ 2 tsp
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp or as required
Ghee/ oil - 2 tbs

Method

1. Soak Basmathi rice for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile chop beans, carrot, potato and keep it aside.

1. In a pressure cooker add ghee/ oil and add the whole garam masala's ( cinnamon, fennel, cardamom,star anise, cloves, bay leaves  ) and saute until it releases nice smell ( for a minute or so).                                            
   
   
   
   
2. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute until raw smell goes.                                       
   
   
   
3. Add chopped carrot, beans, potato and Green chillies (if using ) and  saute for 5- 10 minutes.                                                      
   
   
   
4. Add Green peas, turmeric powder  and stir.                                                                                                                                                                                                               
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Finally add soaked rice and stir for a minute.                                                                                      
   
   
   
6. Add boiling water, salt and mix. Cover the pressure cooker and put the weight on. Turn off the flame when the first whistle comes.
7. Open the cooker when the pressure releases and serve immediately.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
   

Lemon rice

 

When you are living in a place where we dont see sun a lot and its cold and freezing for almost 8-9 months what would they do when they get some warm sunshine in summer ?? Holidays, Picnics, days out, gardening  etc etc , the list goes on for everyone. For us what we love to do the most  in summer is Picnics !There is  nothing better than enjoying a meal outside in the sunshine,even a boring sandwich seems delcious to me as long as its Picnic :) Sometimes when I am in the mood to cook something for picnic I pack some Tomato rice or Fried rice or Pasta or even this Lemon rice for picnic in a little hot pot  and I always feel that food  tastes 100 times better when eaten outside .
 

Will tell u an interesting bit of a picnic last year, we usually take some breads when we go to  feed the ducks in ponds but usually the over fed ducks dont find the bread interesting, and once  while we were having a picnic some ducks and goose came to us and we fed them some tomato rice and surprisingly they  seemed to like it so much and were not going away , so  finally we had to run away from them :)
 

Also I would like to tell u all something about giving breads to ducks..2 weeks before  when it was half term holidays for nursery/schools here, I  took lil A to a farm and they  had board in bold letters near the ducks saying that  breads are not good for ducks and they had given the scientific reason for that too ! So I am not going to feed breads to ducks any more instead I  will give them some lemon rice :)

Ingredients (Serves -4 )

Rice - 1 1/2 cup

Lime juice  - from 1 or 2 lime depending in ur taste

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tbs

Chana dal - 1tbs

Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Dessicated coconut/Grated coconut - 3 tbs

Whole redchillies -2-3

Green chillies - 1-2

Curry leaves - few

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Salt

 

Method

 

1.Cook the rice and keep aside.

2.In a wok add some oil and sputter mustard seeds,add urad dal,chana dal, peanuts,grated coconut and roast until brown in colour.

3.Add whole redchillies,curry leaves,green chillies and fry for 1-2 minutes

4.Add Turmeric powder, salt, lime juice, asafoetida and cook for 1-2 minutes.

5.Add cooked rice and mix until rice is heated through.Turn off the flame.

 

Serve hot with some chutney or chicken curry or enjoy as it is  :)

Tomato rice

 

Simple and quick recipes like this are always a blessing  especially for packed lunch box. I was never   a  tomato fan all my life but still I love this rice. I was inroduced to this recipe by one of my friend about 2 years ago and has been making this every now and then and now even  my liking towards tomato is  changing, I am learning to love tomato based dishes :)

 

Ingredients

 

Rice - 1 cup

Onion - 1/2 of an onion

Tomatoes - 4 small
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tbs

Curry leaves - few

Redchilly powder - 11/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Raisins - fistful

Salt

 

Method

1.Cook rice and keep it aside.

2.In a wok add some oil and sputter mustard seeds followed by urad dal.

3.Add curry leaves ,chopped onions and saute till onion are soft.

4.Add Chopped tomatoes,spice powder , salt and cook until tomatoes are mushy.

5.Add some raisins and stir for 1-2 minutes.

6Add cooked rice ,mix  well and turn of the flame.

 

Fish Biriyani

Just when I thought I am blogging a lot these days, that phase is slowly coming down again. I have  lost
interest in cooking and blogging and I am enjoying the free time watching movies and TV ! I watched quite a few mallu movies the past few nights like 22 female Kottayam, Ordinary, Chappa kurushu, Indian Rupee etc. There was a time when used to watch all the new mallu movies online,but after having my boy I kind of lost the track of new movies, and my film were restricted to the english movies that comes on T.V. Now I am quite happy to catch up with the movies which I missed last few years ! Same is the story with Hindi movies,I watched few of the hit movies which I missed , Zindagi na mile dubarah and 3 idiots were the best among the hindi movies I watched recently.

Coming back to today's recipe,7 years ago when I came to U.K for the first time,I was surving only on the basic cooking and slowly the cooking bug bit me and I started experimenting the complicated dishes with my Amma's help over the phone :) One day ,I had a  sudden craving to eat some fish biriyani and I had some frozen king fish in the freezer , but the time was too late to call my amma in India .That's when I got exposed to the blogging world for the first time ! When I googled for fish biriyani, I came across so many blogs and I was super thrilled ! I tried fish biriyani recipe from one of the blogs 7 years ago and it was yummm, Su was  also very  impressed .Years passed , but still for fish biriyani I am following the same recipe as I love this recipe ,but I am sorry I can't find that original recipe  or  her blog (Priyas Kitchen) anymore but since I wrote down the recipe in a book I still have the recipe with me. It's a shame that many of the wonderful blogs which I came across that time are inactive now :(

Ingredients

Ghee - 2 tsp
Bay leaves - 2

Cardamom - 2-3

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

cinnamon sticks -2

Star anise - 2

Cloves -4

pepper - 1tsp

Onion - 1 + 3

Basmati rice - 2 cups

Boiling water - 3 3/4 - 4 cup

lemon juice - 1/2 of a lime

Coriander -mint - curry leaves paste - 2 tsp

Ginger garlic green chilly paste - 2 tsp

Toamto - 2

Yogurt - 1 tbs

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

for marination

King fish - 500 g

Chilly powder - 2-3 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Salt

for garnishing

Cashwenuts - 1-2 tbs

Sultanas/raisins - 2 tbs

Ghee - 1 tsp

Method

1.Soak the basmathi rice in water for 30 mins and drain the water completely.

2.Marinate the fish with the ingredients mentioned and keep it aside for 30 minutes.

3.In a pan add ghee and add the whole garam maslas ans saute for 1- 2 minutes.

4 Add the thinly sliced onion (one) and saute till brown.

5.Add the soaked rice ,lemon juice,salt and add boiling water and cook till done.

6.shallow fry the marinated fish in a pan adding little oil and the place them in paper towels.

7.In the same pan add the sliced onions (3),saute till brown.

8.Add ginger garlic green chilly paste, leaves paste and fry for sometime.

9.Add chopped tomatoes and cook till toamtoes are mashed.

10.Add yogurt,coconut milk and salt and stir for 2-3 minutes.

11.Finally add fried fish to this gravy and cook till gravy thickens for another 3-5 minutes.

12.Layer the rice and fish masala in a oven proof dish and cook it a preheated oven at 180 degree centigrade for 10 minutes.

13.Finally fry some cashewnuts and raisins separetely in ghee and garnish the biriyani !

Vegetable Pulav

Rain has been spoiling our spring since the last few days and today was just the same,we saw bright sun in the afternoon,so we packed the old breads and headed towards a nearby park to feed ducks and to spend some time in the childrens playground,but bummer..as soon as we reached the park, clouds came all together and it looked as if its going to pour down cats and dogs.But since we were so determined to feed the ducks,we walked towards the pond and started throwing breads to ducks,but to our surprise,not even a sinlge duck came for our bread,I guess on sundays they get a lot of breads and the ducks looked as if they were full and didnt even bother to see what we were throwing,finally to cheer up lil A we started feeding some doves,luckily they showed some interest on breads,thats all we could do when the rain started to pour down and we had to run towards the car.So all together I was disappointed,but then when we got home,I got into a mood to eat some cutlets, S too nodded in agreement,but again we didnt have fish or chicken to make cutlets,so we walked to a nearby supermarket and got some chicken.I cheered up and started cooking in a good mood.Deep frying things is something that I always leave to S when he is at home,so when I finished everything,I gave him the last job to fry it and went away,but my lazy DH,skipped deep frying all together and shallow fried everything.I tasted the first cultet ,and to my disappointment the inside of the cutlet was not done,it was bit moist,so I got really mad at him for spoiling all my effort ! If all went well today I would have posted the cutlet here today :( But poor S has promised me that he will make it up to me by making cutlets for me next week :)

So here I am with a Pulav which I made last week..

Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup

Onion -1

Tomato -1

Chopped vegetables - 1 cup( I used beans,carrot,pepper,green peas etc)

Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp

cinnamon sticks- 1

cloves-2

cardamon-2

Redchilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Corainder powder - 1 tbs

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves

Salt

Method

1. Cook the rice and keep it aside.

2. In a wok add some ghee/oil and add whole garam masala saute for 1 minute.

3.Add chopped onions and saute until soft,add ginger garlic paste fry for 1 minute .

4.Add tomatoes and all the spice powder and saute for 1-2 minutes.

5.Finally add the veggies and add water if required and cook .

6.Add the cooked rice and mix well.Garnish with freshly chopped corainer leaves.

Note : You can also add some fried raisins and cashewnuts to the pulav which I didnt use.

Coconut Rice (My 100 th post)

It took me nearly 4 yrs to reach this milestone. It has been a slow and smooth journey till now.I was on and off blogging . Sometimes I feel that I am like animals that hibernate,I go to sleep for longtime then when I come back I will be active for sometime , but then again I go back to sleep mode :( But one thing that I am proud of myself is that I never gave up blogging :) I made lot of new friends and they kept me going till now...Thanks to all my friends for supporting me to keep this blog alive.

To celebrate my happiness I am sharing a coconut rice which u can prepare in less than 1/2 an hour, the great part is it is so easy and doesnt need any accompaniment.

Ingredients

Rice/ Pachari / Long grain rice - 1 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Urad dal / Uzhunnu parippu  - 1 tbs

Chana dal / kadala parippu - 1tbs

Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp

Curryleaves - few

Whole redchilly -2 (optional)

Green chillies -2 (slit lengthwise)

Salt

Prepartion

1. Cook the rice and keep it aside.
2. In a tawa/wok add some oil sputter mustard seeds. 
3. Add urad dal, chana dal and fry till its lightly roasted.
4. Addd grated coconut, green chillies, curry leaves  and roast it for a minute or so ( Donot allow the coconut to become brown). 
5. Finally add cooked rice, mix well and check the salt.

Egg Rice ( Lunch box Special )

Since my hubby takes packed lunch to office,I am always on look out for easy recipes like this one,which I can prepare under 30 minutes(like Jamie oliver says).This recipe is again from my friend Smitha ,she knows so many recipes like this which can be prepared in a jiffy.

Ingredients

Rice - 3/4 cup
Boiled Eggs - 3
Mixed vegetables - 1/2 cup( I used frozen mix veg packet ,it has carrot,beans,corns,greenpeas etc)
Onion -2
Tomato -1
Ginger- garlic paste - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
Redchilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - pinch
Coriander powder -1 tbs
Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
Salt
Fresh corainder leaves




Preparation

Cook the rice and keep it aside.
In a wok add oil and sputter cumin and fennel.Add onions and saute till it becomes soft,add ginger garlic paste fry for 1 minute.Add chopped tomotoes and cook for 1-2 minutes and finally add mixed vegetables and all the masala powders and cook till vegetables are done. Add the cooked rice and mix well.Cut the eggs into two and gently fold into the rice.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Tawa Pulao ( I am back)

Hi my friends,
It has been ages since I have posted anything here.After my vacation in India in April I was not in mood to cook or post anything,but now I need some serious refreshing in cooking,I m bored of my day to day cooking so I am back again for a new beginning.
Todays recipe is adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor,which was quite simple and delicious. Please excuse me for the picture.I took this picture while cooking and thought about taking another one while serving which I totally forgot.

Ingredients

Onion - 1
Tomato -1
Finely Chopped vegetables - 1 cup (Carrot,beans,peas etc)
Green pepper (Capsicum) - 1
Cooked rice ( for 2 adults )
Coriander leaves
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Pav baji masala - 2 tbs
Turmerc powder -1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt

Preparation

In a wok pour some oil and sputter cumin. Add onions and saute till soft. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for 1 min.Add chopped tomato,vegetables and all the powders and cook till vegetables are done.Add the cooked rice and mix well.Finally add chopped green pepper and turn off the flame.Garnish with coriander leaves.

XX