Gobi Bhaath (Cauliflower Rice) - Subtle and mellow on spices, huge on flavors

Cauliflower or Gobi is a winter vegetable in India, I find it in all seasons here. Small insects inside the florets are expected norm in Indian cauliflowers and that is why they are dunked in hot salt water before cooking, here the florets are all insect free and ready to use. If inclined, I can even get a chopped and ready to use packet of Cauliflower florets, though I prefer to get a nice, fresh head of the vegetable and cut it myself :-).

No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers" - Laurie Colwin

Cooking for me is all about memories and reminiscing the experiences, every dish I cook brings back something from the past and hence it never tastes the same even if I follow a recipe to the tee. But it is also about making new memories and experiences as we journey along in life, agree?

We went to watch a movie called '100 foot journey' yesterday, DD was reluctant to accompany since it promised to be a gastronomically inclined movie. For all the passion I have in cooking and food in general, my only child doesn't exhibit the same traits. I am a totally positive person and think that she is a late bloomer :-), we will wait and see. While she enjoys good food, she doesn't dissect to smell, taste and enjoy every morsel like I do. On the good side she is happy with most of what she is fed.

Back to the movie, it is full of food, in every conceivable way :-), why not since it tries to show case Indian and French cuisines, right?. There is a funny feud very well portrayed by 2 actors I love to watch (Helen Mirren as Madame Mallory and Ompuri as Papa Kadam), and the rest of the cast is great too. The blaring music, bold flavors and bright colors of Indian cuisine & culture contrasts completely with the subtlety of the French food, and the two groups end up just 100 feet apart from each other. While one is native and established with a Michelin star, the other is uprooted from familiar territory and trying to find a home in an unknown country, the only common thread is food. But food in the two camps is totally desperate in the ingredients, way of cooking, serving etc. War breaks between the two establishments, until Madame Mallory finds the potential in the young cook (not chef mind you!) of the newly arrived family and takes him into her fold. The movie touches Michelin starts (if you are a foodie, you definitely would have heard about this) and the innovations that turn cooking into a science in the race after the twinkling stars. He brings her 2 stars within a year and goes off to bigger adventures (no spoiler alert, go watch the movie if you are piqued :-)). Like Papa says, "breaks do break for a reason", they find their heart's desire in that quaint village and discover compatibility where none seemingly exist at the beginning of the story.

But the movie is also about finding the best mushrooms by the side of the stream in the village, feeling the sea urchin and being able to imagine its taste when cooked, looking deep inside your heart and using the wisdom of generations before, feeling & smelling a spice box that has been in the family for generations, making food with your loved ones and enjoying it. I relate more to this type of cooking than the scales & measurements. I am not averse to invention but I want to understand the taste of the familiar first before I go after the unfamiliar. For me recipes in books do not mean a whole lot until they come into my heart and into my pots (lines shamelessly stolen from the above mentioned movie :-)). I love to cook feeling every ingredient. Whether you spoon in spices (Papa) or sprinkle them (Madame Mallory), ultimately it is all about food that touches your senses and brings you visions of home.

I made this cauliflower bhaath (or Gobi bhaath as we call it) for our brunch yesterday. Like I have said before, this vegetable got into my repertoire only after marriage. Amma makes Gobi bhaath using her 'all purpose podi' which is a family favorite. While I make it that way sometimes, I also make this flavorful bhaath that we enjoy. Spices are mild in this recipe, at best sprinkled (I can see Papa Kadam scoffing at it :-)) and do not over power the taste of the vegetable. Gobi itself is cooked tender but does not fall apart and remains moist with the juices of the masala. It is a perfect lunch box item and a full blown meal if you add a yogurt based raita on the side. I do not typically add potatoes but it is definitely an option.

What do you need to make Gobi Bhaath? 
1 medium sized head of Cauliflower/Gobi
2 cups rice (Basmati preferred)
2 small bay leaves
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp garam masala powder
1 Tbsp oil
To grind: 
i/2 cup onion chopped roughly
1/2 cup tomatoes cubed
2 green chilies
1 inch piece of ginger
Dry roast & powder:
2 pieces of 1 inch long cinnamon
2-4 cloves
2-3 pieces of mace
1 green cardamom
pinch of nutmeg
8-10 black pepper corns

How do you make Gobi Bhaath?

• Chop and separate the florets of Gobi. Keep them dunked in warm water with a little bit of salt for 10-15 minutes. 
• Take them out, clean once under running water. 
• Soak rice in 4 cups of water for 20-30 minutes. 
• Take a big pot that can hold all of the gobi, add water to submerge all the pieces, add 1/2 Tsp salt and 1/4 Tsp turmeric powder, cover and let the water come to a roaring boil softening the pieces. 

• Switch off, drain all the water and keep the gobi until needed. 

• Dry roast the spices listed under 'dry roast and powder', use a cast iron pan and on medium heat, roast the spices for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.

• Take them to a blender and powder them coarsely. 
• Add the rest of the ingredients listed under 'To grind' and make a smooth paste. 
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or pressure cooker. 
• Add the ground masala paste and fry for 2-4 minutes or until the raw smell reduces. 
• Add the par cooked gobi florets along with the bay leaves and mix them well to coat with the masala. 

• Drain water from the rice, wash it twice in running water and add it to the pan. 
• Add 3 cups of water (remember the ground masala adds to the liquid content), garam masala and salt. 
• Stir in gently to mix, cover and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes or until rice is cooked and fluffy. 

• Switch off and let it stand for 5-10 minutes before using a spatula to fluff up the rice. 
• Your fragrant gobi masala rice is ready. 
• I served it with a simply delicious tomato-onion raita made with fresh tomatoes from the backyard. 

Notes: 

• Take care not to over cook gobi pieces the first time, they will continue to cook along with rice. 
• Cut gobi into big pieces so they do not disintegrate on cooking. 
• You can add par cooked potato pieces & green peas to the rice. 
• Garnish with chopped cilantro before serving. 
• If you like crunchy gobi pieces in the rice, cool the par cooked gobi completely, roast them in a couple of tbsp of oil until they are cooked and crispy, add these to the rice before serving and fold them in. 

Achari Chole Pulav - pulav made with freshly roasted pickle spices

I promise I won't talk about weather today, not even the declared emergency in the Southern states and the layers of ice.. I am completely done with (just reading about and hearing of) the weather this year, I can't imagine how people affected directly are managing. I personally am enjoying the temperatures here with a little bit of snow thrown in for variety last weekend which by the way is completely gone and the roads are safe and clear.

Now onto other interesting topics :-). After having worked at my last company for 6 years, 2 of which remotely (yep, I was the working woman in my pajamas :-)) which kind of explains the flexibility I had to do other things, I finally bid adieu to that work and have accepted an offer to work in the Marissa Meyer style :-), I get up, get dressed, go to an office and work. I am on that 'in between' 2 weeks right now before starting off in another 10 days. Working from home while has its perks also comes with its list of woes, first & foremost from people asking me incredulously, "How do you do that?". It is simple really, just draw the lines on what can and cannot be done during your work hours and you will keep the productivity high come rain or shine :-). That was a phase of life, I accepted and enjoyed but it is now time to change some gears, I am looking forward to my new stint, will keep you all posted.

Obviously this is a change and like all changes it will take some time to become used to. Does that mean I am going to stop blogging? Heck, no, not a chance. This activity has brought so much of personal satisfaction I can't even begin to describe it to anyone, it has been an anchor on bad days and made me feel like a soaring bird on better days. As I start my new adventure, I might skip some beats but I am sure things will fall into place like they always do. Until then, my dearest readers, please hang in there with your support, visits and feedback.

I am using these 2 weeks of break to read, read and read a lot of books that were on my list (like I am either starved or will never again get time in my life to read :-)), it feels like old days in school and college when the first thing I would do after every set of exams was to go to the library and get an armload of books and sit in a corner of the big yard and read to my heart's content. One thing, I couldn't do then was to ever sleep without finishing a book, so there were many long nights. I haven't been able to do that in many years but finally did that last few days :-) and it felt so.. good.

I got a few books this past week, while some are worth talking about, a few were bad choices and better left alone. If there is one thing I would say without an instant's delay when I asked what I like most about this second home of mine is the public library system here. Coming from India, I had spent most of my childhood and young adulthood in libraries I thought had a great collection. My parents being voracious readers themselves, got us books to read from every possible place. If there was a library in the neighborhood, I definitely had been there at some point. But nothing had prepared me for the experience of the easy accessibility of public libraries I find here. They are free, they have huge collection and are every where. DD literally grew up in those cozy rooms filled with shelves of books since she was a toddler. The first thing we would do when her summer vacations started every year was to go the local public library and sign up for summer reading though she didn't need any incentive for reading. I am glad she enjoys reading just for the fun of it.

So back to the list of books I enjoyed recently, here are some. Hope you like some or most of these, do let me know and we can strike a conversation.
ElseWhere by Richard Russo
This is a memoir, a beautiful story of the author's relationship with his mother. Having been brought up by his single mother, it traces how the dependency equation changes as they grow older. The mom is someone who is born and grown up in a small industrial town that is in ruins and wants to get away, but as the memoir unfolds you will see that it is not from that town she wants to really get away but doesn't feel settled and happy anywhere else either. There is a heart breaking diagnosis he makes post her death which seems to give him some understanding of things. For me, all that mattered was the bond that is forged between the mom and the son. It is not a light read definitely, tugs you down at places but I enjoyed it very much. So I went ahead and got another book from the same author, 'Nobody's Fool', haven't started it yet.

And the Mountains echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Having read his earlier two books, I was waiting for this one to come out but didn't get a chance to get my hands on it until now. There are some books you cannot read in a hurry, they have to be slow reads, pondered over, felt in the bones and that is the only way to enjoy them. KH's books are like that, you cannot read them at one stretch because the subject invariably is heavy at the same time you cannot read a couple of pages (like I am doing my next one here), leave it lying on the night stand and return after a few days/weeks. Like his previous novels, this is set in Afghanistan too but the characters take you around the world to Greece, Paris and California, the story is told in first person by different characters and you can almost feel their life and see it unfold infront of your eyes, very vivid, almost graphic description - that is the power of his narration.

American Pie by Peter Reinhart

Well, there had to be atleast one food related book, right? I was looking for his other book 'Bread Baker's apprentice' but all the copies were out and I am on a hold list for it. I first saw a PR's pizza recipe in a magazine and made it at home last year, it was an instant hit and I fell in love with this master's recipe and techniques. Also, I gradually found out that he is one of the most revered baker, baking instructor and is most passionate about pizza making. This book has recipes at the end (I haven't gotten there yet) but what interested me is his search for finding the roots of this pie and find the best of it. There is a lot of travelogue and history associated with each place he goes to and it is as delicious as a perfectly baked pizza' :-). I am still savoring it.

Back to the recipe today, what I have is a very aromatic, tangy and spicy pulav that is so simple to make you will be licking your fingers longer than it took to actually make the rice. I saw this recipe in a cookery book by one of my favorite chefs who passed away recently - Tarla Dalal. I really salute the lady for her versatility and the sweet nature that seemed to exude in her TV appearances. However, I have found that I do not personally enjoy her recipes when made exactly to the Tee but take an idea from her, apply some of my own personality, the dish will invariably be a hit. This is what I mostly do with TD's recipes, a little change here, an addition there, some variation and I am good to go. This achari chole pulav can be made on any day with some basmati rice, a can of garbanzo and some spices. There are no vegetables here and hence is perfect for the day when you have just cleaned up your refrigerator and not yet restocked it.

For a South Indian by birth and nurture like me, pickle masala has a different connotation than what it includes in North Indian pickles. Mustard, red chilies and fenugreek are the common spices but North Indian pickles add some more. While I do not necessarily enjoy these spices in pickles, I have realized I love those flavors in curries and this rice. TD's recipe asks you to just roast the whole spices in oil but I feel they make a better impact when coarsely powdered to release their flavors. You can do it either way.
What do you need to make Achari chole pulav? 
1.5 cup basmati rice
1.5 cups cooked garbanzo beans/chole
1 cup long sliced onion
2 Tblsp oil
1 cup yogurt (slightly sour and a day old works best)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste, remember pickle has loads of slat already)
1/2 Tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
1/2 cup chopped mint
1 Tsp mango pickle/thokku (use good quality flavorful pickle for best results)
2 green chilies

Achari masala:
1 Tblsp mustard
3/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds/methi
3/4 Tsp nigella seeds/kalonji
1 Tblsp fennel seeds/saunf
4-5 red chilies

How do you make Achari chole pulav? 

• Soak rice for 25-30 minutes.
• Wash and rinse in 2 changes of water.
• Make a coarse powder of the achari masala.

• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or pressure pan, add cumin and bay leaf.
• Once cumin sizzles, add onion, let brown slightly and turn limp, stir once or twice.
• Add the ground powder and roast for 30-45 seconds.
• Add chopped mint, yogurt and pickle and mix well.
• Add chole and let it cook on low heat for 7-8 minutes to get the flavors to the core of garbanzo beans.

• Add the washed rice, give a gentle mix and add 1 cup of water(See NOTES below).
• Cover with a tight fitting lid, simmer the heat and cook for 15 minutes. 
• Open the lid and check if it needs additional water, adjust accordingly, cover back and continue to cook for another 5-7 minutes. 

• Switch off & let it sit for 10 minutes before opening the lid again and fluffing the pulav with a fork. 
• Steaming hot, bursting with flavors pulav is ready to serve. 

Notes: 

• Basmati rice especially when soaked before cooking takes less water, you will also need to count the amount of liquid that is already in the pot as yogurt. Adjust water accordingly. I would start with that 1 cup and sprinkle a couple of spoons if the rice looks very dry at the end of the first 15 minutes of cooking. 
• The quality and taste of the pickle you use matter a lot in this rice, mango pickles (just the masala part with no mango pieces) work best especially the Andhra avakkaya or the thokku. Original recipe uses green chili pickles as an alternative.

• You can add paneer cubes marinated in the pickle flavors to this pulav for added protein and taste. Toss paneer cubes in 2 Tbsp of yogurt mixed with 1/4 Tsp of the pickle masala powder and a pinch of salt, keep aside for 20-30 minutes. Add them towards the end of cooking process. Use directly if you have fresh paneer or toast them lightly in oil if using the frozen variety. 

Palak Rice - a post Holiday quick eat

Hey everyone, hope you all had a good Thanksgiving break if you reside in the US or a great weekend otherwise. We had a wonderful time, enjoyed our vacation and came back yesterday early morning. Everything about the tropical heaven from swaying coconut trees to the fragrant jasmines reminded me of home the entire time. We did some hitherto not done activities as a family and liked it very much. Have loads of pictures to sort through, I will post some on the blog or on the Facebook page, look for them in the coming weeks. Until then, here is a quick preview of some of the tropical beauty.

Before we left for vacation last week, I made sure I had emptied the refrigerator except for a few things that either was not going to go bad or I couldn't get to despite my best intentions. While it felt great to not waste any produce, it also meant I had to go shopping as soon as I came back. So when our travel got a little sticky and we ended up reaching home the next morning instead of the prvious late night, I just couldn't get to the stores and had to make do with whatever I got from scraping the bottom of my refrigerator tubs. All I had left was about a quarter bag of spinach, some green chilies, cilantro and ginger. As there was much to catch up on the work front, I made a quick palak rice that fits snugly with a lunch box menu or a hot plate serving.

We love our greens especially Spinach. There used to be a time when I didn't accept a non sticky spinach when I initially came here. Spinach symbolized a slightly okra-like sliminess in India and also the bunches we got home from the greens patch next door always had loads of soil sticking to it :-). Nammamma kept them in a bucket of cold water the previous evening to wash away the dirt before she picked the leaves and separated the stems for cooking. When I got the first bag of baby spinach here which also had a label  'triple washed, ready to use', I was one of the doubters. It took a while to get adjusted to the new Spinach but I have grown to love them over the years especially the reduced part of cleaning and chopping (if you are one of those super pressed for time, go ahead and get the chopped frozen ones to make life easier :-)). For me convenience plays a big role but as long as there is no compromise on the taste or nutrition.

Back to the Palak rice, this is a very flavorful rice, perfect for when you have little time and still craving for home cooked deliciousness. It is a one pot meal with minimal frills attached to the cooking, while the really basic version (like I have below) is perfectly suited for a thread bare refrigerator supplies, you can definitely jazz up this rice with additional veggies or spices if you are so inclined. I have some variations in the last section if you are interested. Try this and let me know how you liked it.

What do you need to make Palak rice?
2 cups rice (basmati or other long grained rice soaked in water for 30 mins)
4 packed cups of cleaned palak/spinach
2 Tblsp oil
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
handful of cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans
Whole spices:
2 pieces of 1 inch long cinnamon
1 green cardamom
4 black peppers
3 cloves
To grind:
1/4 cup cilantro
4 green chilies
piece of ginger
1 Tblsp grated coconut

How do you make Palak rice?

• Blanch palak for 2 minutes in boiling water, strain the water and reserve it.
• Puree the palak once it cools down.

• Dry roast the spices for a minute until they are warm, take it aside into a blender jar.
• Add green chilies, ginger, coconut and cilantro to the blender and make a coarse paste. Use a couple of table spoons of water you have reserved.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or pressure cooker, add sliced onions and salt and cook on medium heat until onions first turn limp and then start to brown up.
• Add the blended mixture of spices, pureed palak and mix well. Taste and adjust salt or spices to your liking.
• Wash the soaked rice and drain it. Add the rice to the pan, measure 3.5 cups of reserved water and add it. Add the chickpeas if using.

• At this stage you can transfer all the contents to a pressure cooker or rice cooker or continue to cook in the same vessel with a tight fitting lid. Cook until rice is done and fluffy.

Notes:

• You can add a handful of mint while making the paste but I prefer the mild taste of palak in this rice and not necessarily turn it into a pulav. Choice is yours.
• If you have a ripe tomato on hand, either slice and sauté them with onions or grind them with the masala. This adds a little tartness to the rice and enhances the taste.
• Skip the chickpeas if you don't have them (I usually keep some boiled beans in the refrigerator or a ready to use can in the pantry), instead you can garnish this rice once done with ghee roasted cashews or paneer/tofu cubes - yummmm. Or add a handful of green peas or other beans of choice.
• Do not throw away the palak blanched water, use it wherever you need liquid/stock as it is full of nutrients.
• If you are using the open vessel method, bring the heat down to low and also ensure the bottom of your vessel is heavy and thick.
• Soaking rice for 30 minutes helps reduce the cook time, this can be done while you are prepping the rest of the things.
• Blanching palak removes the raw smell of the leaves. As soon as you switch off the stove after boiling the leaves, take them out of the water and run cold water on them to retain the rich green color of the leaves. 

Vegetable Biryani - a magical ride on Aladdin's magic carpet

Fried rice, pulav/pilaf and biryani - is there a real difference between these? You bet there is. I had made vegetable pulav for a pot luck party once and my friend and host made vegetable biryani. Her poor, uninformed husband had to only open his mouth and ask, "are they both not the same?" before he had both women jumping in to explain and enlighten him on the nuances of each of those dishes and how they each held their own perfectly well :-). So for the uninitiated, though the ingredients list may look similar on these two recipes, the preparation is vastly different and so is the end product. While pulav has the spices ingrained in the cooked rice and the flavor surrounds the dish, biryani has rice and spices coexisting but not necessarily blended all the way though at the same time every grain is infused with the flavor of the masala. And where does fried rice fit in, somewhere in between depending whether you made rice first and mixed with other ingredients and let them cook together :-), it is like fast food in the world of pulavs & biryanis with milder spices. I will reserve that discussion for another day while we focus on the famed vegetable biryani for today. If you are looking for a pulav recipe, you will find it here.

Biryani making is a connoisseur process, it is slow and deliberate and takes you, the cook through steps leading to something utterly out of this world. You just have to let yourself go with the flow of the process (not recipe really), let your senses lead the way as you drop the spices in and believe in yourself. I picture myself taking a ride on Aladdin's magic carpet, going to hitherto unvisited beautiful lands and feeling light as a feather and a bowl of steaming hot biryani with a cup of cool raita is all I need to keep me cozy in this imaginary journey.

Hyderabad is famous for its Moghul biryanis, while these are heavily meat laden, the same technique is used to make a delicious vegetable biryani for the non meat eaters. While I am not a native Hyderabadi, nor have I eaten this famed dish in its city of origin, I am confident that the Biryani recipe below is nonetheless very flavorful and can compete with any Hyderabadi restaurant making it.

I have a real useful tip a Persian friend shared with me that is so simple and elegant I wondered why I didn't think of it before. Look for it in the recipe and notes section.

The ingredients list is long and the recipe/procedure looks laborious, I have arranged them in groups and sequenced them for easy following. Once you get the hang of what is going on, I assure you will find ways to make this more efficient to suit your working style.

What do you need to make vegetable biryani? 
Makes 5 servings
To pound/grate/food process: 
1.5 inch long fresh ginger root (wash & peel)
2-3 green chilies (adjust to taste)
2-3 garlic cloves (adjust according to preference)
To roast and powder: 
1 Tblsp saunf/
1 black cardamom
1 green cardamom
1 dry bay leaf/tej patta - use 2 if it is small
4-6 black pepper corns
1 Tsp black cumin/shahi jeera
2 cloves
2 pieces of 1 inch long cinnamon
1/2  nutmeg
4-5 strands of mace/javintri
Vegetables to parboil:
1 cup green beans - sliced in the middle and chopped to 1 inch long pieces
1 cup thin chopped carrots
1 cup cauliflower florets
1 cup green peas (optional)
Other ingredients:
2 cups good quality Basmati rice
1.5 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 cup yogurt (preferably home made and a day old)
2 packed cups chopped mint leaves
2 cups of finely chopped tomatoes
2 cups of thinly sliced onions.
1/4 Tsp saffron soaked in 1 Tblsp milk for 20 minutes or longer
1/2 Tsp ghee
4 Tblsp oil
2-3 potatoes (washed and cut into 1/2 inch thick discs)

How do you make Vegetable Biryani? 
Prepare Biryani masala powder:

• Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium heat, add all the spices listed under 'To roast and powder' and fry them on low heat with frequent stirring for 5-7 minutes until the spices start to give out a nice aroma. It is very crucial not to burn these, your only choice is to start over. 

• Switch off, let cool and grind them into a fine powder. Keep in a covered container until ready to use. 
• You can make this in larger quantities and refrigerate in air tight containers for later uses or prefer to purchase store bought biryani masala. I make it fresh just for the day. 

Preparing the vegetable sauce:

• Par cook the chopped vegetables and peas (if using) until they are al dante. They should just lose the rawness but not be cooked. You can do this in an open vessel with enough water to cover all the vegetables or microwave them for 6-8 minutes. 
• Drain the water and reserve the vegetables. 
• Take the ginger, garlic and green chilies into a mortar and pestle or a food processor and make them into a coarse paste. 
• Heat 2 Tblsp of oil in a wide kadai/pan, add the sliced onions and fry until they are pink on medium heat. 
• Increase the heat to high and continue to fry onions until they crisp up a little. Set aside.
• Add the remaining 2 Tblsp of oil, add the ginger-garlic-green chili paste and fry for a minute. 
• Add the prepared biryani masala and mix it well.
• Add the chopped tomato to the same pan, add 1/2 Tsp salt and let it cook on medium heat until it becomes completely mushy. 
• Add the chopped mint and fry for 2-3 minutes until the leaves wilt completely. 
• Add the yogurt and mix it in.
• Add the par cooked vegetables and give them a nice stir to get coated with the rest of the ingredients in the pan. 

• Continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until the sauce bubbles up and the liquid evaporates. Switch off, cover and keep aside until ready to use. 

Preparing the rice: 

• Soak basmati rice in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes. 
• Wash, drain the water. 
• Bring to boil about 8 cups of water in a big pot with 1/2 Tsp of ghee. 
• Add the drained basmati rice to the boiling water, reduce heat and cook covered for 7-8 minutes just until the rice grains plump up. 
• Drain the water by pouring it into a colander, run cold water on the rice and let it drain. 

• Pour the soaked saffron all over the rice and give it a gentle mix. 

Assembling and cooking biryani:

• Put a wide and thick bottom pot on the stove.
• Arrange the potato discs all over the bottom of the pot in a single layer to cover. 

• Spread a 1 inch thick layer of rice on top. 

• Spread a layer of vegetable sauce on top. Spread the fried onions on top.
• Spread the remaining rice in a layer and repeat on top with the remaining vegetable sauce. 

• Cover the pot with a snug fitting lid, keep the heat at the lowest and cook for 30 minutes or until the rice grains look all fluffy and your kitchen smells like something from the far away Aladdin's land :-)

Serving Biryani:

• Do not try to mix in the contents, the layering will ensure that every scoop you take has a fair share of all the ingredients. Scoop out spoonfuls including the bottom most potato layer onto a plate. 
• Serve it with a yogurt based raita and maybe some roasted papads or chips on the side. 

Notes: 

• Biryani cooks perfectly well if you have a pot with a snug fitting lid. The idea is to let it cook in slow and low heat for a long time and give the spices time to work their magic.
• If you do not have a snug fitting lid for the cooking pot, don't sweat, use any lid that will cover the top of the vessel, wrap a dish towel around so as to not let the steam escape. 
• If you really want to create the 'handi' effect, make a chapati dough with wheat flour and water, knead it into a 1 inch thick rope, stick it all around the top of the vessel locking any crevices between the lid and the vessel. You can later cut this steamed wheat rope to small chunks, bake it in the oven and eat it as a ghatta with dal. Will post the recipes another time. 
• You can use store bought fried onions to garnish on top but I prefer to fry the onions and add them as a layer in the biryani itself. 

• It is important to have extra amounts of water and watch closely when the rice is cooked for the first time, you just want it to plump up and not really cook. Extra water and the ghee helps it to not become starchy. 
• After you assemble the biryani, the rice cooks in the sauce itself and there is no need to add more water. 
• Layering the bottom of the pot with potatoes prevents burning or sticking, creates a shield between the heat source and the biryani and makes it cook slower. And you get to eat the yummy caramelized potatoes along with the biryani :-).

Pudina Pulav - A warm pot of rice loaded with veggies and some protein

While I wait for Summer for a number of reasons, Farmer's markets top the list. It is easy in India to find the small shops around every street corner that is loaded with fresh vegetables but here I am mostly at the mercy of super stores that ship vegetables and fruits across the globe. I love farmer's market for 2 reasons - one it gives me the opportunity to walk in the fresh air, pick up the vegetables and secondly I get to talk to people that have actually grown and picked the vegetables which makes it special. The place where we live has multiple farmer's markets running almost every day of the week which is an added bonus. One word of advice for farmer's market shopping - do not go looking for 'Indian' vegetables, buy what is available with the vendor. If you look for exotic stuff, chances are that some smart guy is just getting them from afar and selling it as locally grown :-).

Saturday morning, DD & I went to a neighborhood farmer's market and picked up some great looking green peas in shell. The freshness of the peas almost transported me (without any air tickets :-)) to Mysore. I picked some up along with a bagful of wonderfully crimson wine ripe tomatoes.  The peas were a great buy and my first thought was to make some methi-mutter (fenugreek-peas gravy) with butter but since my fenugreek is not yet ready for harvest I settled on the pulav. Although it is called pudina(mint) pulav and mint takes center stage, the fresh peas did wonderfully add to the taste of this dish.

Pulav is a comforting, no-mess, one pot dish. It comes in handy for lunches or dinner and the best part is you can load it up with a choice of vegetables and get your serving of veggies in a tasty morsel. Mint in the pulav enhances the flavor greatly. The veggies that are pulav friendly are beans, carrots, potatoes, peas, cauliflower. simple thumb rule is to use firm, neutral tasting vegetables in the pulav. Avoid radishes, cabbages, beet roots or squashes in pulav :-)

What do you need to make Pudina Pulav? 
2 cups rice - preferably Basmati variety
3.5 cups water
2 cups of chopped vegetables - any favorite combination of beans, carrots, potatoes, peas & cauliflower
2 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp cooking oil
3/4 cup soy chunks - I used nutrela brand (optional)

Pudina masala: 
Mint leaves - picked and tightly packed to make a cup
4 green chilies (adjust chilies to taste)
About 4 - 1 inch long cinnamon pieces
2 cloves
3-4 black pepper corns
1 green cardamom
1 inch piece ginger root
1/4 of a small onion (~1 Tblsp of chopped onions)

How do you make Pudina pulav?

• Wash rice in 2 changes of water and soak it in water for 30 minutes. 
• Prepare the vegetables - wash, peel and chop them into bite size chunks. 
• Take all the ingredients under pudina masala and grind them into a smooth paste with 1/2 cup water. 
• Heat a pan, add oil and the chopped vegetables and salt. Cover and let the vegetables soften for 3-4 minutes on medium heat.

• Add the ground masala and switch off the stove. 

• Drain the soaked rice and add it to the masala veggie mix with remaining water and put it in an electric rice cooker - this is what I did today. See notes for other ways of cooking pulav. 
• I boiled the soy chunks in water for about 8 minutes (package instructions) with 1/4 Tsp salt, drained, squeezed and added them to the pulav before serving. skip this step if you are not using soy chunks. DD loves soy chunks in pulav and hence I add it. 

• Serve hot pulav with any raita of your choice. We had ours with a simple cucumber raita and microwave roasted papads. 

Notes: 

• You can cook pulav on stove top or in pressure cooker. Make sure you keep an eye on the vessel in the stove top method and not let the bottom get burnt. 
• Basmati rice typically takes 1:2(rice:water) ratio but soaking it 30 minutes prior to cooking already softens the grains and since you need a fluffy pulav with grains seperated, do not use more than the specified amount of water. Make sure you account for the water used for grinding the masala.
• You can add a Tblsp of grated coconut to the pudina masala for additional taste.
• Do not add more of cardamom as it tends to get overpowering. 
• Jack up the number of cloves and pepper if you like the garam masala flavor or increase the green chilies if you like the chili spice. While you can play with the amount of spices, keep in mind to have Pudina/mint as the focus of this pulav, the amounts given above make for a 'perfect' blend of flavors and dishes a not too spicy and not bland pulav. 

Variations: 

• One of my aunts deep fries slices of regular white bread and puts it on top of cooked pulav as garnish, it tastes great. 
• Add a handful of cilantro or fresh coriander leaves to the masala while grinding if you like the flavor.