Vegetable Pulao

Vegetable Pulao is one of the 'Savior' dishes in many kitchens. If your tired/ in a hurry/ falling short of ingredients for other dishes, you can always make this one. It gives way to a lot of room for innovation. You can use either one or any number of vegetables, make it spicy or mild easily moulding it to suit your mood for the day. :-)

My mom made this on Sundays combining it with Bagara Baingan (brinjals in gravy) sometimes. I dont eat brinjals and so she used to add tomatoes to it just so I would eat ;-) We call it fried rice at our home. I am not sure what it should be called, but one thing I know is that it tastes great :-)

Well, last weekend a group of friends and me decided to go on a trip to Niagara Falls. (Pictures will follow soon). We had planned to start at around 1:00 in the afternoon and we had to finish our lunch before we hit the road. Pulao came to our rescue as it is a wonderful stand-alone dish . It took me just 20 mins to get it ready for the cooker. I wasn't in the mood of adding potatoes, but they gel well with this dish. (My dad is always teasing me that after coming to the US potatoes have become our staple food..!!!)

Vegetables:

• 1 cup - Carrots

• 1 cup - Cauliflower florets

• 1 cup - Green peas

• 1 cup - Green bell peppers

• 1 nos - Onion

Spices:

• 2 nos - Bay leaves ( biryani leaves)

• 7-8 nos - Cloves

• 2 nos - Cinnamon sticks (1 inch each)

• 3 nos - Cardamom ( Elaichi)

• 3 nos - Garlic pods

• 1 Tbsp - Mint leaves ( dried)

• 3 nos - Mace

• 1 inch Ginger piece sliced

Other Ingredients:

• 5 cups - Rice

• 3 Tbsp - Oil

• Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash and soak the rice before you start with the vegetables, this makes the rice nice n fluffy and the rice gets cooked faster.
2. Chop onions and the other vegetables. I used frozen carrots, cauliflower, peas and fresh capsicum. Thaw the forzen vegetables and reserve.
3. Heat some oil in a wide saucepan and add the all the spices. Ones the raw smell vanishes, add the onions and saute.
4. When the onions are done add the peas and capsicum and continue to saute till they are cooked. I add the peas in this step, as I like them to turn a little crisp on the outer skin.
5. Now add the rest of the vegetables and salt. Cover the sauepan and let them cook for about 5-7 mins.
6. Drain and add the soaked rice and mix till the rice and vegetables blend well.
7. Transfer the whole to a electric cooker and add water for the rice and veggies. If you added salt in Step 5 then taste and add salt accordingly. The pulao tastes best when the rice grains are fluffy and separate.
   
8. Garnish with Cilantro leaves and serve hot with raita or any north Indian gravy.

Note:

• Any combination of vegetables and spices can be tried. Adding cashews and raisins will make the pulao rich and definitely tasty ;-).

• If using a pressure cooker, the whole procedure can be done in the cooker pan and water can be added once the rice and vegetables mix well.

• Instead of oil, you can use equal measures of ghee and oil. This gives a mild, comforting taste. Ghee can be added to the cooker aong with the water.

This is my entry for Paz's 'From My Rasoi #6 - For the Love of Rice' event.