Vegetable Pulao with coconut milk

Ages ago I have posted recipe of the basic Vegetable pulao. Today I'm going to share a variation of making Veg Pulao with coconut milk. Coconut milk enhance the flavour of the rice & the mild sweet taste would be blissful enough to satisfy our taste buds. I will remember to snap a pic & update it very soon.

Ingredients

Basmati rice – 2 cups

Water – 1 1/2 cups (boiled)

Coconut Milk - 1 1/2 cups

Green peas – 1/2 cup

Carrots – 3 (cut into 1" pieces)

Beans – ½ cup (cut into 1" pieces)

Potato – 1 (cut into 1" pieces)

Onion – 2 sliced

Green chillies – 5 slit

Ginger – 1" piece

Garlic – 6 cloves

Cardamom – 3

Cinnamon – 2″ piece

Cloves – 3

Snauf – 1 tsp

Bay leaves – 2

Salt – to taste

Oil – 2 tbsp

Ghee – 4 tsp

Cashewnuts – few for garnishing

Walnuts - few for garnishing

Method

Wash and soak the basmati rice in water for at least 30 minutes. 

Grind cinnamon, snauf, cloves, cardamom, green chillies, ginger, and garlic to a coarse paste.

Heat the oil and 2 tsp ghee together in a pan or pressure cooker, when its warm add the ground spice paste and fry for a minute.

Then add the onions and salt fry till the onions are light brown. 

Now add all the vegetables and sauté for about 10 minutes. 

Strain the rice and add to the vegetables.  Mix until rice is combined with vegetables but be very gentle as you don't want to break the rice.

Pour the coconut milk & boiled water over it, mix and check for salt. When it starts boiling sprinkle the bay leaf and close the pressure cooker lid and let it cook for two quick whistles or one long whistle. Switch off the stove and let it cool. If using electric rice cooker, cook as per usual. 

While the rice cooking, in a pan add remaining ghee to fry cashew nuts and walnuts until golden brown.

Garnish the rice with fried walnuts and cashews. Serve it with capsicum raita or any side dish of your choice.

Notes:

The water rice ratio I follow for basmati rice is 1cup rice:1 1/2 cup hot water.

If you prefer more coconut flavour use more of it & adjust the water ratio.

You might want to adjust the chillies as per your taste because of the coconut milk.

Vegetable Biryani-Restaurant Style

Vegetable Biryani is one of my favorite! Of course it's many people's favorite all over the world. This particular recipe I adapted the cooking style of chicken dum biryani. For most of the biryani the basic ingredients are almost the same. It is very easy to prepare biryani if you get things ready before starting your cooking process.

Ingredients: 

One heartful of love, peaceful mind, & willingness to cook are the key ingredients which will make your biryani extra special!

Biryani Masala

Green cardamom - 5

Black Cardamom - 1

Bay leaf - 6small or 2 big

Peppercorns - 1tsp

Cinnamon sticks - 1 big piece

Star anise - 2

Cloves - 5

Mace - 1tsp

Cumin powder - 2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tbsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4tsp

To Marinate

Lime juice - 1 small 

Yogurt - 2 tbsp 

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Mint leaves - one handful

Coriander leaves - one handful

Green chillies - 3 or 4 numbers

Oil

Salt - to taste

Mixed Vegetables - 2 cups

(I used cauliflower, carrot, potato, beans)

Rose water - 1/2 tbsp

Fried Onion - one handful

Saffron - 1 tsp

Milk - 1 tbsp

Basmati Rice - 1 and 1/2 cup

Water - 2 1/2 cups

Method:

Vegetable Marination

1. Prepare powder using the ingredients mentioned under the Biryani Masala.

2. Chop roughly coriander & mint leaves. 

3. Grind the ginger,garlic and green chillies into fine paste. 

       When all the ingredients are ready, wash and cut vegetables into equal pieces of medium size.

4. Take the cut vegetables in a bowl; to that add biryani masala powder, chopped coriander & mint leaves, ginger-garlic paste, lime juice, yogurt, oil and salt. Mix well, cover & keep it aside for at least 60 minutes to help vegetables absorb the flavors.

Basmati Rice cooking method

5. Wash and soak basmati rice for one hour before making biryani.

6. Soak saffron in warm milk.

7. Boil 2&1/2 cups of water add oil, & salt. Check for salt and adjust as per taste.

8. Drain the excess water from the soaked rice and add it to the boiling water; cook until the rice is 65% done.

Switch off the stove & drain the water.

Fried Onion

9. Cut onion into thin small strips & deep fry until crispy. Drain & keep it aside for garnishing. 

Biryani final stage cooking:

10. Take Handi or heavy bottomed cookware; place the marinated vegetables at the bottom of the dish. 

11. Add semi cooked & drained basmati rice on top of it and spread it evenly.

12. Evenly sprinkle fried onion; drizzle the saffron-milk, rose water, and ghee (if preferred) on top.

13. If you have chapathi dough, stick it on the sides of the Handi/cook pot lid to create a tight seal of the lid on the cook pot. If you don't have chapathi dough, keep a weight on top of the lid.

14. Cook the biryani on high flame/heat for 5 mins; reduce the flame/heat to very low & place the biryani pot/handi on top of a frypan. Let it cook for 30 mins. 

15. Switch off the stove, wait 10 mins for the biryani to set. Open the lid carefully, mix the biryani very carefully.

Yummy restaurant style Vegetable Biryani   is ready to eat.

It is one of the low time consuming preparation process. Keeping things ready before starting the preparation, will make your life more easy. You can use the store bought biryani masala but make sure you add some freshly ground masala to enhance the biryani flavor.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe. Don't for get to post your comments.