- Servings: 2-3
- Preparation time: 5-6 minutes.
- Frying onion time: 4-5 minutes.
- Cooking time: 12-14 minutes.
- Total time: 25 minutes.
Pulao makes popular meal choice for many; it is a dish consisting of rice, flavoured with spices. According to legend it was invented in 4th century BC by Alexander the Great, who instructed his cook to prepare filling rice dish for army, the taste was super delicious and very fragrant.
My favourite memories when I was growing up; every Sunday my mom would cook this aromatic pulao along with “Mutton Curry”. It was a blissful staple menu for us as a kid, we used to eat 2-3 times on Sunday. On the festive occasions it was served with “Chana Dal Tadka” and “Aaloo Dum”
She still prepare for me at the lunch whenever I visit her, because she knows that I love it. It is good for travelling purposes too.
I am sure the smell will entice your appetite…
Ingredients:
- Basmati rice: 250 gm
- Ghee: 100gm
- Onion: 100gm
- Fried Kaju (Cashew nut): 10-12 no. (For garnishing)
- Dry grapes: 10 gm (For garnishing)
- Bay leaf: 1 no.
- Cumin: half teaspoon.
- Sugar: half teaspoon
- Salt: 1 teaspoon
- Water: 500ml
Ingredients for Masala Potali:
- Clove: 3 no.
- Cinnamon: 2 inch stick
- Green cardamom: 2 no.
- Black cardamom: 1 no.
- Mace: 2 inch piece
- Cumin: Half teaspoon
- Ginger: 1 inch piece (grated)
Preparation:
- Clean and wash rice. Keep aside in a sieve.
- Chop onion longitudinally and soak in milk. Keep aside.
- Take a muslin cloth 5 square inch. Put Potali masala ingredient and tie. Masala Potali is ready. Keep aside.
Method:
- Heat ghee in a fry pan; add chopped onion which is soaked in the milk after squeezing extra milk; stir fry on high flame till it gets light brown in colour, takeout, keep aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoon of ghee in cooker body; add cumin and bay leaf, when it starts be sputter.
- Add washed rice; stir fry for 3-5 minutes, the moment some of rice begins to change colour.
- Add hot water, masala Potali, salt and sugar; place cooker on high flame and bring to full cooking pressure.
- Put off the flame; allow cooker be cool. Keep aside.
- After cooling the cooker, stir lightly the pulao with the help of fork; add half of the fried onion, cashew nut, and dry grapes.
- Serve pulao in a rice plate; decorate with left over fried onion, fried cashew nut, and dry grapes.
Aromatic Pulao by Nag Ratna Sahu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.