Basmatic rice cooked with cumin, raisind and cashewnuts

My passion for gardening is on the rise for the past few weeks. Since I am facing irregular weather with heavy showers alternating with bright sunshine, I have postponed my plans for outdoor gardening to Apr/May this year. So, I have bought few indoor plants like cactus, jade, devil plant (called money plant in India/South Asia) for the home. Everytime I see these plants on my kitchen bench, I am reminded of grade 3 classes where I learnt about the release of fresh air by the plants. Finally, I have practically applied my class 3 notes on my kitchen (is this called "3 Idiots" movie effect huh??? - applying academics into practice:-)



The indoor plants take in the carbon dioxide and releases oxygen for us. They also brighten the room and they look amazing against the dull walls. We could grow bamboo, bonsai plants, Aloe vera plants, tulsi, to name a few. Many of us are scared of bugs these plants might attract. Luckily, I haven't personally faced any such problems. But the famous stingy neem oil is enough to get rid of these plants bugs and spiders.

Energy efficient homes and office space prevent the circulation of fresh air. This results in increase in VOC (volatile organic compounds) like benzene and formaldehyde. These are carcinogenic in nature. The experiments conducted by NASA researchers suggests that the usage of living green and flowering plants can improve the air quality and invariably reduces the exposure to VOC. It is recommended that a 6 inch plant per 100 square feet space purifies air better. No wonder that the researchers have rightly re-named these plants as "Biological life support system". Don't postpone any further to live a healthy life. Start planning your gardening right away!!!

The post for today is a simple rice delicacy made with the aromatic basmati rice and flavourful shahi jeera. The addition of ghee roasted cashes and raisins makes the dish taste absolutely delectable with spicy Indian curries. The sweetness from the soft raisins and onions balances brilliantly with the crunchy nuts and mild green chillies. This is a quick fix rice dish for parties/family dinners and is sure to impress your guests.
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
3 cups basmati rice
1 large onions - thinly sliced
1/2 tbs - ginger-garlic paste
2-3 green chillies - slit
1 tbs shahi jeera/ black cummin seeds (available in Indian grocery stores)
1/2 cup - raisins
1/2 cup - cashews
4.5 cups water + excess water for soaking
1 tbs oil/ butter/ ghee
Salt to taste

Method

Soak the basmati in bowl filled 3/4th with water for minimum 30minutes. Also soak the raisins in 1cup hot water for 15minutes. Drain water and set them aside.
Heat oil/butter/ghee in a deep cooking pan. Once they are hot (don't burn the oil), add the shahi jeera, cashews and swollen raisin and cook for 3-5 minutes till the cashews brown a bit. In the following order, add the green chillies, ginger-garlic paste and onions and cook for further 2-3 minutes. Add salt and let the onions soften further.
Now add the soaked rice to the above mixture and give it a gentle mix. Don't break the rice. Pour 4.5 cups water to the pan and cook covered on a low flame for 12-15 minutes. Turn off the flame and let it rest for minimum 5 minutes.

Serve warm with spicy Indian curries/chips/ pappads.

Lemon rice - A South Indian delight

Lemon rice is one of the easiest Indian dish and they are so subtle in flavor but exotic in taste. Every working parent will fix this as a lunch box menu at least on one day of the week. They are so easy to fix and goes great even with a simple store-bought chips. I am a great addict to it since childhood. The roasted peanuts and urad dhal makes every bite crunchy and lovely curry leaves infuses a earthly flavor in every mouth. The addition of asafoetida, ginger and green chillies leaves me with the burst of lovely taste in my mouth. Being greatly influenced by Giada, an Italian cook ,I ended up adding lemon zest to this rice. Trust me, I felt nice about its addition and the taste was awesome. Unless it is really good, S would never go for couple of more serving for a vegetarian dish. S enjoyed few more serving which is so unusual of him and I was so excited about that.

I would like to have my lemon rice with potato curry or egg curry (recipe here) or chicken dry fry. Here is the recipe for the divine rice dish.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked rice - Cold
2 tsp lemon zest
2 lemon (yellow) - juice
1" ginger - chopped
3 green chillies - slit
1-2 tsp asafoetida
10-12 curry leaves
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbs urad dhal
1/2 tbs peanuts
1/4 tbs cashewnuts (optional)
3 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tbs oil

Method
Heat oil in a kadai. Once they get heated up, throw in the mustard and let it splutter. Then add the urad dhal, ginger,asafoetida, curry leaves, green chillies and saute for couple of minutes. Now add the peanuts and cashewnuts and cook for 10 minutes on medium flame. Add the turmeric powder, salt and lemon zest and give a complete mix. Cook till the raw smell disappears. Turn the flame off and squeeze the lemons. Check for salt. Add the cold rice and mix well. Serve warm with chips/ any vegetable fry/ egg curry /dry chicken curry.

This is my entry for Sudeshna and Sunita's event Think Spice: Think Turmeric




Update: 03.20.2012
Lemon quinoa - Warm quinoa salad with South Indian spices

Fried rice with eggs and shrimp

We love chinese food and this quick fix fried rice is no exception. This dish came from little fresh shrimp I bought that evening. S wanted Indian shrimp curry which I made couple of weeks back. The recipe can be found here. But by the time we reached home it was 9 and the cleaning the entire bag would take 1 more hour and cooking the Indian curry would take another 30-45 mins. So I decided to reserve the cleaning for the next day and took just 15 shrimps and cleaned them quick. I scanned through my fridge for few veggies and found left over rice and eggs too! I decided to make a simple fried rice with few sauces that I bought couple of months back. The post for today is a simple yet yummy egg shrimp fried rice. The crunchy shrimps and soft scrambled eggs blends so beautifully with the cooked rice and flavorful sauces.


Ingredients
15 shrimps - cleaned & deshelled
3 eggs
3 cups cold rice
1/4 cup red bell peppers - finely chopped
1/4 cup spring onions - finely chopped
1/4 cup carrot - finely chopped
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tbs soya sauce
1 tbs sherry wine
1tbs red cooking wine
Olive oil
Salt to taste

Method

Heat a wok and add little oil. Once they get heated up, throw in the shrimp and cook till they turn orange and roll up to a circle. Remove and place over a tissue to remove excess oil.

Now break the eggs into the heated wok and scramble the eggs till done. Remove and keep aside.
Then add little oil to the hot wok and add the cold rice. Give it a complete mix and saute for another 2-3 min. Remove and set aside.

Pour in 1 tbs oil and once they get heated up , add the veggies and turn the flame high. Saute for 1-2 min and pour the oyster sauce, soya sauce, sherry wine and red cooking wine. Cook for 2-3 min and then add the shrimps and eggs. Finally add the rice and give it a complete mix. Adjust salt to taste.

Paal payasam (Indian pudding) to celebrate Rahman's Oscar

JAI HO! (meaning "let there be victory" in Hindi) --- This famous track in Slumdog Millionaire begins with the lovely sound of guitar, grows into an opera with a Bollywood touch and ends with the notes of Violins.The more I listen to it , the more I feel proud about Rahman.

Indian music maestro A.R.Rahman became the first Indian to bag two Oscars for his mind blowing work in "Slumdog Millionaire". He received the much-awaited Oscar on the night of the 81st Academy Awards.

He ended the acceptance speech by saying "Yella pugazhum Eraivanuke" (meaning "All praise for the Lord" in Tamil). Congrats to Rasool Pookutty as well.

Its a proud moment for every Indian and especially for Chennaites!

My humble city - Chennai was so colorful with fireworks last evening. There were proud smiles every where and Rahman's famous tracks was heard in every tea stall/auto/bus stand. There was a celebration time in Chennai.

I kept watching Rahman Oscar acceptance speech in every news channel possible and it was indeed an emotional moment for me.I wanted to celebrate this in my own style.

For the Tamilian in me : What more than a simple bowl of warm Paal Payasam will convey my happiness?



The post for today is Paal Payasam, condensed sweetened milk dessert cooked with little dash of Indian rice. Its a famous Tamil delicacy. Paal means milk in Tamil and Payasam means pudding inTamil. This recipe was taught to my mom by her sister S and its our all time favorite one for festivals and birthday celebrations.

This dessert is one of the favorite of Lord Krishna and is cooked during Janmashtami (Lord Krishna's Birthday). It is deliberately slow-cooked and involves constant stirring. The mild aroma of the cardamoms are beautifully infused into incredible rice cooked in milk.The smell of the boiling milk adds a divine smell to the kitchen air. At the end of it, I am sure its worth the wait and the silken creamy milk pudding is sure to rekindle the hidden Tamilian taste bud of yours.Slurp!




Ingredients

• 2 tsp long Indian rice (No basmati rice)
• 500ml whole milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 2-3 cardamon pods
• 8-10 saffron strands
• 10-12 roasted unsalted cashwenuts

Method

Heat the milk in a large cooking vessel and bring it to a boil. Add in the rice. Once boiled lower the flame and cook for 1 hour with constant stirring. Spoon out few rice grains and mash it with curved end of the spoon or finger. The rice should get mashed by this time and thats the right texture we want.

Now add in the sugar and cardamon and cook on a low flame for 15-20min.Garnish with saffron strands and roasted cashewnuts. Serve warm. Enjoy!

or you can follow this easy method:

Clean a cooking pan and set the lid with gasket and whistle. Clean the rice in running water.Drain the water and keep the rice aside.Pour in the whole milk along with the rice, sugar, cardamon and cook for 10-12 whistles.Switch off the flame and let it cool. Transfer it to a clean vessel. Add saffron strands and roasted cashews. Serve warm.