Vegetable Pulao

Another from my Indian cooking class - very easy to make, it's basically frozen veges with a few spices, then mix the cooked rice through.

Ingredients:
5 Tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
2 brown cardamoms
1 cup basmati rice
2 tsp salt (1 for rice, 1 for veges)
1 cup mixed vegetables

Method:
1. Soak rice in cold water. Pour 4-5 cups of water in a pot and add 1 tsp salt.
2. Add rice and boil until cooked, drain rice in sieve and cool under cold water. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add cumin, bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamoms. Fry for 5 seconds then add vegetables and fry for 5-10 minutes or until cooked. Remove from heat.
4. Take a big mixing bowl, put rice and vegetables in and mix well.
5. Transfer into a serving dish and heat in the microwave for 4-5 minutes and garnish with fresh coriander.

Serve hot with chicken or lamb.

Palak Meat (Meat in Spinach Gravy)

This is from Week 2 of my Indian cooking class - we had a weeks' break due to snow in Wellington, but we still get 6 classes, which is great.

Ingredients:
300-400g diced lamb
1 tsp cumin seeds

Coarsely grind the next three spices together:
2 green and 2 black cardamoms
4 cloves
2" stick of cinnamon (note - just a thin piece, not an entire curled up piece like you buy at the supermarket - break it up into pieces of bark)

1 bay leaf
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 tsp crushed ginger-garlic (one of each, or two of either one)
2 large chopped tomatoes or 4 Tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
300-500g frozen spinach
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder

Method:
1. Cook spinach in ½ cup of water until well cooked.
2. Add a little salt to the spinach
3. Blend it or churn in food processor to make a thick paste (we used a stick blender). Keep it aside.
4. In a large saucepan, pour 3 Tbsp oil. When hot, add bay leaf and cumin seeds. Then add onions and saute until golden brown.
5. Add ginger-garlic and saute.
6. Add tomatoes and saute until the oil leaves the masala.
7. Add tumeric, chilli powder and salt.
8. Add meat and the coarsly ground cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon. Saute meat for 10 minutes until you see the oil separating from the meat.
9. Add 2½ cups of water and let the meat cook on a medium heat.
10. When the meat is well cooked, add the spinach puree and cumin/coriander powders and cook on a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Serve with roti or rice.

Ghee Pulao

I'm doing a 6-week Indian cooking class at the local high school at the moment, and we just had our first class last night (OK, I admit it, the class was actually the inspiration behind starting this blog, so I don't lose the recipes!)

So each week I'll post the recipes that we work with - I think we'll be doing two recipes a week.

The first recipe this week is rice, to go with a main meal, which this week was Murg Masala.

However... Ghee Pualo:

Ingredients
• Basmati rice 1 cup
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• Onion (medium) 1
• Ghee or oil 3 Tbsp
• Salt 1 tsp or to taste

Method
1. Wash and soak rice for 10 minutes in two cups of water.
2. Peel and slice onion lengthwise into thin slices.
3. Heat ghee/oil in a pot, add cumin seeds and once it starts to crackle, add onions.
4. Fry until brown.
5. Add rice with water and add salt. Cover and bring to boil.
6. Reduce heat to low, stir once and cover with lid again. Cook until all water is absorbed.
7. Serve hot.

Serving suggestions: serve with Chicken Masala or any other mains.