basmati rice

Boiled Rice

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Hyderabadi biriyaniToday I am posting an important process that is most often an intermediary step during the preparation of dum biriyani, hyderabadi biriyani, fried rice, etc. Boiling rice is a traditional process of cooking rice that was in existence before the advent of pressure cookers.

hyderabadi biriyaniBoiling rice is a simple yet an efficient process where even the byproduct, i.e., the water (vadi kanchi) is consumed as well.

The main purpose of boiling rice is to make the rice fluffy when cooked. Make sure to add salt while the water boils. Constant checking of the texture of the rice is necessary.

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Boiled Rice
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • Basmati rice – 1 cup
  • Water – as required
  • Salt - ½ to 1 tsp or as required
Instructions
  1. Wash and soak the rice for 25 minutes. Drain the water and keep it aside.
  3. Collect enough water in a wide open, thick bottomed vessel and bring it to boil in a high flame.
  5. When the water starts to boil, simmer the flame to medium low. Add enough salt and again bring it boil. If your making biriyani, add shahi jeera, bay leaf and oil at this stage. Check for the salt. Water has to be salty.
  7. Add the soaked rice to the boiling water and stand aside. Wait until froth is formed and the rice starts to dance on top. At this time rice would have cooked 70%. It takes only a minute so be sure to stand next to it and switch off the flame. Remaining 30% will be cooked in the hot water itself. Leave it for a minute and check if the rice is completely cooked by pressing in between your finger or tasting it.
  9. Meanwhile take a strainer and place it on top of a wide vessel.
  11. Immediately pour the cooked rice into the strainer and completely strain the water.
  13. Leave it for about 5 minutes until all the water is completely strained.
  14. Use this beautifully cooked boiled rice for making fried rice, hyderabadi biriyani, etc.

Egg Fried Rice

Paal Payasam

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Paal payasamToday is Father’s Day! A father is a hero to every daughter and Father’s day is a way to honor them for their love, unwavering support and kindness. So Happy Father’s Day to all fathers out there. On the occasion of this important day, I wanted to prepare something sweet that personifies their nature i.e.,  being sweet 🙂 I decided on Paal Payasam, a south Indian dessert item that is very tasty. I love the Paal Payasam that my MIL makes. The recipe that I have given below is my MIL’s.

Paal PayasamPaal Payasam is a classic dish that uses very few ingredients i.e., rice, sugar and milk. Paal Payasam is one of my favorite payasams (similar to pudding in general) and my sister’s too. Preparing this dish is time consuming but to allevate some of that I used whole milk because one of the steps in making Paal Payasam is to reduce the milk to half but using whole milk saves time since it is already thick.

144cPaal Payasam can either be served hot or cold but tastes excellent when served cold. Try this sweet dessert in your kitchen and I hope you too will enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

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Paal Payasam
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 to 5 cups
 
Ingredients
  • Raw rice or basmati rice or seeraga samba rice – ½ cup
  • Ghee – 3 tbsp, divided
  • Milk – 1 liter
  • Sugar – 1 cup
  • Cashews – 1 tbsp
  • Cardamom powder – a generous pinch
Instructions
  1. Wash and soak the rice in water for half an hour. Later crush the rice using your hands and keep it aside.
  2. Heat a pan or pressure cooker and add a tbsp of ghee. Add the rice and fry until golden brown.
  3. Add a cup of milk and cook or pressure cook until the rice is well cooked. Add the remaining milk and boil until the milk is reduced to half and turns slight brown in color.
  4. Add sugar and mix well. Boil for another few minutes stirring occasionally.
  5. Heat the remaining ghee in a tempering ladle, fry the cashews until golden brown and add to the paayasam.
  6. Finish it off by adding cardamom powder. Serve cold and enjoy!
Notes
1.It takes a very long time around 45 minutes to reduce the milk. So I would suggest using whole milk to reduce your work.
2.Milk will not boil if you add clean marbles (golli gundu) to the milk.
3.Add or reduce sugar according to your own taste.
4.You could also add dates to this recipe which tastes excellent.

Paal Payasam

INDO-CHINESE FRIED RICE

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070Though fried rice is a Chinese delicacy, it is very popular in India as well. It is a popular street food there.  Fried rice in India is a fusion of Indian spices and Chinese method of preparation, aptly named as Indo-Chinese fried rice. Indo-Chinese fried rice has become so popular that I have seen them as a menu item in some Chinese restaurants here!080My inspiration for indo-chinese egg fried rice is my uncle. He is a very good cook and one of his specialties is egg fried rice. Whenever we visit them (Toronto, Canada), we can see it in the menu on one of the days.
068The recipe that I have given below is a tried and tested Indo-Chinese version.
Note:- Fried rice prepared in restaurants has ajinomoto as one of the ingredients but I personally don’t prefer using it and it is not healthy as well (read somewhere that it has carcinogenic properties). Also, the one time I used it, I did not notice any difference in the taste.071Delicious, right?

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Egg Fried Rice (Indo – Chinese)
Recipe type: Lunch/Dinner
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Indo-Chinese fried rice is a variation of regular chinese fried rice with indian spices. Check out the easy to prepare instructions and enjoy hot fried rice, Indian style!
Ingredients
  • Gingelly oil - 1 tbsp
  • Green Onion (thinly sliced, green & white separated) - ¼ cup
  • Garlic, minced - 1 tbsp
  • Ginger, minced - 1 tbsp
  • Red Bell Pepper - ¼ cup
  • Green peas - ½ cup
  • Carrots -1/4 cup
  • Cabbage - ¼ cup (optional)
  • Egg - 1
  • Cooked basmati rice (or any long grained variety) - 1 cup
  • Soy Sauce - 1 tbsp or to taste
  • White pepper – 1 tsp
  • Chilli garlic sauce – 1 tsp (I used sriracha)
Instructions
  1. Cook the rice and set aside to cool naturally or refrigerate it for at least 3 hours – Drizzle in few drops of gingely oil and mix the rice carefully until grains are easily separated. Do this once before it goes into the refrigerator.
  2. Make sure to keep all the ingredients ready before proceeding.
  3. Heat a wok or any deep frying pan (I would prefer non-stick) in high heat with gingely oil. Add in green onions(only white), ginger and garlic. Stir for 5-6 seconds or until the aroma aroma spreads.
  4. Add rest of the vegetables. Make sure nothing burns given that you are cooking in high flame. And you want the vegetables to be cooked but still crunchy (that’s the reason we chopped them into smaller and uniform pieces). Keep stirring for 40 - 50 seconds.
  5. Now it is time to add the eggs to the sides of the vegetables. Sauté the eggs until well cooked and scrambled (In restaurants they used to add the eggs once after the rice is added. But I prefer this way).
  6. Next add the cooked (refrigerated) rice. Stir until all the vegetables and eggs are combined.
  7. Next add the soy sauce, chilli sauce and white pepper. Stir for the flavors to combine. Make sure you don't stir it too much because that might make the rice mushy.
  8. Garnish with scallion greens. Serve hot with chilli chicken or butter chicken or any sides of your choice.
Notes
1. soak basmati rice in water for 20 minutes before boiling. For 1 cup of rice add 11/2 cups of water.
2. Refrigerate the cooked rice so that you can retain its texture while making fried rice.
3. Chinese foods are mostly (or as far as i know) cooked in high flame. so make sure you keep all the ingredients ready well before starting.
4. Non Vegetarian lovers could also add cooked minced meat right after the eggs are scrambled and before the rice is added. Vegetarians can skip this entire sequence.

 

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