Mushroom Pulav

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing great and getting into the holiday mood. For those in the U.S. hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving. The shops are already full of X'mas decor and holiday goodies. Can't wait for Christmas. :) It's always a time to be happy and merry. I know there has been a long gap in my posts. I had a good holiday at our homes in Kerala and was busy settling down after getting back to Bangalore.

I'm sure you all have already begun preparing your special X'mas menu and I would love to hear about your menu plans. Are you planning an Indian spread or a traditional feast or a fusion of both?! With Christmas and New Year coming up around the corner, I decided to share a yummy vegetarian rice dish specially for my veggie friends, that can be cooked for Christmas or any special day. Simple yet yummy, this dish will leave you feeling very happy.

Usually when we talk of Christmas menu in Kerala, what normally comes to our minds are Mutton or Chicken Biriyani. Back in college, I always had vegetarian friends who would say, why not some vegetarian food for X'mas too?!! And so finally here we have a dish that will make all my veggie buddies extremely excited!

Today I have for you a tasty Mushroom Pulav. Mushroom as a vegetable might be a little bland and sometimes doesn't please everyone's taste buds. But with the right mix of spices and aromatics, this simple vegetable produces a dish quite scrumptious. All the flavours of the exotic spices infuse into the rice giving this pulav the perfect flavour.

We ate this for lunch today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Savour this as a one pot meal or with a chicken curry on the side (for my non-vegetarian friends) and you won't be disappointed. It's delicious.

Without further keeping you waiting, let me share my recipe for Mushroom pulav. Enjoy and keep visiting the blog for more yummy special Christmas recipes coming soon.

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 1 cup

Water - 2 cups

Button Mushroom (sliced thin) - 200 gms

Big Onion (finely chopped) - 1 (big)

Green chilli (slit lengthwise) - 1

Cinnamon - 1 medium piece

Caraway seeds (black cumin seeds/shahi/kala jeera) - 1 tsp (refer notes)

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Green cardamom - 3

Cloves - 4

Bay leaf - 1

Star Anise - 1 or 2 petals

Coriander leaves - 5 tbsp

Mint leaves - 3 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

For Garnish

Cashew - 10

Raisins - 10

Big Onion (finely sliced) - 1 (small)

Method

Wash and soak basmati rice in water for 1/2 an hour. Drain and keep aside.

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker. Once hot, add the caraway seeds and saut'e for 25 seconds. Add chopped onions, green chilli and cinnamon stick and saut'e till onion turns golden brown. Now add the sliced mushroom along with turmeric and salt and saut'e till the mushrooms turn glossy and reduce in quantity. (make sure the water content of the mushroom disappears) Add the cardamom, cloves, star anise and bay leaves and saut'e for 2 minutes. Now add the basmati rice and stir constantly on a medium flame for 5 minutes till the rice turns glossy and starts crackling. Add the water and check for salt. (add more salt if necessary) Add chopped coriander and mint leaves. Close the pressure cooker (do not put the weight) and wait for high steam to come. Once high steam appears, reduce the flame to low or sim and leave it like that exactly for 5 minutes and then switch off flame. Open the lid exactly after half an hour.

Heat ghee in a pan and fry onion, cashew and raisin.

Separate the rice with a fork without pressing it too much. (refer notes) Garnish with fried onion, cashew and raisin.

Notes:

If in case, you do not have caraway seeds, you can use a mixture of cumin seeds and fennel seeds in equal proportion (1/2 tsp cumin seeds & 1/2 tsp fennel seeds)

I have cooked the rice in my own style of cooking basmati rice since I find this an extremely easy method. But you can choose your most convenient method of cooking the same.