Dad's Half-way Sindhi & Half-way Yellow Rice Pulao

Charishma_Ramchandani's Note:

Dad and I had made Doodhi Chane ki dal(Yellow lentils and white pumpkin lentil curry)on 17th May night for dinner. We wanted to have yellow rice with it as that's the combo that goes "the best", undoubtedly. However, I'd ne'er made the yellow pulao before, so what naturally occurred to me was to use turmeric powder to the rice while cooking the spices(viz. green cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick) in it, and then saute the rice lightly in the same pot, followed by water, and then ofcourse bringing it to a boil, then cooking it on a simmer until all the water has been absorbed by the rice. However, when I was thinking along these lines, I remembered I had my mom's recipe book in my recipe collection cupboard. I fetched that and searched for the yellow pulao recipe. Funny as it was, my eyes fell upon a recipe that mom had titled as, "Yellow rice(Sindhi style)". Voila, I was excited as I thought that I'd found the recipe. So, within minutes the knife was set in action and my chopping board was ready with all the required ingredients. Dad and me started cooking the pulao with, let's say, "delicious dreams" of what was to follow 30 minutes later;-). Half-way through the cooking process, we realised we were making the WRONG RECIPE!!!! Zoiks! LOL:)) So, between the main chef and the sous chef(you decide who wears which crown!), we mutually agreed not to use the chopped tomatoes in the pulao(Strange as it is, tomatoes have been giving me a hard time of late, especially when I was in some kind of a catch 22 situation in deciding whether or not to use these in Hyderabadi Biryani I'd made a week ago). The fire was lit, the pot was all set & the cooking process began. What followed 35 minutes later, was UNBELIEVABLE: Dad had prepared the most nicest, aromatic and the prettiest lightest yellow colour pulao I had ever seen! One thing's certain: If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, it has simply got to be through this pulao. Try it and let me know what you think of this precious recipe(big smiles)

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 ½ cups basmati rice , cleaned,washed,soaked in water for 30 minutes and drained before using
• 6 cups water
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 4 green cardamoms
• 2 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 5 sprigs of fresh curry leaves
• 4 cloves garlic , peeled,washed and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon cumin seed
• 1 green chilies , washed,ends trimmed and the rest of the chilli should be chopped

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot on medium flame for 3 minutes.
2. Once the oil is hot, toss in the cinnamon stick, cardamoms, cloves and bay leaves.
3. Stir-fry these spices gently for 2 minutes until your kitchen is wafting with the aroma of the spices.
4. Add the cumin and mustard seeds followed by the green chillies.
5. Allow them{the mustard and cumin seeds} to battle as the splutter and crackle in the pot.
6. Once they stop fighting in the pot{pun intended!
7. },i.
8. e, to say when they stop spluttering and crackling, add the curry leaves.
9. Stir-fry for 3 minutes.
10. Add garlic and stir-fry now until the raw smell of the garlic is gone and it turns golden brown.
11. Stir in the turmeric powder.
12. Saute all the spices and other ingredients with the turmeric powder for 1- 2 minutes.
13. Then, add the drained rice and stir in the water.
14. Increase heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously.
15. Once it comes to a boil, lower flame to medium heat, and cook the rice, stirring continuously, until nearly all the water has been absorbed by the rice.
16. When there is just a little water left, reduce heat to very low and cook, stirring continuously, until all the water has been absorbed by the rice.
17. Remove from flame.
18. Fluff rice with a fork.
19. Serve this delicious pulao as a side dish with a curry or as we prefer with our Doodhi Chane ki dal{recipe number:76992} and some fat-free yogurt on the side.
20. Your in for the best Indian food ever!
21. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Spice girl]

I made this exactly as the recipe states, very simple and easy to make. And to go with it on the side I made recipe# 18987. WOW it was a lovely combination My hubby and myself throughly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

[JustJanS]

I was a bit reluctant to heat 1 tablespoon of oil for 3 minutes (I thought I'd burn the house down ;-) ) so I reduced that by half. Even so I think I scorched the first ingredients to hit the oil. I had to use dried curry leaves unfortunately, but otherwise made the recipe as stated. I did add a heaped teaspoon of salt to the finished rice as it seemed to lack flavour. That fixed it nicely. This was good, but I'm such a fan of plain steamed rice, it's pretty hard to please me.