Fragrant Paneer Rice

Submitted by eatrealfood

"The heady scents of rose-water and saffron in this is intoxicating. It's a good dish to prepare if you have guests over and want to seduce them with the aroma of the food before it even touches their plate. The core of the recipe here is really the layering of fragrances by the various spices, so you may choose to omit the paneer, or substitute with other pretty and colorful veggies."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 250 g panir (cut in small cubes)
• 2 1⁄2 cups basmati rice
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons ghee
• 3 cloves
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 3 bay leaves
• 5 -6 cardamom pods
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 tablespoons rose water
• 1 pinch saffron
• 2 1⁄2 cups water

directions

1. Heat ghee and add cloves, cinammon, bayleaves and cardamom.
2. After a minute, stir in rice (rinsed and drained), water and salt.
3. Allow to boil, reduce heat and cover.
4. Cook on simmer for 15-20min until the rice is cooked and tender.
5. Add the paneer.
6. Dissolve saffron in rose water.
7. Drizzle this over the rice and toss to mix evenly.
8. Serve with curry.

Reviews

[Sackville]

Fantastic rice recipe! As everyone else has said, this smells amazing while cooking and the taste lives up to the aroma. I added a touch of butter and salt but otherwise followed the recipe as directed. I like Char's idea of browning the cheese with the spices and may try that next time.

 

[Sass Smith]

This was a great side dish, although it might be better cooked alone so you can enjoy the wonderful aromas wafting out of the kitchen! My only tiny complaint was that after all the fabulous smell, the flavor seemed a tiny bit on the bland side, so I added a little more salt and butter. The saffron/rosewater mixture was definitely a plus in its favor.

 

[Bonnie G #2]

Made this to go with recipe#258220 and loved the different spices and flavors and like others have said the smell was great. Fairly easy to put together the taste was different from the steamed rice we usually have. Nice change that we'll be using again.

 

[Kathy228]

This was a wonderful and fragrant rice dish. Easy to make and it tastes good up to 2-days later. Thanks so much for this recipe Varsha.

 

[Charishma_Ramchandani]

This is an AMAZING rice dish, Dear Varsha! We really loved this. I made it for lunch this afternoon and it was a huge hit. My parents will be celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary on the 24th of Oct'05, and starting from today, we're having a series of guests coming over with presents, etc. so the cooking has to be A +. I picked out this rice for today and served it alongwith Gobi Masala which is a recipe of mine that I shall soon be posting. This combination went very well. I used 1 1/2 cups of rice today for this particular recipe and accordingly cut down on the other ingredients. I added the paneer in step 1. What I did is, after stir-frying the dry spices in oil(I used oil instead of ghee), I added the paneer which I had cut into 1 inch cubes and stir-fried this till it was lightly browned. Once it was turning brownish from white colour, I sprinkled the garam masala powder on it and stir-fried lightly being careful not to break the paneer pieces. Hence, the only additional ingredient I used is about 2-3 pinches of garam masala powder. This clicked real well and I think you should give it a try. It really added some awesome flavour to the rice. I did not have saffron on hand, so I used turmeric powder as a substitute. I found the idea of using rose water EXCELLENT. What amazing aroma wafted across the lunch table...aah my aunts were so happy with this recipe. I found that this recipe is very easy to put together and the end result is fabulous, so I would really recommend this to many people in my friends and family, and hope that you get many more good reviews for this A++++ recipe. I can't thank you enough for sharing this super delight. Definitely this is a keeper for generations to come!