Rasam Powder

Rasam is one of the important items for me and my husband. Sometimes, just rice with hot rasam and a papad is more than enough. Some of you may be making fresh rasam powder as you cook rasam. For me, my mother's rasam powder is a must have at all times. Not sure how different the recipe from others, but this works for me perfectly. Of all the things my mother made before going back to India, this is one of them. Gosh... now even the rasam powder makes me miss her :-(

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Coriander seeds
2. 1/4 cup Cumin seeds
3. 1/4 cup Pepper corns
4. 1/2 cup Red chillies
5. 2 tbsp Toor dal
6. 1 tsp Hing (Asafoetida)

Method:

1. Dry roast all the ingredients separately except hing
2. Grind them all together in a coffee grinder/mixie smoothly
3. Sift it to remote any large chunks left from coriander or redchilli tops
4. Repeat the sifting and grind until you get a good smooth power (need not be very smooth like flour, somewhat course like fine rava is ok)

Rasam powder

Vegetable Pulao

I have not been able to do a post in a long time. With my parents visiting me, I hardly do anything around the house :-) Today, I asked my mother to make the veggie pulao she made a few weeks ago for my sis-in-law who is also visiting us this week. It was so fresh, fluffy, with the masala not overpowering, I loved it. I assigned the photography task to my lovely sis-in-law. They did a great job.
Gosh, what will I do when everyone goes back to their lives :-( Atleast this lovely recipe is for me to keep....

Here is the step-by-step recipe for Vegetable Pulao.

Ingredients:

1.   2 cups Basmati rice
2.   2 carrots - diced (Looks like my mom used my Ninja though)
3.   1 cup of cut beans
4.   1 cup of peas
5.   1 handful of mint, chopped
6.   1 onion - sliced
7.   6-8 green chillies - nicely chopped
8.   1 inch piece of ginger - grated
9.   Few bay leaves
10. 5 cardamons
11. 4  cloves
12. 2 tsp ghee
13. 1/4 cup oil
14. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Cook the rice with 4 cups of water, one tsp of oil and little salt. Don't overcook it, when you see it is done, strain it in a strainer like this or put in a wide plate. Mom says it will let air flow on all sides which will help the rice not to stick to each other and stay fluffy. Keep it aside.

2. Head oil in a pan and fry the masala - Bay leaves, cardomons, cloves

3. Add the onions and fry them lightly

4. Then add the green chillies and fry them a little.

5. Add ginger paste and fry it until the raw smell is gone...

6. Now add the veggies one by one - beans, carrots, peas

7. After they are all fried nicely, add salt now and mix well. Remember that a little salt was already added to rice while cooking it.

8. Add mint and fry a little.

9. Add the pulao mix to the rice and slowly mix eveything.

Enjoy with onion or cucumber raitha....