Tomato Pulao

Rice! I doubt anyone could have been happier with the selection of this ingredient for the Jihva for ingredients started by Indira of Mahanandi and hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam.


I've not been much of a rice fan. I like variety and love rice only when it takes turns with noodles, pasta, soup, rotis etc arriving on my plate. Give me loads of any one thing only if you want to see/hear me crib for a long time to come.

But then, you can crib and cry all you want when someone else is cooking for you. I'd much rather eat rice than slave over the stove making rotis when I'm the one that has to do the cooking. At times like those, which has been everyday since I left home ten years ago, I can't agree more with Anita of A Mad Tea Party when she says, "Roti is such a job, I tell you. Eat rice instead and you have 12-15 minutes to watch TV, enjoy a drink. Or that cup of tea that you forgot all about!"

So, rice is my saviour. Saves me from toiling over the stove. Saves me the trouble of making 3 dishes. And it is so truly versatile. Whether you're eating it with sambar, rasam, curds, dal or egg curry, as biryani, risotto, paella, puliyodarai... or whether you're just mixing it with paruppu podi or any of the numerous podis your mom packed for you, or if you're enjoying it in its various forms such as idli, dosa, rice upma there is no escaping the impact that rice has on our lives. Anna, though is meant to mean food and hence the phrase "Annadata sukhi bhava", has come to mean rice.

This is something I made last week to clear my fridge of vegetables before we left for Manali. My cousin, Neelu, taught me this recipe when I was still in school and this comes in handy all the time.

Ingredients:

1 cup Basmati Rice
1 cup Mixed vegetables (I used cauliflower, beans, carrots, broccoli)
2 Onions, sliced
2 Tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 Cardamom
2 Cloves
2" stick Cinnamon
1 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste
1 tsp Green chilli paste
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste


Heat the oil in a pressure pan and fry the onions. When they turn translucent, add the cloves, cardamom and cinnamon stick. Fry for a minute before adding the ginger-garlic and chilli pastes. Fry this for about half a minute and add the chopped tomato, turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomato puree, rice, vegetables and saute for a minute and then add salt. Add 1 3/4 cups of hot water and cook for 1-2 whistles.


Enjoy this with some curd or raita. The nicest part about this pulao is that the tomato base ensures you don't need a side dish to go with it. And it tastes good even when cold.

This is my first official entry to the JFI: Rice hosted by Sharmi. My other celebrations of rice have been:

Rice Dishes:

Peas Pulao

Tayir Saadam (Curd Rice)

Tomato Rice

Jeera Rice

Spinach and Corn Rice

Coriander Rice

Coriander Rice Version 2

Mammidikaaya Pulihaara

Vangi Bhat

Items using rice in some form:

Dosa

Batat Phow

Sevai

Egg Dosa

Akki Roti

Tandlya Roti

I look forward to posting many more recipes in the coming weeks.