KASHMIRI PULAO

Kashmiri pulao i tasted when we went to Srinagar around three years back.  Mr. Abdul who was our driver was kind enough to make us eat kashmiri pulao and  drink the famous Kava (a kind of tea they drink),  we liked very much and brought some tea packets which i still  have and enjoy once in a while. shall post the recipe soon.

This pulao is slightly sweet with mild spices, can be prepared easily.  The fried onions and nuts and fruits  adds more taste and flavour to this pulao.  It can be served with  onion, tomato, cucumber raita or lauki yakhni.  Lauki is called Al in Kashmiri and  Yakhni is a curd based sauce.  The lauki roundels are shallow fried and added to the  curd sauce which goes well with this pulao.  No garnish is made in this but for the photo, I have added coriander leaves as I like the same with the raita very much.

Let us look at the recipe now:

Ingredients:

2 cups  basmati rice
4  cups water
saffron few strands (used around 12 threads)
1/2 cup milk

Dry fruits:

Handful of raisins (or you can use  fresh green grapes)
1/4 cup  cashew nuts
1/4 cup badam
10-12 walnuts

Others

3 tbsp ghee
2 big onions thinly sliced.
3-4  green cardamom
1-2 badi elaichi
sugar - 1 tsp
2 tsp salt
oil for deep frying the onion

fruits:

1/4 cup Pomegranate
1/4 cup  apple chopped

spices:

1 tsp fennel powder
1 tsp sunth powder (dried ginger powder)
2-3 cloves
1-2 sticks of dalchini
1/2 tsp shahi jeera


Method:

Wash and soak the rice in water and keep aside for 30 minutes.
Deep fry the sliced onion till golden brown and crisp, keep on absorbent paper to remove the excess oil.

Fry the badam, cashew, raisins, walnut keep aside.

boil the milk and put the saffron in it.

Drain the rice and keep aside. Heat ghee in kadai  add the cloves, dalchini, cardamom, badi elaichi,  shahi jeera, when it is done add the drained rice and fry for a minute.  Now add the milk, 4 cups of water, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, mix well.  bring to boil and lower the flame, cover and cook the rice.  when the rice is cooked, fluff it.

Now add in the fruits, nuts, fried onion, mix well and serve hot with raita,  papad, pickle etc.

Note:  you can add pineapple too.  since my children do not like pineapple, i did not add.

You can fry the  cloves and powder the same along with  cardamom and  add because while eating the pulao, we tend to throw the same.  If we powder it, the flavour is incorporated in it well.

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