Italian Rice

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Italian Rice

Italian rice are one of my favorite recipes. I learnt it from my sweet cousin Bushra =) Love u my sweet sis!
By the way, I am not sure whether Italy have such rice in their cuisine or not lol.. Still this is how it goes. Like some other recipes like Russian salad & Singaporean rice which don't exist in respective countries ;)
Lets move on to the recipe!

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

Carrots 2, grated
Radish (Mooli) 1 small, grated
Cabbage 1 medium sized, grated
Cucumber 3-4 chopped
Capsicum (Shimla mirch) 2 big, chopped
Black Pepper 1 1/2 tsp
Chinese Salt 1 1/2 tbsp

Mix all the above mentioned ingredients & keep them marinated for about 2 hours.

Rice 2 glass - 500gm (soaked in water for 20-30 min)

Onions 2 large (sliced)

Oil 2 wooden spoon (doi)

Ginger garlic Paste 2 tbsp.
Tomato 2 large, chopped
Green chutney 5 tbsp. heaped

Make green chutney by grinding 4-6 green chillies & 3 tbsp. of each coriander & mint leaves. (Dhanyia,podina)

Salt 1/2 tbsp. or acc to taste
Coriander seeds 1 tsp
Turmeric 1/4 tsp
Red chili flakes 1/2 tsp

Cumin Seeds (Zeera) 1 tsp.

Black Pepper whole 2-4
Cinnamon sticks (daar cheeni) 2
Clove (Long) 2- 4
Cardamom pods 2 each (Green & black)

Water 3 glasses

Procedure:

First of all marinate all the veggies with black pepper powder & chinese salt and set aside. (Marinate for about 2 hours)

Next take a pan, heat oil, and add the whole spices, let them splutter. Next the chopped onions. Fry until onions are golden brown.

Tip: The color of palao is directly proportional to the degree of brown color u give to the onions while frying them.

Then add ginger garlic paste, followed by tomatoes & all other spices. Stir & fry for few minutes. Add green chutney too. Stir by adding little water & wait until oil separates.

Then add 3 glasses of water & let it boil. When water starts boiling, drain the soaked rice, and add in boiling water. Stir gently, to avoid rice from breaking. Let it cook on high heat for few minutes & then lower the heat to medium.

Check the salt in water & feel the saltiness. If it is just alright then it means the salt is too little. Add more salt until u feel the salt is bit more than required, because rice will need the salt too :)

Cover the pan & let the rice cook on medium heat, until water diminishes. Stir in between.

When almost all the water is dried up, increase the heat, add the veggies along with its water that is released & stir! Let all the water dry,

Seal the pan with a wet towel on the cover, and keep it on dum/ steam for about 10 minutes, until rice are tender!! Enjoy!!

P.S. The above mentioned spices are just accurate for the used rice. Don't waste the water that will release from the veggies marination. It will have the black pepper & salt. Don't increase the amount of spices esp. if u will use the water of marinated veggies too.

The water used in palao is bit less that the usual water we use for half kg rice, because I am also adding the water released from veggies at end!