Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Mushroom Rice










Here's Wishing All of You A Very Happy & Prosperous New Year!!!!!!
May The New Year Bring Lots of Joy, Happiness, Health, Wealth, Peace and Prosperity to All of You!!!!!!!!
After taking a breather from the 7 days 7 recipes marathon hosted by Nupur, I am back to blogging in this New Year 2010!!!!
That I completely enjoyed the recipe marathon would be an understatement.
I also got a chance to meet so many lovely and wonderful fellow blogger and I have bookmarked so many amazing recipes to try out.....
Today I am posting a quick fast mushroom rice recipe.
As you can see that my affection for quick and easy to make single dish meals continues in the New Year as well.........
Actually, we had some renovations done in our house recently and our kitchen is still not completely set up. This led to lot of stuff like masale being stuffed away in "good place" which as usual cannot be recollected later.
How often does this happen that when one does need a particular thing and one is in great hurry, it is nowhere to be found as the thing has been put in "good place" so that it does not get misplaced :))
To cut a long story short, that's exactly what happened with me today........ I had some cousins over for dinner and I had decided to make Mushroom Rice which happens to be the hot favourite of my sister....The mushroom was there and so was the rice (thank God for small mercies) but my jar of whole spices ( Black Pepper / Kali Miri ,Cloves/ Lavang and Cinnamon /Dalchin), which forms my base of making Mushroom Rice,was nowhere to be seen. Since I did not have much time on hand, I decided to make the rice using Biryani Masala Powder to give it rich taste......... But the comedy of errors does not stop there, Biryani Masala Powder was .......no prizes for guessing this one.........conspicuous by its absence in the kitchen..........
Stuck with this wonderful situation of not having the ingredients and time running out, I decided to experiment...... as they say Necessity is the Mother of Invention....... so here's the way I made Mushroom Rice using (believe it or faint) Chaat Masala......... No......its not a typing error .....that's exactly what I used and the rice turned out to be wonderful according to my two Guinea pigs......err.......i meant my cousins..........
So here's my quick fix Mushroom Rice (with chaat masala) which I made in pressure cooker-
Ingredients (Serves four)
1 and 1/2 cup of Basmati rice
Mushrooms - 250 gms (chopped in small pieces)
Onions - 2 medium size ( chopped finely)
Potatoes - 2 medium size ( cut in small cubes)
Ghee - 2 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai).
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder (dhania)
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder (jeera powder)
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
Bay Leaves / Tamal Patra- 2
Salt as per taste
Chaat Masala - 1/2 teaspoon
Water - 3 - 4 cups
Method -
First wash and soak the basmati rice in water.Drain the excess water and keep the washed rice aside for atleast half an hour.
Heat ghee in pressure cooker. When the ghee is heated properly, add mustard seeds (rai)
Ensure that the mustard seeds splutter properly and then add cumin seeds (jeera) , asafoetida (hing) and bay leaves.
Add onions and stir them till the onions turn translucent.
Then add potatoes and keep on stirring.
Add rice and then add coriander powder (dhania),cumin powder (jeera powder) ,garam masala powder and red chilli powder. Garam masala powder is optional.
Mix well and add chopped mushrooms . Then add chaat masala and salt.
Add water as per required consistency. Generally double water is added for basmati rice but at our home, everyone prefers the consistency to be more watery hence I added 4 cups of water.
Pressure for 3 whistles on medium flame and after 3 whistles, cook on low flame for 5 mins and then switch off the gas.
Mushroom Rice is ready to be served.
I am sending this recipe to Anita who is hosting APS Rice Event