Bengali Mishti Pulao

Having been stayed for 6 years in the city of joy I was totally in love with Bengali food culture, foodies around each and every corner of the city , their love for GOOD food. Today's recipe is a traditional Bengali rice dish. It is rich flavourful with a mild sweetness and simple to prepare.

Even before I started developing my passion for cooking, the only blog I was following at that time was Preeoccupied : http://preeoccupied.blogspot.in/
I followed the recipe of Bengali mishti pulao from her blog and made it on a weekend for my family and in the first attempt only it came out just perfect with the colour, flavour everything!! ANd then there was no stopping. Made it many times for family & friends and I was always been appreciated by everyone.  Today after a long time I have made this pulao with chicken curry and we relished it totally.

This  aromatic sweet rice dish goes very well with mutton curry specially. Try out this awesome pulao preparation , I am sure you are gonna love it.


You may find a slight variation in the measurements of the ingredients from the original recipe ,because of me & my family's taste and requirement.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice: 1 cup
Green peas: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 1 tbsp.
Freshly Grated ginger: 2 tsp
Raisin/cashew nut: A handful of them altogether
Cardamom/cinnamon/cloves: 2-3 of each
Bay leaves: 2
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar: 1 tsp
Few drops of lemon
Water 2 cups

Method:

Wash and soak the basmati rice for about half an hour. Then sieve for 10-15 minutes.

Heat the ghee in a pan/kadhai . Add bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and allow them to crackle. Now add the raisins, cashews and fry them till golden brown. Remember to keep the flame at low.  Add rice once the dry fruits turn to golden brown. Mix everything well and keep stirring for about 2-3 minutes . Add the peas, ginger & turmeric powder at this stage. Keep mixing everything for another 2-3 minutes and then add sugar & salt in low to  medium flame and keep mixing again for say about a minute.

Now add 2 cups of water , few drops of lemon juice and give it a nice stir and cover it. Keep the flame between low to medium. Check in between and mix with gentle hands and cover again. Repeat the same procedure until the rice is cooked.

Once the pulao is ready  sprinkle few more drops of lemon again & give a mix so that the rice does not get stick. Serve hot with chicken or mutton curry.

You can cook this pulao in pressure cooker as well following the same procedure. Water requirement would vary.