Green peas Pulao ( Matar Pulao)

  Hi friends..Hope you are all keeping well. I have a wonderful news which some of you might know already. I am (proudly) sharing a food column with my dear friend and fellow blogger, Sujitha Manoj of Sujis Cookbook, in the Malayali Magazine, a North American life style print magazine catering to the needs of the American Malayali. Written by Malayalis, specifically tailored to our lifestyle, discussing a range of topics from fashion to cooking, this is guaranteed to be a great read. The 1^st issue of Malayali Magazine was launched during Vishu and will come out on the 3rd week every month. Here is the link to the magazine May edition.  We do hope that all our dear  Keralite friends will go through the magazine, bless and support this venture whole heartedly and give valuable feed backs to make this venture a grand success.  Do keep supporting us!

   Coming to the recipe, this pulao recipe was requested by one of my readers. Her name is also Maya and she is an avid follower of YummyOYummy. She had come across this peas pulav pic in the coriander chicken curry that I posted 2 weeks back.  She successfully tried the coriander chicken curry and wanted to badly give this recipe a try. I sent her the recipe which I had in my drafts but she wanted me to post it here! So here it is Maya… Hope you enjoy this pulao!

Matar Pulao / Green Peas Pulao

Ingredients

1. Basmati rice – 1.5 cups

2. Fresh / frozen green peas – 1 cup

3. Ghee / Oil / butter – 1.5 tbsp

4. Cumin seeds – 1/4 tsp

    Whole spices – Cardamom – 2, whole pepper corns – 4, cinnamon stick – 1/2 inch, cloves – 5

5. Cashews – 2 tbsp

6. Onion – 1/2 medium, chopped

    Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp

7.  Turmeric powder – 1 pinch

8.  Green chilies – 2 – 3, slit

     Mint leaves – Around 20 – 25, chopped

9. Hot water – 3 cups (Use 2 cups of hot water for 1 cup rice. Some varieties of basmati rice may require only 1.5 cup water, so use accordingly)

10. Salt – To taste

Method

1. Soak basmati rice for 20 – 30 minutes in enough water. Drain well.

2. Heat 1.5 tbsp oil/ghee/butter in a pressure cooker (Use a 4 or 5 liter pressure cooker). Add whole spices and stir until fragrant. Next add cashews and stir until golden.  Add chopped onion, little salt and ginger-garlic paste. Saute until onion turns transparent and raw smell of ginger-garlic paste is gone. Add turmeric powder, stir and then add green chilies and chopped mint leaves. Saute for 1 minute. Add green peas. Mix well. Cook for a minute.

3. Next add drained basmati rice. Mix well and stir everything for one minute. Add 3 cups of hot water. Mix well. Add salt to taste. Bring it to a boil and taste-check for salt. The water should be slightly salty. Close the pressure-cooker with its lid. Cook at medium heat until steam starts coming out profusely. Place the cooker weight on top and bring down the heat to low. Cook for 3 – 5 minutes. Switch off. Open the pressure-cooker when pressure releases or after 10 – 15 minutes. Peas pulao will be perfectly done. Fluff rice gently with a fork, mix everything carefully and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with cilantro. Enjoy this yummy green peas pulao with raita, pickle, pappad and any spicy curry of your choice.