Shyam's Special Vegetable Pulao

I did write about how 1000 Indian Recipes book helped my Indian cooking a lot. It is a great book. Even Shyam consults it every now and then. But more as a guideline rather than following a recipe to a T. This post is about Shyam's own original recipe which was inspired by a vegetable pulao out of that book. But he changed the kind of vegetables, the spices, changed yogurt to coconut milk - it is entirely Shyam's specialty now. And while he is the one to usually cook this, since cricket season began and he is off to practice with his team, the honors of cooking it fall to me. Let's begin!

Vegetables for this pulao are: red bell pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, king oyster mushrooms

onion, hot peppers (here - jalapeno, but Shyam often uses Serrano),

and cauliflower.

Clean and cut the vegetables.

Soak basmati rice - first rinse the rice in a few washes of water, then let stand in water.

Lightly crush the spices - cinnamon sticks, cloves, black and green cardamom.

Heat vegetable oil in the pan. Add cumin seeds and crushed spices to the pan.

After a minute, when spices are aromatic, add onions. Fry, stirring, for about 5-7 minutes.

Add ginger-garlic paste and chillies. Stir and fry a couple of minutes longer.

Add the vegetables.

It is okay if for a bit pan looks too full of veggies. When they cook, they will lose some of the volume. You will see. Add some garam masala and salt. Stir.

Cover and let cook for about 15 minutes.

Add coconut milk, stir well.

After a few minutes, add the rice and the water it was soaking in.

Stir everything until well mixed. Taste. This is the time to season the dish - add the right amount of salt, if dish is not hot enough, add some red chillie powder, and if not sour enough, add a bit of tamarind paste. Make sure all the seasonings are right at this stage. Cover and let cook, without stirring, until rice absorbs all the liquid.

When all the liquid is absorbed, dish is ready.

Fluff rice lightly.

It is good to serve this pulao with raita - a yogurt mixed with fresh vegetables, meant to be a cooling agent if the dish is too spicy.

Finely cut a bit of onion.

Finely cut  a tomato.

Add yogurt. If too thick, mix with water. You may also add some cucumber and herbs - today I am going with mint.

Salt to taste and mix well.

Serve with pulao.

Enjoy! This is such a delicious vegetarian dish. Stay tuned for special dessert.