Mushroom Pulav

I never had a liking for mushrooms during my childhood days. Infact I thought its something non vegetarian and detested it. (No offence meant. Just that I am a pure veggie) Once i had a small bit of mushroom from a soup and thought it's not that bad afterall. But later on I came to know that its so healthy and decided to include it in my diet now and then. It's only after having mushroom pulav at saravana bhavan, that I started developing a taste for it. I got completely hooked on mushrooms and specially relish the mushroom pulav at Saravana Bhavan. slurp! So yummy it is! I always wanted to reproduce it in my kitchen and failed in my attempts. However, I wouldn't call it a miserable failure as I still managed to cook it drool-worthy, in my own ways. So far I haven't managed to make any big disasters. Touch wood! This time, I wanted to exactly re-create my fav food and guess what? it's all success! I gave a lot of thought to it and first tried to list down the ingredients. I didn't miss even the presence of few mint leaves and set out to cook my 'all time fav' mushroom pulav. Do you wonder how many dishes will I add to my 'all time fav' list? I already said I am a foodie. (check out my blog's tag line. Well, u can call it an ad-break) This time around, my efforts are fruitful and I present to you 'Mushroom pulav'. However, I reduced the amount of ghee. The hotel people drown the rice in ghee which doesnt sound nice to me. So, how much ghee to add, I leave it to your discretion .

Ingredients:

Mushrooms - 1 cup
Basmathi rice - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Mint leaves - 10
Cashews - 10
Cloves - 2
Jeera - 3 tsp
Slit green chillies
salt to taste
Chopped coriander - to garnish

Method:

1. Soak the rice for 10 min and cook with 1.5 times water.
2. Cook the mushrooms with a little water separately till done.(There shud be no moisture)
3. Heat 3 tsp ghee, add the cashews and fry.
4. Season with Jeera, cloves, add chillies and mushroom(no raw mushroom). Add mint leaves, salt and fry till the mushrooms are crisp.
5. Cool the rice a bit and mix it with the mushroom mixture. The grains should be separate. Strictly no sticking together.
6. Reheat the pulav after mixing and add the chopped coriander. Add a dollop of ghee and mix well. You can add more ghee if you are not calorie conscious or if you are making it to attract kids.
7. Serve hot with onion raitha

Onion Raitha: Mix finely chopped onions, curd and black salt. Black salt does the trick.




Tips:

1. I think the thing that made the difference is adding cooked mushrooms. Before, I used to add raw mushrooms after seasoning ingredients and I think the water that mushrooms oozes out spoiled the taste a bit. So this time I cooked the mushrooms beforehand and just fried quickly in ghee with the seasoning. Thumbs-up!
2. I feel the mint leaves make the best combination with this pulav and will not suit any other pulav.(like peas) However it's my personal choice.
3. I didn't add garam masala to my recipe. I liked it without the spices and may be you can add a tsp of garam masala.

Disclaimer : Don't hold me responsible if you can find any difference after tasting the same at the hotel. I afterall made it by just relying on my taste buds!

Sending this to CFK- Rice event hosted by Trupti originating from Sharmi's website.

http://recipecenterforall.blogspot.com/2009/04/announcing-cooking-for-kids-rice-event.html