Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Pomegranate Rice




Valentine's day is tomorrow!!! Crazy, huh?? Everyone seems to be in a loving mood. I'll spare you a lot of the deep romantic mushy poetry and give you a brief glimpse of a day in my life:

It's early morning before S has to go to work. I get up and he's invariably downstairs in front of the computer doing who knows what (software eng... go figure!). I go into the kitchen to start making breakfast. It's probably 1/2 hour until he has to leave. I start reminding him to get ready. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," comes his voice from the basement. 10-15 minutes later, he goes upstairs to take a shower and appears 20 minutes later. It's now about 15 minutes until he has to leave. Breakfast is made and I'm calling for him to come and eat. "I'm coming, " he yells and finally appears 10 minutes later in a frantic rush. Barely manages to choke breakfast down, grabs his lunch, and is about to run out the door when he stops and turns around. "Have a good day, sweetie. I love you," he says with that look in his eyes and leaves.

That look in his eyes... It was that look in his eyes that made me weak in the knees the first time we met. And it still happens every time he looks at me! Ok, ok, I'll stop boring you with my love story! *laugh*

With Valentine's day coming upon us, I was thinking of what to make for Pooja's Valentine day event as well as AFAM - Pomegranate hosted by Sra when this idea suddenly came to me. I thought, what about making rice with pomegranate juice?? The more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me and I figured I could make it work.



The overall result was a variety rice dish that was a bit tangy, but not overly so. We really liked it a lot! Now, I share the recipe with you all...

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 2 cups, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes and washed
Pomegranate juice - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Chilly powder - 2 tsp, or to taste
Fennel powder - 3/4 tsp
Coriander leaves - 3 tbsp, chopped
Raisins - 1 tbsp (optional)
Cashews - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Cloves - 5-6
Star anise - 2

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the seasoning ingredients.

2. When they are sizzling and fragrant, add the chilly powder and fennel powder. Fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Do not over-fry or the chilly powder will burn and get bitter! :)

3. Now, add the pomegranate juice and water.

4. Bring to a boil and add coriander leaves, salt, and rice.

5. Reduce the heat to simmer and allow to cook until the rice has absorbed all of the water (15-20 min)

6. Allow to rest for 10 minutes, fry raisins and cashews in little bit of ghee, and add to rice. Serve with raita or any side dish of your choice.

I hope you all, Pooja, and Sra enjoy this one! :)

20 comments:

DK said...

That 'Look' ! Oh my dont we jus suck for our guyz mystical luks! I feel the same...Adding pomegranet juice turned out to be such an innovative idea! Never knew! Good one Kalai :)

As for ur request : you can substitute semolina for WF or ALP flour. Your wish. The mix n match can be with barley,semolina,wheat flour and ap flour.These form the basis of the Ksra :)

Mythreyee said...

Wonderful recipe! enjoy your valentines day.

Pravs said...

Very innovative to try with pomegranate juice.
Kalai, i am so glad to read that the paratha and raita came out so well for you !! Thanks for the feedback :)
Have a lovey-dovey valentines day !! :D

Kalai said...

Dhivi, thanks for the info! Yeah, this turned out to be a good idea. Hope u have a great Valentine's day! :)

Mythreyee, thanks and do enjoy your valentine's day, too. :)

Pravs, Thanks for the kind words. Hope u have a wonderful Valentine's day as well. :)

Jayashree said...

Interesting idea....hope you have a good valentines.

Sig said...

oooooooh... that look in his eyes... how do they do it huh... :) makes you forget about all those other stuff... I know what you mean... :D

BTW you used star anise... you can send it to Sunita's Think Spice event too... three birds girl... :)

sra said...

Mushy enough! ;)
This is quite a different recipe, Kalai. Thanks for the entry!

FH said...

MY MY!! It looks beautiful Kalai!:))

Kalai said...

Thanks, Jayashree! Same to you.

Sig, I have no idea how they develop these talents! Thanks for reminding me abt Sunita's event, too. :)

Sra, sorry! Couldn't seem to help myself. Believe it or not, I'm better than I used to be! My pleasure to participate. :)

Ashakka, thank you for the compliment! :)

Uma said...

Perfect heart! Lovely dish! Looks yummy! Happy Valentine's Day!

Pooja said...

That is a nice entry from you kalai.
With many events going on around specially for this month , i cna see man yfusion recipes to make a aprt of more than 1 events , your one is a nice creation too :) , color is also lovely , tempting me to try :) .
thanks a lot for sharing and participating :)

Swaroopa said...

looks gr8! thanx 4 sharing...

Cham said...

Kangal Mattum pessikondavai???? Romantic story Kalai :) Juice & rice Nice idea...... Happy V-Day

Kalai said...

So sweet, Pooja! Try it and you'll be pleasantly surprised! Glad I could participate. :)

Swaroopa, thanks for the kind words. :)

Cham, thanks! Sonnaal namba mudiyavillaiya? Adhu dhaan unmai! :)

Laavanya said...

How innovative Kalai! Looks great.

TBC said...

That is a very unusual combo...certainly worth a try.:-)

Kalai said...

Uma, the heart shaped mold made it easy! :)

Thanks, Laavanya. It's funny how sometimes ideas just come to you, right? :)

Do try it out, budding cook. Tasted great! :)

Mishmash ! said...

the look, huh:))
adding pomegranate juice sounds like a good idea...but usually i am done with them at the juice stage itself :)

Kalai said...

Yeah, Shn, the look. :) I totally know what you mean. I had to hold myself from finishing all of the juice before making the rice! *laugh*

Mansi said...

man, that's really creative kalai! and I loved the post, but I loved the rice way more!! look at all those flavors:)

hey, btw, you can edit the post with your use of Star Anise and send it to Sunita's event...