The Goan Pulao Recipe
The Goan Pulao Recipe
Some people spell it as 'Pulav' and some spell it as 'Pulao'.. Well... I love to spell it as 'Pulao' because for some reason, I feel 'Pulao' has a very Goan touch to it...Anyway, Pulao is a very common Rice preparation that you'll see at most or rather every Goan ocassion. Pulao is a dish that is packed with flavour from the various spices that are added to it. However, cut vegetables added to the Pulao enhances it's flavour. Most of us Goans love to add Green Peas to the Pulao. Green Peas not only tastes good with Pulao, but for some reason, it makes the Pulao look beautiful too!! In the recent past, there was an incident where my Mum ran out of Green Peas for the Pulao but we still wanted to get the Pulao to look good with the 'Green Peas' effect(the combination of yellow and green)! We looked up the fridge and found some Capsicums!! And tadaaaaa... We experimented with capsicums in the Pulao... All I can say is that The flavour was to die for! Till date, I always use a capsicum in my Pulao, whether I'm making a Peas Pulao or a Vegetable Pulao, a capsicum always goes into my Pulao😋😋😋😋 It has taken me quite a few trials and experiments to get to that 'Perfect Pulao'(that is not sticky) In this post, i'd like to share with you, all the tips and techniques that I follow, in order to get to that 'Perfect Pulao'
Servings 10 people
Ingredients
- 6 Cups Long Basmati Rice
- 3 Medium sized Onions (chopped fine)
- 1 Large Tomato (chopped fine)
- 4 Green chillies (chopped fine)
- 1 Big Capsicum (chopped fine)
- 250 Gms Cut Vegetables of your choice (optional)
- 60 Gms Maggie cubes (12 cubes)
- 1/2 Tspn Pepper corns
- 1/2 Tspn Cloves
- 6 Green cardamom
- 7 Gms Cinnamon sticks
- 1 Star Anise (optional)
- 2 Black cardamom (optional)
- 10 Cups Water
- 4 Tbspn Pure Cow's ghee
- 1/2 Tspn Turmeric powder
- 1 Tspn Salt
- 1 Tspn Sugar
Instructions
- Wash the rice very gently and drain out all the water till the last drop
- You have to wash the rice till the water is clear and the rice can be seenTip:- there should be absolutely no starch left in the rice
- You may have to wash the rice about 4-5 times
- Let the rice Soak in the water for 20 -30 minutes
- In the mean while, take a Big Vessel, add the ghee to it and place it on medium high flameTip:- the vessel has to be Really wide whenever you make Pulao.The more wider and bigger your vessel, the better your Pulao will be! This is so that each rice grain gets more space to cook and fluff up... I call it breathing space🙈🙈🙈
- Moving further, Once the ghee becomes hot, add all the whole spices i.e. Pepper corns, cloves, Cinamon, Cardamom, Star Anise(if using) and black Cardamom(if using)
- Cover the vessel and let the whole spices cook in the hot ghee
- Once all the flavour of the spices are into the ghee, add the onions, tomato, chillies, capsicum and other mixed vegetables(if using)
- Stir it well and cover the vessel with the lid
- Let all this cook until the onions turn Golden brown
- Then add the sugar, salt, Maggie cubes and Turmeric powder and stir it well
- Now drain out all the water from the Rice that has been soaking
- Add the rice to the vessel and very gently mix it and let it it fry for 2-3 minutes
- Add 10 cups of water into the vesselTip:- Always ensure you use the same mesauring cup for the Rice and the water. I have seen people very often taking this step as the least important step whereas this is one of the key steps to your perfect Pulao.. so please don't add in water to the Pulao vessel "in approximation" or as they say "andaaz see". The water has to be exact quantity.... So Same measuring Cup is the key....
- Once you've added the water, stir it very gently and only ONCE.
- Taste the water and check it has to taste salty
- If not, add some salt to it
- Turn the gas to high flame and cover the vessel
- Let the Pulao cook on high flame until all the water from the rice is evaporated
- In between, just open the lid and if you notice all the vegetables are on the surface of the Pulao, just take a fork and very gently mix it, again only ONCETips:--Do not keep opening the lid of the vessel-Do not keep stirring the pulao-If you have to stir, do so with a fork, not with a spoon or spatula and do it just once
- Once all the water from the Pulao has evaporated, turn off the flame and keep the Pulao vessel away from the gas burner
- Keep it covered for 30 minutesTip:-We keep it covered because we have cooked the Pulao on high flame and we have removed the Pulao with the rice only half cooked. By keeping it covered, the remaining half gets cooked with the heat/steam inside the vessel and that's how your rice doesn't remain sticky
- After 30 minutes, open the lid, keep it half open for another 20minutes or so and then serve
- This resting method after the flame goes off, is essential if you want that perfect grainy pulao
- Enjoy your Pulao with any side dish or a gravy of your choice...😊😊😊