As a Jain follower, we have certain days of the month where we avoid green vegetables totally, and eat only grains/lentils/fruits/dried fruits. This implies a compulsory high fruit and protein rich diet, that leads to healthy living. This dish is one of my favorites to make on these kinds of days. The yogurt soup has the flavor of spiced up buttermilk, which is light on the stomach and can be quickly done in under five minutes and served instantly.
It recently dawned on me that eating only lentil & grain based diet on such days, leaves me a lot of time at hand to spare, as chopping vegetables, sauteing and cleaning up after that is reduced. This definitely gives me more time on such days, particularly to catch up on my non-fiction reading. In my opinion, this is how religion sometime succeeds through rituals, in simplifying your daily tasks and routines.
Today’s selection is a Rice/Chana Dal (Bengal Gram Dal) Pulao. The traditional name of this dish is Baraj and this dish also happens to be a favorite rice pulao of my sister. The pulao is fragrant and spicy with the sweetness of cinnamon and zing of the cloves and black pepper. Chana dal is found to be extremely useful for diabetic patients per http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html
Recipe: 3 people
Cooking time : 20 min
Preparation time: 20 min
Ingredients by Volume
- 1 cup rice
- 3/4 cup chana dal (Bengal Gram)
- 1/2 tbsp clarified butter (Ghee)
- 10 cloves
- 10 whole black pepper
- 1 large stick of cinnamon
- 2 dried red chillies
- 6 whole cashews
- pinch of asofoetida
- salt 3/4 tbsp approx.
- 4 cups of water
Method
- Wash the rice thrice in plenty of water, in fresh water every time.
- Add the bengal gram dal.
- Add 4 cups of water to the rice/dal mix and let it soak for half an hour.
- In a small frypan, put ghee to heat on medium high flame.
- Once the ghee melts, add cloves.
- Wait for cloves to become big.
- Add cinnamon stick and wait for it to double in size.
- Add dried red chillies to this.
- Stir for 30 seconds
- Add cashews and stir till golden brown.
- Add pinch of asafoetida
- Remove from flame.
- Add the above seasoned tempering to the rice/lentil mix.
- Cook the rice/dal/tempering mix on medium high flame for 4 whistles.
- When its done, you should smell the aroma of ghee/cinnamon/cloves.
- Switch off the flame when done, and let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Serve with plain yogurt or yogurt soup.[aio_button align=”none” animation=”none” color=”yellow” size=”small” icon=”search” text=”Recipe” relationship=”dofollow” url=”http://cookingbyinstinct.com/yogurt-soup-spiced-buttermilk/”]
Tips
If you do not have the rice cooker that whistles, you can use the electric rice cooker with the same proportion of water. Alternatively, you can put the same in an open deep pan with about 3 cups of water on a slow to medium flame and cover it with a lid and cook till rice and dal are soft and excess water evaporates.
Instinct factor
When cooking in a pan, feel the rice/dal for its softness, and trust yourself on the aroma of the cooked rice.
Feel factor
A fragrant aromatic combination of buttered rice flavored with bengal grams, cinnamon, cloves, dried red chillies and black whole peppers is a simple meal that is also considered to be a complete everyday meal in many Indian households, specially when combined with yogurt.
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