Kabuli Pulao or Qabili Pulao has its origin in Kabul, Afghanistan, where it is considered as a National Dish. Kabuli also means “from Kabul”. This is not only a national dish, but has its origin as an important meal in the royal cuisine. Afghanistan is place, where nuts and carrots are abundantly grown due to its climate, and rice was a part of a wealthy persons meal. Elaborate rice dishes were made on various royal occasions. According to a writer in dawn.com,(http://www.dawn.com/news/1100061) emperor Babur, who came from Central Asia, complained of Afghani food lacking nuts, melons and carrots. And I believe, this must be the reason why this dish was created. The traditional meat based version also now has a new vegetarian version to suit the vegetarian needs of the community. In India, this is quite famous as Jodhpuri Kabuli Pulao. Jodhpur, being the western military base for India, is also a land well known for its brave soldiers and warriors. It is logical for cuisines to intermingle with the local culture and travel across geographical boundaries and hence for vegetarian Kabuli Pulao to find its home away from home in Jodhpur.
Vegetarian Kabuli Pulao Layered Rice is a blend of spice and sweetness, crunchy nuts a top a mix of rice and vegetables. It has cooking style of Dum Biryani, and it is presented in alternate layers of rice and vegetables gravy. with toppings of thinly cut fried carrots, almonds cashews and raisins. Colorful, rich, unusual, royal are some of the adjectives that describe this exotic rice dish. It is worth all the time and effort involved in making it. The yogurt gravy vegetables and the slow cooking over a couple of hours, gives it the Dum flavour! I prepared this dish, as a part of Thanksgiving celebrations – an apt opportunity to relish this royal dish with family and friends! A lesson learnt from that day’s experience was , to keep cooking often, rare menu items, and keep inviting guests often, so as to not forget the small things, that give any meal an edge. I decided to keep this dish in a warming drawer for slow cooking. I am not much user of warming drawer, and hence was not used to the temperature settings. So when the dish was served, it did not have the edge as would have otherwise been achieved with long term slow cooking. Nevertheless, the dish was well received by my guests. but as mosts cooks would agree, sometimes it is harder to please your own self than others!! And I certainly have my mother in law to thank for this treasure!!
I truly enjoy rice based dishes, so for me this is indeed a treasure that includes saffron and plain rice, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, methi pakoras and bread slices in yogurt gravy and topped with almonds, raisins and cashews. The image shows the inside section of the layer so as to have a comprehensive view , though the popular image of Kabuli Pulao shows carrots and nuts on the top. Enjoy this royal treat from the land of royals!! Vegetarian Kabuli Pulao layered rice, is a complete meal by itself and rich in texture, color, variety of vegetables and nuts. And after savouring this combination you might end up talking about this unique item with your friends and sharing the same!
Recipe- Makes for 12 people
Preparation time: 30 min
Cooking time : 1 hour
Simmering time: 2 hours
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups cauliflower florets
- 3/4 cup frozen/fresh peas
- 5 slices of bread cut in cubes
- 2 medium sized tomatoes sliced
- 4 cups potatoes medium sized diced
- I large onion sliced or 1 cup onion sliced
- 1 cup shredded carrot
- 4 1/2 cups rice
- saffron to color the rice
- 5 cups of yogurt
- 4 cups oil to fry
- 2 tbsp coriander powder
- 2 tbsp garam masala
- 3 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida
- 1/4 cup cashews
- 1/4 cup almonds
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1 1/2 tbsp thin long slices of ginger
- salt to taste
- For the Pakoras
- 3/4 cup frozen spinach
- 1/3 cup gram flour
- 1/4 cup water
- salt to taste
- 1 1/3 tbsp kasuri methi
- pinch of baking soda
Method
Cooking the Rice
White Rice
- Wash and soak 2 1/2 cups of rice separately for white rice.
- Put 10 cups of water to boil. Add some salt to it.
- When water starts to boil, add the drained rice to cook.
- Keep the gas on medium high flame so that the water keeps boiling.
- Half cover the cooking pan.
- After 7-8 min check the rice grain to see if it is cooked. It should feel cooked and slight firm.
- Add couple of drops of lemon.
- Remove from flame and instantly drain.
- Spread the drained rice into a broad pan to allow it to cool.
Yellow Rice
- Wash and soak 2 cups of rice for yellow colored rice.
- Put 8 -10 cups of water to boil.
- When water starts to boil, add 2 pinches of saffron for color.
- Add rice and cook on high flame for 8-9 min till it is firm yet cooked.
- Drain and spread out to cool.
Frying the Vegetables
- Put the oil to heat in a broad fry pan.
- When the oil is done, medium fry potatoes, cauliflower to golden color.
- Fry the onions rings, sliced carrots, peas and tomatoes slices , each of them separately for 2-3 minutes.
- Deep fry the bread slices to brown color and remove.
- Mix all the Pakora ingredients and the consistency should be slightly thick, so as to hold shape.
- On a medium flame drop 1/2 tbsp pakora batter, and deep fry the pakoras to golden color.
- Allow all fried items to cool a bit
Making the Pakoras
- In a bowl mix all the ingredients for Pakoras making sure the consistency is thick enough to drop proper round shape balls. Put 3 cups of oil to heat for the Pakoras in a deep frying pan.
- Drop about 1 tbsp pakora mix into the oil and fry them to golden brown color on medium flame.
- Cool before mixing into the gravy.
Making of the gravy-
- Mix coriander, turmeric, salt, red chili powder, garam masala into the yogurt and whisk it throughly
- In a broad pan put 3/4 cup oil to heat.
- Shallow fry almonds, cashews and remove them to be later used as garnish.
- Add asafoetida to the remaining oil.
- Add the yogurt mixed with all spices and keep stirring on a medium flam.
- Once the oil separates, add all the fried vegetables and thinly sliced ginger, leaving aside half a cup of fried onion rings, 5-6 tomatoes slices and 1/2 cup fried sliced carrots for garnish.
- Let the vegetables simmer in the gravy for 10-15 min.
- Mix the fried bread cubes in the gravy
Layering the Kabuli Pulao
- In a wide deep pan or aluminium pan make a layer of white rice.
- Then make a layer of the vegetable gravy
- Add a layer of white rice again.
- Add another layer of vegetable gravy.
- Add a layer of onion rings.
- Add a layer of yellow rice.
- Garnish the top layer with fried carrots, cashews, almonds and raisings.
- Make a small hole in the center.
- Add saffron water through the hole.
- Cover the pan with an aluminium foil.
- Put it in warming drawer for 2-3 hours or in oven at 200 degrees F for 2 hours .
- Slow cooking will mix in the taste of the gravy with the rice and give it a all around aroma of all spices and nuts mixed in.
- Simple Yogurt, Yogurt Raita or Yogurt kadhi are good accompaniments for Vegetarian Kabuli Pulao Layered Rice.
Tips
To make Jain version, omit onions and potatoes and carrots. Potatoes can be replaced with 3 cups of green raw bananas, skinned, cubed and fried, and increase the amount of green peas to be increased to 1 1/2 cups.
Plan for the time needed to prepare and slow cook this dish.
Taste the gravy before mixing as once layered, tasting the same after, will affect the presentation. Leaving it a little spicier will increase the flavour when slow cooking.
Instinct Factor
Cook the rice so that each grain is separate to give the Biryani look and knowing when the rice is cooked to right perfection needs relying on your instincts!
Feel Factor
Yogurt simmered vegetables blended into the two colored rice, with attractive layers is a unique way of presenting a meal , It is as if you are uncovering more and more of a dish as you go down a layer. So the top aroma is salty, nutty, sweet and colorful and the inside is a little tangy with fried vegetables and some treasures as pakoras, and fried bread cubes! Truly a unique assortment of rice, vegetables , nuts and yogurt that will surely kick up your taste buds and also kickstart a very interesting conversation when anyone comes across this slow cooked rice delicacy leading one all the way back to the days of the Royals with their rich taste!!
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