Who needs meat when we have brinjal right? This dish is lovely as it is, again thanks to the wonderful heartwarming combination of spices. It takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it!
What you’ll need for 4 persons:
– 1 ½ cups half cooked basmati rice
– 2 onions, finely sliced
– 1 medium size brinjal
– handful of carrots, sliced
– handful of frozen peas
– fresh chili, finely chopped
– small handful cashew nuts
– handful raisins
– 50 ml hot milk
– few saffron strands
– 2 Badia bay leaves
– 2 Badia whole cloves
– 1 Badia cinnamon stick
– 3 tablespoons butter
– 1 tablespoon Wesson vegetable oil
– 1 cup yoghurt
– 2 teaspoon grated garlic
– 1 teaspoon grated ginger
– 1 teaspoon Badia ground cumin
– ½ teaspoon Badia chili powder
– 1 teaspoon Badia garam masala
– handful of ground almonds
Cook the basmati rice until its half cooked, as it will continue to cook at a later stage.
Drain the rice and set aside in a bowl, allow to cool down.
Warm the milk and add the saffron, we’ll use this mixture later on in the recipe.
Combine the yoghurt, garlic, ginger, cumin, chili powder, garam masala and ground almond in a bowl. Give it a good stir and set aside.
Heat up a large frying pan over medium heat, add some oil and a bit of butter and fry the onions until golden. Remove half of the onions to be used at a later stage.
Add the bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon stick to the pan and allow the spices to warm up (this way the spices will release most of their flavour).
Toss in the brinjal, carrots, fresh chili and peas, give it all a good stir and add the cashews and raisins. At this stage you can add some salt to taste.
Coat the vegetables in the yoghurt sauce, reduce the heat to low and gently simmer the veggies for about 10 minutes. When the veggies are done you can remove them from the pan.
Place the frying pan back onto the hob and melt some of the butter. Add and spread half of the rice in the pan and scoop the veggie mix on top of the rice. Cover the veggies with the other half of the rice and pour the saffron infused milk over the rice.
Cover the pan with tinfoil and a heavy lid and slowly cook for another 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Just before you’re ready to dish up, gently mix the rice and vegetables with a fork.
Place it in the prettiest dish you have, garnish with the remaining fried onion and some fresh coriander.
Delicious with some kachoomber raita (a yoghurt sauce with finely chopped cucumber, tomatoes, ground cumin and a dash of paprika).
