Quick Egg Pulao

If you have noticed I am on Twitter. But I don't Tweet all that much.

I want to. But I can't. Every morning I try to think something intelligent, or witty, or intelligent and witty, so that I can tweet it. But I can't. Nothing remotely clever pops up in my mind.

All I can think of is things like "I washed my hair today. It smells nice". But I don't tweet that. Why would anyone want to know, I think. Why, even the husband does not have time to stop and smell my hair, how can I expect 75 million Twitterers to be enlightened by that piece of news.

I can say how my morning was, how I drank my tea with two multigrain nabisco crackers, crackers because my stash of Marie and Parle G is depleted, depleted as in it is zero now. So until I go to the Indian Grocers and get my next supply of Britannia Marie and Parle G, I am stuck with multigrain crackers,which taste like cardboard but not as bad as cardboard, they are easily digestible, cardboard is not.

There, a vital piece of my personal life could be out there but twitter does not allow more than 140 characters. I am sure Twitter's founder Dorsey was scarred for life by a child like BS. You ask BS how her day was and you are stuck for the next hour, listening to how many times she scrubbed her hand with Purell in school.

"Keep it short", I tell her. "Give me the central idea", I say. "You will never be able to Tweet. People have no time these days to listen to long prattles. They spend it describing life in several 140 character snippets", I want to say.

LS, I think would make a good Tweeterer. Her sentences are short, 3 words at the most, rest is action, she can do video tweets.

So I thought I will ask a question instead, on tweeter and here. A simple 10 word question.

"Why does my rice tend to break in a Pulao?"

Why, even if the Pulao turns out tasting really good, some of the rice grains break. Why, my Dad asks, how I managed to break the rice grains as he thinks that is what made the Pulao tasty.

Is it something to do with the brand of rice I buy, for it is one of the cheaper ones. I think I have clinched a deal or something if I pick up a cheaper brand of rice, the kinds which say "Buy 1, get 2 free".

But if it is the brand, how come the grains remain perfect when my Mom makes a Pulao. I could ask her this question but I want to get as many opinions as possible. I also want to Tweet.

So please tell me here or on Twitter, "Why does my rice tend to break in a Pulao?"

After you are done, you won't have much time, so make this quick Egg Pulao, which is easy and totally delicious, broken rice or not. Kids will love this one, for once BS does. Ok, and she also makes a great Raita to go with it.


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Quick Egg Pulao

Make a paste of

1 medium onion
4 cloves of garlic
1" peeled and chopped ginger
1/2 cup of corriander
8-10 mint leaves
Note: Add very little water while making this paste, maybe 1-2 tsp

Wash 2 & 1/2 cups of rice in several changes of water and spread out to dry. This is my Mom's tip, I usually have no patience to dry the rice. But she says that the rice needs to be dry else it will break.

Heat Oil + 1/2 tsp Ghee in a flat, heavy bottomed pan

Temper the oil with 4 cloves, 5 cardamom, 2" cinnamon stick and 2 small bay leaves

Add the paste you made and fry till the masala is cooked. Any excess water should be evaporated and there will be oil seeping out of the edges of the masala

Add 1 cup of chopped mixed vegetables. It can be beans, carrots, peas etc. I added 1 cup of frozen corn, carrots and peas. Fry the vegetables for 3-4 minutes.

Add 1 tsp of Corriander Powder, 1/2 tsp of Garam masala powder and fry for a minute or so

Add the rice and fry for the next couple of minutes

Add 41/2-5 cups of water for 2&1/2 cups of rice. Add salt to taste. Let the water come to a boil. Once the water has come to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover and cook the rice.

While the rice is cooking boil 4 eggs in a separate pan. When eggs are boiled, cool and peel them. Cut egg in slices. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add 1/4 cup of chopped onions and fry till onion is brown. Add the egg slices, 1/2 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch, little salt and fry the egg slices for 2-3 minutes

Once the rice is done, add the fried egg mix on top and mix gently. Sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves and 1/2 tsp of Garam Masala powder. Cover and let it sit till you serve with a raita.

Similar Recipes:

Soy Peas Pulao

Soy Mushroom Pulao

Mint Rice -- Brown Rice

Daliya Pulao

Trivia: Here are some pictures from the book Hungry Planet, that I thought I would share with you. Click here to see What The World Eats.

Celery Chingri -- Celery with Shrimp

When I was a kid, I thought becoming an adult was the answer to all my woes. You could sleep in late, spend money to buy as many Archie comics as you could read not and you did not have to eat vegetables.

Little did I know what I was in for.

I mean being an adult is ok and everything but you never get to do the things you had imagined and you DO EAT vegetables. The worst part is you eat them even when no one is forcing you to and you even shop for them.

Take Celery. I never had tasted a celery until I started going to BS's pre-school kiddie birthday parties a couple of years ago. These would be at one jumping place or the other and kids would have pizza while all the parents were offered was carrot sticks and celery ribs with a veggie dip. I loved the dip, I thought the celery was an instrument to scoop up that delicious dip. To eat them was blah.

I would still get celery to put in a soup or something or to rot in the refrigerator until LS's Nanny last year said "Didi apnara celery'r tarkari khan na"(Didi don't you eat celery sabzi). She must have recognized me as the ideal candidate to go on a celery diet.

I got the celery and she made a dish, Celery Chingri, a sabzi with celery and shrimp. It really was good, way better than anything with celery could have tasted. Like it wasn't something to die for but it was decent and would make for a nice side dish and it had shrimps, so why complain.

At this point though, let me tell you, if celery is not a vegetable local to where you are, like if you are in Cambodia and you have never seen your Mom cook celery DO NOT go out and buy if it is overpriced. It is not worth it. In that case just eat the shrimp.

And what is the Paprika doing in the picture you might ask ? It is NOT in the dish, the dish has red chili Powder, no mild paprika. The Paprika is what a harassed BongMom gives to the toddler to distract, so that she can take a pic on an overloaded work night. The outcome is not good, the pic lighted with no fancy Lowell ego but plain-jane side table lamps does not exactly glamorize the celery and the paprika has been dumped on the beige carpet. If I never ever blog again you know why.

Entries for Of Chalks and ChopSticks is welcome until Friday June 10th, midnight simply because I have not posted my entry yet. Tee hee !! I am the Super Power at least this one time.


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Celery Chingri -- Celery with Shrimp

The Shrimp

If using frozen shrimp defrost else clean and de-vein. Sprinkle with little salt and turmeric powder and keep aside for 10 minutes. I had about 10-12 shrimps

The Celery

Chop the celery in really small pieces. Smaller than what you see in the pic.

The Celery Shrimp Sabzi

Heat Olive Oil in a saute pan

Fry the shrimp and remove and keep aside. When the shrimps are cool to touch, chop them in small pieces and eat a few

Add little more oil to the same pan if needed. Temper with 1 tsp of Paanch Phoron or Kalonji. If you have none of these use Cumin Seeds

When the spices sputter and pop, add 1/2 up of chopped red onion and little more. Fry the onion with a sprinkle of sugar till onion is pinkish brown

Add 1 heaped tsp of garlic paste and fry for say 1/2 a minute

Add 1 potato chopped in small cubes. Add 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and fry the potatoes till light yellow

Add 1 tsp of roasted corriander powder and 1/2 tsp of red chili Powder.With a sprinkle of water fry the masala along with the potatoes.

Add about 2 cups of celery very finely chopped and mix everything well. The celery should be chopped thinner than shown in pic. Add salt to taste and cover the saute pan, letting the celery cook. Every couple of minutes remove the cover and stir the vegetables until done.

Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly. If needed add a tsp of Garam Masala.

Add the shrimp pieces, give a good mix and serve with dal and other dishes.

Vegetarian Option: Instead of shrimp add fried pieces of paneer.

Begun Chirer Pulao -- Brinjal n Poha Pulao

I really don't love eggplants all that much. I like okra way better than eggplant. But you wouldn't know that. I have only one single okra post in all these years and several eggplant ones. In fact the frequency with which I am posting eggplant dishes you would think that is all we eat at home. But that is as far removed from the truth as is the earth from the moon or as is me from reality.

The reality is we do eat eggplants more than okra, for one it is easier to chop and cook and does well in mass production and everyone adores it. But not me or BS. I do not love eggplant more than okra. BS does not love anything but her little sis.

But this dish, the "Begun Chirer Pulao" is different. It is a very new thing, which I have never heard or had before. My Ma with her genius and her repertoire made this some weeks back. She says she got it from a book. Whoever was invited for lunch that day "oohed" and "aaahed" over it. The husband liked it a lot. In short this dish got so much recognition that every thing else paled in comparison. Now these are words I can rarely say about 90% of the other recipes I have posted in all these years.

So you see this is important. For one it is a very novel dish and Bengalis love novelty as long as it is not octopus in tamarind sauce. They love trying out new dishes if it is Bengali, Indo-Chinese, Thai, and maybe Moroccan, ok not Moroccan but might be. So because of the newness and the ease of cooking and the taste this dish is a big winner. I made it again over the weekend for some friends. Everyone suitably "oohed" and "aahed", and acted surprised, because who would have thought of cooking eggplant/brinjal with poha, really.


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Begun Chirer Pulao -- Brinjal n Poha Pulao

Suggested Oil: Mustard Oil. If Not: Canola or Peanut Oil Never: Olive Oil

Serves 5-6 adults as a side dish

Chop 2 medium sized eggplants in thick slices. Soak in water with little salt for half an hour OR if you are running out of time just wash them well. Remove from water and sprinkle turmeric powder and salt on the slices and let them rest for 15-20 minutes.

Heat oil and deep fry the eggplant slices. They should be almost like 99.5% cooked at the end of this and taste totally yum with some dal and rice. But NO you cannot eat them because the universe is waiting for your Begun Pulao and you must give them that.

Now take 1 cup of Poha (or Beaten Rice) and fry them crisp in oil. IF you are not my Mom and you are like me and you like to pretend that you do not like deep frying toss the 1 cup of Poha with droplets of oil and arrange them in a single layer on a baking tray. Put in the oven at 350F till the poha turns crisp.

Heat some more oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Temper the oil with
1/4 tsp of Hing/Asafoetidia,
2-3 small Bay Leaves
and 5-6 small green Indian chili that have been slit.

While the oil heats, in a bowl add 1/2 cup of thick yogurt and beat. To it add
2 tsp of ginger paste,
1/2 tsp of Kashmiri mirch,
1/2 tsp of Red Chili powder(optional),
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder,
a little sugar and mix well.

Switch off the heat and wait for a minute. Add the yogurt to the pan and mix. Put it back on low heat after one more minute. When you see the oil seeping out of the side of the masala add about 1 cup of water. Add salt to taste and let the gravy come to a boil. Add the fried eggplants and mix gently so that the eggplants are well coated with the masala. Let it simmer till the gravy is thickened. Note: If you have a fear of yogurt curdling add a tsp of besan or gram flour to the yogurt and mix well so that there are no lumps. Now add everything else to the yogurt and add it to the pan

Add the fried/roasted crisp Poha and mix with the eggplants.

Sprinkle 1 tsp of Garam Masala powder on top and serve. Goes well with Rice or Roti. Tastes best when served in a couple of hours time or at least same day.