Kashmiri Pulao/Pilaf ~ a royal treat

Yes, you read it right. This pilaf is fit for a king, fit to be in the kitchen of kings and queens and fit for everyone out there. Its sweet from the crunch of the fruits, mildly spiced and rich from those ghee roasted cashew bits. Is that enough reason for you to try this dish atleast once. Yes, try it once and you will be hooked to it or else you would want to try it atleast once every month, a change from the regular spicy and masala-y biryanis. Atleast that's what has happened in our case.

I love to try new dishes much to the huss's annoyance. He always sticks to the tried and tested recipes. Once during a common friend's treat, we ordered an Indian bread basket. It had naans, tandoori rotis, stuffed phulkas and a heavily buttered Kashmiri naan which was totally ignored by everyone. It sat there beautifully studded with red and green tutti frutties and that made me grab the naan. I totally loved it ~ the slight hint of sweetness worked out great for me and since then its been Kashmiri naan for me.

But Kashmiri pilaf has never made it to my plate till date. Whenever I imagined Kashmiri pilaf, all I got was an overdose of sweetness. And so when the question of weekend lunch was thrown during the weekday dinner, I thought of giving this a go mainly because I was in control of what went into the pressure cooker. I browsed for recipes but was not satisfied with what came up and hence went by my instincts. It came out good and I am sure I will be making this often. I made a simple potato masala to go with it and the two teamed up great.

~*What U Need*~ Basmati rice - 1 1/2 cups Water - 1 cup Milk - 2 cups Cinnamon - 1" stick Cloves - 2 Cardamom pods - 2 Bay leaf - 1 Onions - 2 + 1/2, sliced Green chilli - 1 Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp Tutti frutti - 1/4 cup Fruits, chopped - 1 cup(apple, pineapple, pomegranate) Raisins - 2 tbsp Broken cashews - 2 tbsp Ghee - 1+2 tbsp Oil - 2 tbsp Warm milk - 1 tbsp Saffron - 1/2 tsp

How I Made it:
Clean and soak basmati rice for 15 mins. Add the saffron to the warm milk and set aside for 10 mins. Chop the fruits and set aside. Fry the raisins and cashews in 1 tbsp ghee till golden and puffy.

Heat the remaining ghee in a pressure cooker. Add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and bay-leaf and fry. Add the slit green chilli and fry.

Add the sliced onions (from 2 onions) and saute till golden and soft. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute. Once done, add the water, milk and soaked basmati rice and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Meanwhile deep fry the remaining sliced onions till brown.

Once the rice is done, fluff with a fork. Sprinkle the soaked saffron mixture onto the rice and fluff. Add the frutis, half of the fried onions, fried raisins and cashews and mix carefully not to break the rice.

Serve warm with the remaining fried onions!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!