Bisi Bele Bhath (BBB)

My version is a quick fix meal. One pot. 30 minutes. Ready to eat.

So here's what I do - a meal (or probably 2 meals!) for a family of 3.

Chop whatever veggies you have handy. I had: beans, potatoes, carrots, onion, broad beans, and green pepper. Large chunks are preferred. 

Wash and soak 2 small cups of rice. If you're not a fan of white rice, you may use broken wheat (lapsi / Godi nuchchu) / millets (pearl millets / foxtail millets). Set aside for about 20 minutes or so, if you have this planned out. Else, if this is a last minute quick fix,  wash and use immediately. 

My Masala mix: I also use a ready mix sambar powder**. 1 Tbsp of this sambar powder mix. To this I add 1 tbsp of regular BBB powder, 1 tsp dhania powder, 1 tsp jeera powder, a small piece of jaggery, 1/4 tsp garam masala.

In the rice cooker, heat oil, add a tsp of mustard and let it splutter. Then add jeera, turmeric and asafoetida (hing). Then toss in all the chopped veggies, the washed rice, the masala mix and water*. At this point, you may also add a lot of chopped / whole curry leaves. And let it cook away.

Keep stirring in between so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel. Just as it is getting ready, after about 25 minutes, when you see that the rice and the veggies are cooked well, add 1.5 tsp of tamaring paste and give it a good stir. Top it with coconut milk or dessicated fresh coconut.

 In about 30 minutes, your BBB will be ready to eat.

If using a pressure cooker, the same procedure applies, then allow it to cook for 3- 4 whilstles. In this case, add the tamarind paste after opening the cooker and cook for a few more minutes till it gets incorporated.  

A lot of people prefer adding the tadka after the BBB is ready. You may do that too. I find it tedious and it's not really a 'one-pot' dish if I have to use a tadka pan ;)


*The usual proportion of water for my sona masoori raw rice is 3 cups of water to 1 cup rice. For BBB, i usually add 2 -3 extra cups of water in the end. 
**If this is not available, replace with 1 cup of uncooked and soaked tur dal + an additional spoon of regular BBB powder. 

Accompaniments: You can make this tastier by including khara boondi / bombay mixture / Sandige (traditional south Indian fryums)/ fried Balaka chillies / papad / potato chips. Anything fried is a good accompaniment :). Also a raita - boondi / onion-tomato raita goes well with BBB. 

Overall: Tess than 1 tbsp oil. a good serving of veggies. A full meal in itself. Can easily subsitute rice with broken wheat / millets. 

Enjoy!

Mixed veg akki rotti

Akki rotti (rice flour rotis patted down on a tawa and cooked) is a  regular item in our breakfast menu. And it is sooooo versatile.  You can have akki rotti with different combination of veggies every day for a whole week. The most common ones are with cooked avarekalu and dill. I usually make them with whatever is available in my fridge.

This one is with finely chopped capsicum , onion, grated knol khol and flaxseeds (yea..ever since the health scare, I've been using these magical seeds in almost everything)

Today's version had

1 grated knol khol
1 large onion and 1 small capsicum finely chopped
1 tbsp flaxseeds - toasted

Basic akki rotti recipe (to which you can add your choice of veggies)

2 cups fine rice flour (makes about 8-10 medium sized thin rottis)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp Ajwain 

2-3 green chillies finely chopped

Salt to taste
Fresh dessicated coconut (optional)
Finely chopped fresh coriander and curry leaves.

Its quite simple actually. Put all ingredients, including veggies in a large mixing bowl and bring it together with your hands, adding water as you go. It should resemble a dry chapati dough.

I prefer to let the dough rest for at least 30 mins as this allows the juices of the veggies to mix well with the dough giving it extra flavour. You can make rottis immediately if you are in a hurry.

Since the dough tends to stick to your hands as you try to pat it down on a non stick tawa , I like to keep a bowl of water next to me.  I wet my hands thoroughly and then pat a medium sized ball of dough on the tawa to form a thin round rotti.  I like to make 5 (exactly 5!! Am weird that way. .a creature of habit) holes in the rotti and put little drops of oil into those holes. This also helps the rotti cook evenly. Each rotti needs a max of half tsp oil... and if you ate using a non stick tawa, you can just add a few drops of oil.

Then it goes on the stove on high flame covered with a glass lid so that you can keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't burn.  It may take about 3-4 minutes. And the top gets cooked by the steam , so there's no need to flip the rotti.

We like our rottis soft so we take them off the stove sooner.  If you like them crispy, leave them on high flame for a few more minutes.

Once done , smearvrge rottis with ghee (clarified butter) and serve hot with any of the chutneys. Other great accompaniments with this are: jaggery and clarified butter, chutney powder mixed in thick curd or any simple subzi made of leafy veggies. The most popular accompaniment is the brinjal yennagayi (spicy purply brinjals in oil).