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!

Hearty pumpkin soup

After watching Matt Preston's simple pumpkin soup on Masterchef Australia last night, I knew I had to make it. pumpkin happens to be my new favorite veggie, knocking cauliflower and potatoes off the list. I <3 the simple south Indian red pumpkin subzi. And to that I addthink buttermilk to make a yummy raita. And the usual sambar.

 But that's about how far I had gone with using the pumpkin in my food. This pumpkin soup gave me purpose.. More variety. I didn't follow the recipe shared by Matt Preston..I just did my own thing. And it turned out wonderfully fragrant, think, creamy and so delicious. 

Here's what I did

I had 1 whole red pumpkin (about 700 gms) and decided to use the entire thing. 

5 cloves of garlic

2 large onions

1 small potato

1 large carrot.. This is just for colour and of course the goodness..I somehow don't like the yellow of the pumpkin.

A generous sprinkling of cinnamon powder

A pinch of royal garam masala

Salt to taste

olive oil

maharashtrian garlic chutney powder as a relish..just before eating

As Matt Preston suggested, I cut up all the veggies into large chunks and placed them on my baking tray. Drizzled olive oil, sprinkled cinnamon powder, garam masala and salt and tossed well to incorporate the masalas. 

I put it into a 170 degree oven for 45 mins. Here I had a bit of a problem. I had cut the pumpkin into very large and thick slices so they were still raw at the end of 45 minutes. I decided to go with the slow / pressure cooker method that am most comfortable with.

 So I tossed all the beautifully cooked, slightly brown veggies with 3 small cups of water into a cooker. I dont have a gas connection so most of the cooking is on my induction cooktop. Set it on 'pressure cook' mode at 1000 degrees for 3 whistles.  With every whistle, the aroma filled the house and I was becoming more and more impatient. I just had to eat it! 

Once I opened the cooker, I hurriedly peeled the skin off the HOT pumpkin chunks, juggling them between both hands and blowing desperately to cool them. Yes.. I do get hopelessly impatient when it comes to tasting new food. :p 

Put the veggies under a fan to cool them, tossed them into my mixie and whiiirrrrrrrrrrr. The soup was ready. Thick and a beautiful light orange. I Quickly served it in a bowl, added a few pieces of paneer and a teaspoon full of the garlic chutney powder ( I love anything garlicky also. you can gladly omit this) 

Oh yummmm. Heaven. Polished off 2 bowls of the soup and am craving for more. 

The next time I make it, I will oven bake only the onions to get that beautiful, slightly burnt, sweet flavor going. All the other veggies will go straight into the pressure cooker.