Pulao with Black Eyed peas

 Most of you might have heard about CSN stores by now, for those of you who haven't, CSN stores is made up of more than 200 online niche shops offering everything from bathroom sinks to cookware, and from barstools to bedroom sets. They have an amazing array of products on their sites. This time around I have been contacted by CSN stores to do a product review. So watch this space for the review in the near future !

Moving on to the other reason for this post. This pulao with black eyed peas was something I put together for a sunday lunch to go with methiwale gajar matar curry.The idea was to make something simple and flavorful  yet unique. I also wanted to try using some type of beans in the pulao. The reason I used black eyed peas was only because I conveniently had some on hand and wanted to use it up soon. Any type of beans like chickpeas or red kidney beans would have worked in this recipe.  With some raita this pulao could easily double as a one dish meal too :-)


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Ingredients and Method to make Pulao with black eyed peas
1 1 /2 cups of brown basmati soaked in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes
2 1/2 cups frozen black eyed peas (thawed to room temperature) (chawli)
1 large onion cut fine
2 1/2 cups of mixed vegetables (any combination of cauliflower, peas, beans, carrots, corn )
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste
3 bay leaves

 Masala
1 inch piece of cinnamon
2 whole green cardamom
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 dry red chilies (or to taste)

Grind together the ingredients mentioned under masala, to a fine powder and keep aside.

Cook the black eyed peas on the stove top or microwave until it is half cooked, just a little soft but not very soft. Keep this aside
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In a small pan, heat oil, add onions to it and saute until onions are transparent.Add the vegetables and stir them for a few minutes. Add the ground masala powder and stir a few times.

Place this sauteed vegetables, bay leaves, salt to taste and the soaked rice along with the rice soak water in the rice cooker container, place in rice cooker and set to brown rice setting.

When done, gently mix everything lightly and serve hot with curry of choice/ dhal / raita

Notes:
If you want to use dry black eyed peas , soak them in sufficient water for 6 to 8 hours. Drain water and semi cook them until almost done and proceed with the recipe as above.

You can make this with white basmati as well, just substitute with the same quantity of white basmati and set your rice cooker to the white rice setting.

Indian Style Tomato Soup (Tomato Shorba) and some humor :)

Before moving on to the post, here is a little bit of humor I came across recently.....

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A young businessman had just started his own firm. He'd rented a beautiful office and had it furnished with antiques. Sitting there, he saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to appear busy, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working. He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. Finally, he hung up and asked the visitor, "Can I help you?" The man said, "Sure. I've come to install the phone!"
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Moving on, shorba is a type of soup made in Indian cuisine, specifically north Indian cuisine. It is a light soup usually with some seasonings. With the blistering heat we are facing these days,  light, quick to make and nourishing have become my keywords and almost all the items on my menu these days, reflect these traits.  This soup definitely fits the criteria on all of these counts and to top it all, this is one of the few soups that does not require a long list of ingredients, making it incredibly easy to assemble. All it needs are some good quality tomatoes along with a few seasonings. If you like tomato soup, this Indian variation may be something you might enjoy quite a bit....


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Ingredients and Method to make Indian style tomato soup
12 to 14 small tomatoes quartered (yielded approximately 2 1/2 cups of tomato)
salt to taste
1 tsp jaggery (can be substituted with 1 tsp sugar)
1 tsp chick pea flour/ gram flour (besan)

seasoning
1 tsp oil/ or clarified butter (ghee) (use oil for a vegan version)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 Thai or Indian variety of green chili cut very fine (or to taste)

Cook the tomatoes along with some water until soft. Cool to room temperature, puree it and strain it through a sieve. Keep aside.

In a small bowl mix chick pea flour and a few teaspoons of water thoroughly, making sure there are no lumps. Add this chickpea flour + water mixture to the strained pureed tomatoes and mix well.
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Add salt to taste, jaggery or sugar, water as required to achieve desired consistency and allow the puree to come to a boil on a low to medium low heat.

In a small pan, heat oil. Add cumin seeds and when it sizzles add green chilies. When the green chilies start to change color, add the entire oil+ seasoning mixture to the soup. Allow it to simmer for a few more seconds.

Serve hot as a first course for an Indian themed dinner/lunch.

Serves approximately 2 to 3