Pudina pulav/Mint Rice/Mint Leaves Pulao

INGREDIENTS: Serves 2

1. Basmati Rice or Raw Rice - 1.5 Cup
2. Mint Leaves - Leaves from 10 to 12 Strands of Mint/Pudina - Approximately 2 fistful 
3. Coriander Leaves - 1 fistful
4. Onion - 1 Big or 2 medium sized. 
5. Tomato - 1 small or half big sized 
6. Ginger - 2 inch piece
7. Garlic - 5 to 6  pods 
8. Green chilli -  6 to 7 Small, adjust to taste 
9. Coconut(Optional) - 1 teaspoon grated or 5 inch piece 
10. Cashew (Optional) -  4 to 5 pieces  whole (break to pieces and keep it ready) 
11. Ghee/Oil - 6 teaspoon
12. Bay Leaf / Biriyani Leaf - 1 piece
13. Pinapple flower/Stone flower - 1 piece
14. Cardomom whole - 1 piece
15. Cloves - 1 piece 
16. Cinnamon stick - 1 inch piece 
17. Water - 2 cups
18. Peas (optional) - 1/2 cup 
19. Potato (optional) - 1 finely cut

METHOD: 

1. Wash the basmati rice and soak the rice for 30 minutes.
2. Grind  the pudina leaves,coriander leaves, onion (take half onion and cut it finely for frying),tomato,ginger,garlic,green chilli,coconut using little or no water to a fine paste
3. Take a cooker and add the ghee/oil. 
4. Once oil/ghee is hot add the bay leaf,pineapple flower,cardomom,cloves,cinnamon stick and cashews and fry a bit. Add the finely cut onions and fry well till golden. 
5. You can add the potatoes and peas if you are using now. Add the ground paste and let the raw smell of paste subside. 
6. Drain the basmati rice and add the rice and add 2 cups of water. 
7. When water starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and close the cooker. Do not put the whistle/weight, instead invert a small cup on the vent to prevent steam from escaping.
8. Keep in low flame for 10 mins and switch off the stove . Leave it without opening the cooker for 5 to 7 mins . 
9. Open the cooker and yummy pulav is ready to serve! Enjoy it with Mix Veg raita/Raita of your choice.
10. NOTE: If you cook rice and the paste separately and mix later, you cook rice as you normally do but I do not recommend this unless you have leftover rice.

Lemon Rice

INGREDIENTS: Serves 3 to 4

1. Lemon - 1 
2. Peanuts - handful for seasoning.
3. Oil - 3 to 4 spoons for seasoning.
4. Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon for seasoning.
5. Urad dhal - 2 teaspoons for seasoning.
6. Chana dhal - 2 teaspoons for seasoning.
7. Curry leaves -  for seasoning
8. Coriander leaves - for seasoning
9. Asafoetida powder  - 1/4 teaspoon
10. Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
11. Rice - 250 grams
12. Salt - As per taste

METHOD:

1. Wash the rice, and add 2.5 times of water(625ml) and cook in pressure cooker. Allow the rice to cool after cooking.
2. Take a pan, add the oil and add the items in the following order. Allow the mustard seeds to splutter.Add the peanuts,urad dhal,channa dhal,asafoetida powder,turmeric powder and curry leaves.
3. Remove from flame and add this to the cooked rice.Squeeze lemon and add salt to taste.Mix well and add the coriander leaves. Taste and add more salt or lemon if needed.

Kothamalli(Coriander) Rice with Mix Veg Raitha

INGREDIENTS:(Serves 3 to 4 )

1. Coriander leaves - 1 big bunch
2. Salt - to taste
3. Mustard seeds,cashews,urad dhal,bengal gram dhal - each one spoon for seasoning.
4. Cloves - 2 or 3 pieces
5. Cardomom - 1 piece
6. Ghee or Oil - 3 teaspoons
7. Onion - finely cut - 2 big sized
8. Ginger - 1 inch piece
9. Coconut - 1/4  of a coconut shredded
10. Green chillies - 4 or 5 big pieces
11. Rice - 250grams
12. Potato - 2 medium sized(Optional)

METHOD:

1. Wash the rice ,add 2.5 times of water(750ml) of water and cook in pressure cooker or rice cooker.Keep aside.
2. Remove the leaves from the bunch.Take the chillies,ginger,coconut and grind along with coriander leaves .You can add water when grinding if needed.
3. Take a deep bottomed vessel, add oil or ghee. Once its hot, add the mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Add cashews,urad dhal,bengal gram,cardomom,cloves and the onions.
4. Once the onions get fried, add the potatoes and allow it to mix for 5 minutes.
5. Add the finely ground paste now.Allow this mixture to get cooked well for the raw smell to go.Add salt and check for it .
6. Once the raw smell leaves the mixture,add the cooked rice ,mix well and serve.

Peas & Aloo Pulao(Pulav)

INGREDIENTS: Serves 3 to 4

1. Basmati Rice - 250g
2. Green Peas(Fresh or Frozen) - 1 cup
3. Aloo/Potato - 2 medium sized 
4. Saunf(Fennel Seeds)/Sombu - 1 teaspoon
5. Jeera seeds - 1 teaspoon
6. Biriyani Leaf - 1
7. Clove-2 pieces
8. Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
9. Elachi - 1 piece
10. White Pepper powder - 1 teaspoon
11. Lemon - 1 
12. Salt - to taste
13. Oil - 3 to 4 teaspoons 
14. Coriander leaves - for tempering.
15. Onion - 2 medium sized

METHOD:

1. Soak the basmati rice for more than 15 minutes.
2. Take a deep bottomed vessel and add the oil.
3. Add the items in step 4,5,6,7,8,9.
4. Add onion and after 2 minutes of frying, add peas and potato.Add the salt required,white pepper powder.
5. After 5 minutes we are ready to add the rice.Drain the rice and add to the vessel.The ratio of rice:water is 1:2.We have taken 250grams of rice, so 500ml of water should be fine.
6. Measure the water and add to the vessel.Add the lemon juice and mix well.
7. Now cover the vessel with a lid and keep the flame in low or medium.
8. After 15 minutes you can check and mix once.Then close the lid.
9. Keep in low flame now if it was medium earlier.After 15 minutes you can see the rice is ready when the lid is open.Cut the coriander leaves finely and add to the rice and Serve hot with Raitha.

NOTE: You can skip potato if needed. Adding more vegetables like carrot/Beans/Broccoli/Cauliflower makes it vegetable pulav.

Bisibela bath - No onion(Marathi Style)

INGREDIENTS: Serves 3 to 4

1. Rice - 2 cups(around 250ml)
2. Toor Dhal - 1 cup
3. Peanuts - 1/2 cup
4. Mix Veg - carrot or beans or peas or potato or chow chow or sweet potato.(any of them can be added in single or in mix) - 1 cup
5. Chickpeas(Optional) - 1/4 cup
6. Tamarind - small gooseberry size
7. Curry leaves,mustard seeds,turmeric powder - for seasoning.
8. Gingelly oil - for seasoning
9. Salt - to taste
10. Small Onions - 15 to 20 peeled and chopped
11. Cloves - 3 pieces to season 
12. Elachi powder(1/4 teaspoon) or Whole elachi - 2 

TO DRY ROAST AND GRIND: 

1. Coconut shredded - 1 tablespoon 
2. Coriander seeds/dhaniya - 1 table spoon 
3. Chana dhal/bengal gram -  1 table spoon
4. Fenugreek/methi seeds/vendayam  - 1 teaspoon
5. Asafoetida cube - 1 small cube (To be roasted with a drop of oil)
6. Seasame seeds/ Ellu - 1 teaspoon
7. Red chillies (Dry) - 8 to 10. 
8. Marati moggu - take 2 inch pieces

METHOD:

1. Boil the peanuts and the veggies together and keep aside.
2. Extract the tamarind water from the tamarind.
3. Put the rice and dhal(after soaking together for 15 minutes or so) together in a pressure cooker and allow 5 to 6 whistles.Add additional cup of water to make the mixture get mashed in the cooker.For 3 cups(2 cups rice and 1 cup dhal) add 6 to 7 cups of water.
4. Dry roast the ingredients given in the section above and grind well.You can use water to grind if needed.
5. Take a pan for seasoning. Add 6 to 7 spoons of gingelly oil and allow the mustard seeds to splutter.Add the cloves and elachi .Add curry leaves and 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and few peanuts (optional) and keep this aside.In the same pan roast the small onions and add this to the tamarind water.
6. Once the rice and dhal has been cooked, add the tamarind water,salt needed and stir well. After 5 minutes,add the boiled veggies with peanuts and stir well. After stirring well add the ground paste and mix well.Add water if needed in this stage as the rice will get thicken soon. Keep the flame in low.
7. After the raw smell goes ,add the seasoning prepared in step 5 and bisibela bath is ready to serve.

NOTE: When switching off the stove the rice should be in semi solid state so that it thickens after some time.