Hi everyone! Today I'm going to share a cooking recipe as my entry for the Hive Top Chef competition hosted by @qurator. For this week, it is about a recipe that involves cardamom as an ingredient. I have chosen ghee rice as the meal I will be sharing. It was actually my father's birthday and my mother decided to make a little feast. We usually eat regular white rice at home but on special days, we make something different.
Ingredients
The following are the ingredients we need to cook ghee rice:
- Basmati rice - 3 cups
- Water - 4 cups
- Star anise - 2
- Cloves - 12
- Cinnamon sticks - 3
- Cardamom - 11
- Green chillies - 2 (sliced into halves)
- Tomatoes - 2 (sliced)
- Raisins - 20
- Cashew nuts - 20 (cut into halves)
- Onion - 2 (sliced)
- Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp
- Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
- Ghee - 3 tbsp
- Salt - to taste
Method
First of all, pour 4 cups of water into a rice cooker and let it cook. As an alternative, you can also boil the water in a pot on the stove. However, we save a step later on by using rhe rice cooker directly now itself and reduce the usage of an extra pot.
In the meantime, wash and prepare 3 cups of basmati rice for cooking. Soak it in water for 10 to 15 minutes.
Then, place a large pan on the stove and turn the fire on, small at first. Then, add 3 tbsp of ghee. Let it melt and then turn the fire to medium.
This is the ghee we used. You can use any brand you like or even a homemade one.
This is the main ingredient which is cardamom stored in a little glass container.
These are all the spices that need to be roasted in ghee now. They are cardamom, star anise, cloves and cinnamon.
Once the ghee has heated, add in the spices and fry them. Be careful because the oil may jump and get on your skin.
Then, add in the sliced onions and mix them all together.
Fry them until they turn brownish in colour. Add in a pinch of salt so it fries faster.
Then, add in the green chillies.
Next, add in the ginger and garlic paste. These give a slightly stronger flavour to the rice.
Mix them all well.
Add in the cashew nuts and raisins and mix them well too.
Then, add in the tomatoes. These give a touch of tangy taste and add a pop of beautiful colour.
Mix everything well.
Add in some salt to taste.
Reduce the stove fire so you can get the rice prepared now. Drain all the water from rice that was soaked earlier and add all of them into the pan.
This is how it looks after adding all the rice. Increase the fire again.
Start mixing the rice with the ingredients fried earlier. Take your time and mix it gently so you don't end up breaking the soft rice.
When everything is mixed well with the rice, turn the fire off. Using a teaspoon, scoop a small amount of rice and eat it to check for salt. If it is not sufficient then some salt need to be added later.
The water in the rice cooker is probably well heated by now. Open the lid and pour all the contents of the pan into the rice cooker with the water is still in it. Add salt if it wasn't sufficient when you checked it earlier. Otherwise, skip this step.
Give it a good mix so everything is mixed well. This is especially if you have added salt just now. By the way, can you spot the cardamom in the picture above?
Anyway, cover it with the lid and plug the rice cooker in again and let the rice cook. You may need to open it in the middle to mix the rice again in case the it gurgles.
The ghee rice has been cooked fully. It is smokey because it's so hot as I just opened the lid of the rice cooker.
The smoke has subsided a little so here's a better picture of how it looks like.
Before serving it, gently mix the rice in the rice cooker itself so none of the spices are concentrated in limited areas. This also makes it easier for guests or anyone to scoop up the rice later when they're self-serving.
Here's a simple plating, though the process of cooking them all was long and time consuming. We can eat ghee rice with any side dish that is spicy like chicken gravy. However here we have mutton curry and it makes such a yummy combination of a hearty meal.
This a closer look. My father did the plating and placed the chilli like that as a garnish.
I hope that you try this recipe because ghee rice tastes so good I can even eat it raw with no curry or gravy. Thank you for dropping by and I wish you have a great day ahead 🌿