Jayanthi's Indian Recipes: Peanut, coconut 9 spices rice with palak raitha

The challenge before me was to create a new dish which integrates the vibrant cuisine and ingredients widely used in our cuisine. Knowing very well how vast our cuisines are from the North to South and East to West.

I took a bunch of commonly used spices in our country.

They were

Jeera

Coriander

Cinnamon

Saunf

Dry red chillies

Clove

Green Cardamom

Black pepper

Turmeric

Then a handful of groundnut which we get all over the country as a timepass snack.

A little grated coconut as we use coconut in our cuisine in southern parts.

Basmathi rice is mostly used for making biriyani and other festival dishes, I make kheer with basmathi rice and some special rice preparations.

So, here is the recipe I had developed today with the spices, basmathi rice, grated coconut, peanuts, bay leaves. A few basic vegetables like cauliflower, potatoes, onion, ginger, green chillies, beans, peas palak and few cabbage leaves for covering the dishes.

Ah, that was fun, while roasting the spices, slowly ideas started coming to me, I picked a few fresh vegetables for salad and created a wholesome meal.

I have served the dish with a few non spicy green chillies, lemon slices and salad consisting of radish, cucumber, carrot, turnip, dill leaves, fresh palak leaves.

Peanut, coconut spicy rice

Ingredients

1/2 cup basmathi rice, washed, keep aside for 20 minutes.

2 medium potatoes peeled and chopped

1 medium onion sliced

2 green chillies chopped

1/2 inch length ginger chopped /grated

3 to 4 beans thinly sliced

2 tbsp green peas

1 small carrot chopped

3 tbsp sliced cauliflower florets

Spices used in the dish

1/4 tsp jeera

1/4 tsp coriander leaves

2 red dry chillies

2 small bay leaves (one add with the basmathi rice while cooking it, the other one add while roasting the spices)

8 peppercorns

1/4 tsp saunf (fennel seeds)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

A pinch of green cardamom crushed

1 inch cinnamon stick

2 tbsp raw peanuts

2 tbsp grated coconut

Method

Step 1

*Dry roast all ingredients mentioned in the "spices used in the dish" once they emit aroma add green chillies, ginger, raw peanuts, once the peanuts crackles add grated coconut and just make it crunchy. Use the smallest mixie vessel and powder the ingredients. Keep aside.

Step 2

* In a preheated kadai pour little peanut oil and saute all the vegetables, since we are using potatoes make sure it gets properly cooked, add a little salt, if needed sprinkle a little water and use a lid to cook the veggies. Keep aside.

Step 3

*In a flat bottomed pan add basmathi rice, turmeric powder, salt, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. For 1/2 cup of rice I have added 11/4 cup water. We just want the rice should be just tender, you notice the basmathi rice will become into a curve when its almost cooked. Off the stove, don't stir it, as it may break the cooked rice.

The final step is to mix in ground coconut, peanut spicy powder, cooked basmathi rice and sautéed vegetables. Gently mix them together, if need adjust salt. You can at this stage add a little chopped coriander leaves if you want. We will serve the spicy rice with palak raitha.

Palak raitha is quite simple to make. I have used a bunch of fresh palak, wash the palak throughly well and make sure there is no mud, soil in the palak.

Palak raitha

Ingredients

1 bunch fresh palak, washed, chopped into thin pieces. I have used the stalk also as they get cooked very fast.

1 green chilli

A pinch heeng

1 cup curd

Salt as required

1/2 tsp jeera powder

Method

*wash, clean and remove the roots from palak, thinly slice the leaves along with the stalk. In a pan pour a little oil, saute the palak add salt, heeng and in a few minutes the quantity reduces to 1/5 of what you have added! Off the stove let it cool.

* Take a serving bowl add curd, add the cooked/blanched palak, adjust salt and garnish with jeera powder.

*Serve as a side dish for the spicy rice.