Can cook to save life.

The grass is always greener on the other side, they say. But the other day my heart truly went out to my best friend from college, Avinash. MS in biotech jumbo-mumbo in some frozen county of New York is making life tough for the poor guy. Cooking was never his forte and now he is fending himself off on frozen foods. Adding to his woes, the proverbial ' golden ray of hope' (that would be me) is missing from his life. No wonder! He is in sucha dump! :P

Alright! May be things aren't that bad..but yes, the moron bought a microwave for 3$ at a garage sale and I bet he hasn't even warmed water in it yet.

So here it is - The recipe I promised you Avi. Try to stick to the basics and I assure you that it will be edible

Vegetable Pulav - Microwave-made

Total Time: 20 mins (including preparation time)

Ingredients:

1 cup of rice
1 cup of chopped carrots
1 cup of chopped cauliflower
1/2 cup chopped french beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup of chopped potatoes

Basically any veggies you can lay your hands on.
Spare the yucky brinjals and lady's fingers though!

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon jeera
2-3 chopped green chillies
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1-2 teaspoons red chilli powder
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons dhaniya powder
Salt swadanusaar (Thus spake like a true chef!)

Method: Switch on the microwave. (Duh!) Now in a borosil/any microwave-friendly container, add the oil and warm it for 30 seconds (I use piHigh ie. Microwave mode). Now add the jeera, chopped chillies, garlic and let it microwave for one minute. To the pot, now add all the veggies, the masalas, salt, rice and around 3 cups of good old H2O. The best way to be sure if the water is enough or not, well, there should be a a nice 1 inch gap between level of rice + veggies and that of the water in the pot (Level of water > Level of rice).

Done! Now microwave this for 13-15 mins. Remove once when you are half-way through and stir well. You can also add a dash of lemon juice and sprinkling of coriander now (Never mind Avi! Move on) and then continue cooking till all the water is absorbed and the rice is well cooked and dry.

Serve hot with some Lijjat papads, pickle, raita and chhaas (Avi, you can skip this.)

Voila!! I told you..a good hot meal is only a few minutes away :)


P.S: No clue about US, but in India we wash the rice atleast 3-4 times to remove that white powder thats used to preserve it. Dont exactly know what it is - I guess some pesticide! Just thought I should remind you :P

Now do a favour on that microwave of yours and try this dish out. Oh! and take pics - put them on FB - that will send girls swooning after you :P

Love,
Rutuja

P.S : Pic is from the net. Outcome of the above experiment may not resemble the picture. Kindly excuse.