CABBAGE BIRYANI - A COMFORT ONE POT MEAL

DH was not at home for a weekend and refrigerator was stocked with only very few veggies.  So thought to manage with the available ones and that is how this recipe came to birth, but never imaged it would be tasting awesome.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 1 cup

Cabbage - 1 cup

Onion - 1

Tomato -1

Green peas - 1 cup (Optional)

Butter beans - 1 cup (Optional)

Curd - 1 tsp

Soya chunks - 2 cups

Chill powder - 1/4 tsp

Coriander leaves - few

Salt - to taste

Water - 1.5 cups

Ghee -  2 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

To grind:

Garlic pods - 4

Green chillies - 4

Ginger - 1/2" piece

Coconut - 1/4 cup

Sauf/sombu - very few 

To temper:

Bay leaf - 1

Cinnamon stick - 1/2"

Clove - 4 

Preparation:

1.  Wash and soak basmati rice for 10 minutes.

2.  Boil water in a vessel with little salt for 5 minutes and soak the soya chunks in it.  Squeeze the water from soya chunks and fry it in little oil.

3. Grind the items given in "To grind" section to smooth paste.

4.  Heat oil in pressure cooker and add bay leaf, cinnamon stick and clove.  Add onions , tomatoes, coriander leaves, green peas, shredded cabbage and butter beans and saute for few minutes.  Pour in the ground smooth paste, add salt and chilly powder to it and mix well.  Add a tsp of curd to the mixture.

5.    Add 1.5 cups of water and let it come to boiling stage, add the fried soya chunks and soaked basmati rice filtering the water. Cover and pressure cook for 1 whistle. 

 6. Open the cooker , fluff the rice and serve.  Delicious cabbage rice is ready to be served.

MATKA KULFI

Kulfi is a very popular frozen daily desert which has similarities to ice cream in appearance, however, it is denser and creamier.  It is considered to be a traditional Indian ice cream .  Unlike other ice creams, kulfi takes longer time to melt because of its density.  The mixture of dense evaporated milk is widely popular in Indian cuisine and there are many deserts made from that.  Kulfi gets a distinctive taste by evaporated sweetened and flavored milk by slow cooking process.

We moved to this home about 2.5 years back which is inside a gated community.  There is a small park and lawn and a lot of outer space for walking.  There are some benches where we can sit relax, talk, and have our nonsense laughter.  During weekends, the home would be filled in with guests from extended family mostly and after our dinner, we go down and chit chat and have our nonsense laughter.  Sometime the chats would extend up until 1 am as there is no urge to get up early in the morning.  There is a kulfi wala who sells kulfis after 10 o'clock at night and it would be finished in no time as soon as he arrived the spot.  We buy the kulfis on weekends and have it besides our sweet family talks. 

On evening when I was coming back from work, I was thinking to surprise the family with homemade kulfis.  This is the first time I am making at home and was not sure of the outcome, so I didn't reveal this to anyone at home.  I prepared this alongside with dinner and refrigerated it silently.  I eagerly opened the kulfi pots in the morning and was tickled on the outcome.

 

I served the kulfi on our night chit chats and the whole family was very surprised and didn't believed that I prepared it.  It tasted as equivalent as to that of the kulfi bought from kulfi wala.  First time I prepared a kulfi with almond pieces and next time I variated with almond and pistachios which increased the taste furthermore.  

Ingredients:

Milk - 2 liters (serves 6 pots of kulfi)

Sugar - 3/4 cup heaped

cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Almond (Sliced or cut into small pieces) - as desired

Preparation:

1. Boil milk until it reduces to 3/4.    Keep stirring in between otherwise it will be burnt at the bottom.  I kept the milk in the induction stove in 1st flame, so it slowly boiled and got thickened and didn't get burnt as well.  

2.  Once it thickens to desired level, add cardomom powder, sugar, and later almond slices.  Mix well and boil for some more time. Switch of the flame and let it cools to normal temperature.  Pour it in kulfi molds or small pots.  Cover the matka pot with aluminum foil and refrigerate it continuously for 6-8 hours.  

3.  When serving, add some sliced almond pieces over the refrigerated kulfi which would invite you to taste it immediately.

Wanna to try a spoon of this yummylicious Kulfi :-)