One of a long pending post from my draft. Staying away from home on a business
assignment and feeling bored and lonely on a breezy evening, hence
thought to dive into this blogging to clear out some posts and to pen down some
random thoughts.
Last two weeks I am out of country and many unfortunate
things are happenings around my small world . First one was the sudden demise of a great
leader of my state, my Chief Minister. I
have never been politically inclined but have always been an admirer of her as
an individual person for her boldness. The society where I belong to does not much
encourage woman to be a leader and to be on forefront on any position but she
is one in million kind of a woman who picked up every stone thrown towards her
and built an empire. It is a loss to
nation and it is a loss to women's society.
Before I could digest her demise, we had another threat in
the form of cyclone. As a vivid follower
of a famous TN weatherman blog, I advised, requested, and instructed my family
not to move out of home. As told by him,
it had devastated the entire city. When
I saw the clippings on social media, I am almost at the verge of cry because
the whole nature is spoilt. During this
period, I had gone through lot of mental stress as I could not reach out family
members due to out of network. There was
no power at home and mobile network was not working anywhere. It was one of a very
difficult day in life. It is a sad
feeling to realize that when I return back to my city, I would not be seeing the
same old Chennai and I would be missing many part of it.
I have read many times somewhere on social media that in the
blink of an eye everything changes, so please love the people who belong to
you. Yeah, that is true, this is a take away truth from the above two
happenings.
Moving on to the post, when I chit chat with my son the
other day on Whatsapp, I asked him what he needs from here, he replied about
his favorite toys and adding to that he replied as soon as I come back home, he
requested me to prepare my specialty dish, Vegetable Biryani. I am proud to say that every family member
and friends of mine have always loved the version of my biryani. The mild aroma of the spices blends to the
mixed vegetables and the unique flavor from basmati rice gives a rich and
addictive taste to the recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
Mixed Vegetables (Beans, Carrot, Cauliflower, Potato) – 1 large bowl
Mint and coriander leaves – 1 cup
Onion – 1 big size
Tomato – 2 medium size
Soya chunks/Meal maker – half cup
Chilly powder – 1 teaspoon
Basmati Rice – 1 cup
Water – 1.5 cups
Oil - 4 tsp
To grind:
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Garlic pods - 5
Green chillies – 2
Tempering items:
Ghee – 2-3 tablespoons
or as desired
Bay leaf - 1
Cardamom – 1
Cinnamon – 1 inch
Cloves – 3-4
Oil – 4 teaspoons
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. Wash
and cut the vegetables of your choice and keep it ready. Soak the cauliflower in boiled salt water. The salt in the water would help kill the
insects and it would leave from the flower.
Remove the cauliflower florets carefully later. Wash the mint and coriander leaves and keep
it separately. The coriander leaves
needs to be chopped roughly.
4. Grind the items given in "To grind" section to smooth
paste.
5. Heat oil/ghee in pressure cooker and add bay leaf, cinnamon
stick, clove and cardamom. Add onions , tomatoes, coriander leaves and
saute for few minutes. When the tomatoes turn mushy, add the mixed
vegetables and required salt and mix well and allow to cook for 3-4
minutes. Later, add the chilly powder
and mix well. Add 1.5 cups of
water and let it come to boiling stage, add the fried soya chunks, cauliflower,
and soaked basmati rice filtering the water. Cover and pressure cook for 1
whistle. Open the cooker , fluff the rice and serve.
Delicious vegetable rice is ready to be served.
We had our yummlious biryani with onion raita.
