Mint rice|Pudina rice

     Mint rice or Pudina rice are spiced pulav with the flavours of south-indian spices in addition to the mint or pudina in the rice. This pulav is cooked in a pressure cooker so making its preparation quite easy and the ingredients used are easily available in any Indian kitchen pantry.

     When i came to bangalore after marriage and started eating in different south indian restaurants... i was amazed to see the variety of rices or pulavs available here. Some names i had never heard of... Then when started working, there was a collegue of mine who used to prepare just yum food. From her i learnt lots of south indian recipes. Amongst all.... my fav were bisibele bhath and mint rice...
     So now mint rice is a common pulav preparation in my house. I have used Basmati rice for this pulav but any type of rice goes well with this prepartion....

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• 1/2 cup fresh Mint leaves
• 1/4 cup fresh Coriander leaves
• 1 medium Onion, sliced
• 1 medium Tomato, chopped
• 2 Green chilles,chopped
• 1/2 inch Ginger,chopped
• 1 inch Cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 3-4 Peppercorns
• 1 piece Star anise
• 2 Cardamom pods
• Salt as desired

Method:

1. Soak the basmati rice for 1/2 hr, drain and keep aside. Measure 2 cups water and keep.
2. In a grinder pot, add the mint leaves, coriander leaves, ginger and green chillies. Grind it to a course paste using 2-3 tbsps of the measured water*.
3. In a pressure cooker heat oil, then add the cumin seeds and allow them to splutter. Add cinnamon stick, peppercorns, staranise and cardomom pods and saute`.
4. Now add the sliced onions and let them sweat a bit. The onions should be just translucent.
5. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes. 
6. Now add the mint-coriander paste and salt and cook.After cooking for 3-4 minutes the oil will start separating from sides.
7. Now add the drained rice and mix. Then add the remaining water*, stir and cover the lid of the pressure cooker. Let the pressure cooker realease 2-3 whistles and turn off flame.
8. Open the pressure cooker after the pressure settles naturally.
9. Serve the hot mint rice with cold Boondi raita or Cucumber-onion raita.

   

   Mint rice with Boondi Raita

Tips:

*The water to be used to prepare the mint rice should be measured and kept.The same water should be used while grinding the mint-coriander paste. The remaining water should be used to boil the rice. The reason for this simple step is that if you added extra water while grinding and use double water to boil the rice, the final pulav will become mushy and sticky because of the extra water.