Aromatic rice pulao

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups/500 g Basmati rice
• 3 ¾ cups chicken stock
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons clarified butter/ghee
• ½ cup chopped onion (1/2 of a large onion)
• 1 cm / ½ inch ginger
• Salt to taste

Spices:

• 1 bay leaf
• 2 star anise
• 5 cardamoms
• 4 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
• 7 cloves
• 1 - 1½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• Few drops of yellow food colouring

Vegetables:

• 100 g /1 large/ Carrot cut into small cubes (1/2 cupful)
• 100 g/ 4 large florets Cauliflower, cut into medium size pieces
• 70g / ½ cup frozen green peas

For Garnish:

• ½ cup-1 cup sliced onion
• ¼ cup / 30g Dry nuts (Cashew, pistachio, almonds etc or a mix of all)
• 2 tablespoons / 25g raisins

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Preparation

• Wash the rice several times and soak for an hour to lengthen the grains during cooking.
• Heat a large saucepan, add oil+ghee, fry the onions for garnishing until golden, drain and keep them aside. In the same oil, add cashew and fry until golden. Take them out too. Again, in the same oil add raisins and sauté just until it puffs up. Keep it along with nuts and onion.
• In the same oil add all the spices and sauté just for few seconds if on high flame. Take care not to burn the spices, else the whole rice will go bitter. Add onion and ginger and sauté until the onion is soft.
• Add the reserved rice and sauté for 2 minutes to cover the rice with the flavours of the pan.
• Add the vegetables and sauté for further 2 minutes.
• Mix the stock cubes in boiling water and add it to the pan. Stir for a couple of minutes and adjust salt if needed. Since the cube is quite salty, adding just a little salt would be enough.
• When the water starts boiling, cover and cook on low flame for about 20 minutes or until the rice is well cooked. Stir once in between to allow uniform cooking.