The Fragrant Mint & Sweetcorn Pilao Rice!

Back when we were children, those weren’t the days of dining at sprawling, high-end hotels or brunches at a four-star resort. Nowdays, when I see everyone checking into the Marriott or Leela or Westin on facebook, I smile on remembering the time when we would look at the Taj Palace Hotel of Mumbai from across the street during the ‘Mumbai-Darshan’, and marvel at the fact that all the famous film-stars dined there. Ah, the simpler times!

Our weekend takeaways came from simple eateries like Udipi (a famous yet budget-friendly South-Indian food franchise) or Hong-kong, an Asian restaurant tucked away into a narrow lane near our house. We used to wait for the day when mum would order us food from these joints and even today, I still get the same takeaways when I visit my home-town in India.

One of these favorite joints of ours was a place called- VRINDAVAN. It was a humble little restaurant in the New Palasia area of Indore and the specialty of this place is that it did an insane variety of corn-based dishes that were more delicious than you can ever imagine. They had corn-pakoras, corn-bhel, corn kees, corn-pulao, corn chaat and corn-what not. Corn-Chaopati it was called! It was a budget-friendly fare, very reasonable and the food was so yummy that the taste still lingers on my tongue.

So, when I saw a tin of corn in my refrigerator which was almost 3/4th full, I immediately thought of replicating my favorite dish from Vrindavan- Corn-Pulao!

All I could remember from memory was that it used to have whole-spices, corn kernels, coconut shreds, it used to be sweetish and it used to have a greenish base, like a pesto. Relying on my memory and taking tit-bits from a couple of recipes on you-tube, I began making this new recipe. For the green paste, I pretty much used the ingredients for the standard green chutney that I prepare regularly and for rest of the procedure, I simply followed the way of making an everyday pulao. In the end, I added sugar…. (remember I told you that Vrindavan’s pulao used to be sweetish?)….mix-mix and taking a spoonful, stuffed a gigantic bite into my mouth.  Surprise, surprise! I nailed the exact taste on my very first attempt! Every bite was like an instant trip down the memory lane. I quickly wrote down the exact recipe lest I forget even a single element of it.

I would recommend that you follow this recipe step by step, without any alterations or leaving out of any ingredients. Try out this recipe the next time you want a change from cooking your routine vegetable Pulao or Biryani and I assure you that everyone will love it. If you are a corn lover like me, you have to try it!

Give this recipe a go friends and enjoy!!

Ingredients:

– 1 cup Basmati Rice

– 1 cup of ‘ready-to-eat’ Sweetcorn kernels

– 1 large Onion

– 1 Bay Leaf

– 2 Green cardamoms

– 3 Cloves

– 1 tsp Cumin seeds

– 2 tbsn Oil

– 1 tbsn Red chilly powder

– 1 tsp – Garam Masala powder

– 1-2 tsp Sugar

– Salt as per taste

For the green paste:

– ½ cup Fresh coriander leaves

– ½ cup Mint leaves

– A small piece of fresh Coconut, peeled

– 1 small piece of Ginger

– 2 Garlic cloves

– 2 Green chillies

Method:

– Wash rice and cook it al-dante (3/4th cooked) as we do for fried-rice. We do not want the rice to be fully-done as they will also be cooked a bit more later. Set aside.

• To check if your rice is done, here’s a trick- The rice should be pretty much cooked but still have a bit of a grain when you break a rice between your forefinger and thumb.
• Also, before you add the raw rice to your boiling water to cook, make sure you add 1 tsp of olive oil and some salt in it. Oil ensures that your rice doesn’t get mushed up together and salt is for inducing some seasoning.

– Grind all the ingredients under the ‘green paste’ by adding a little water. Set aside.

– Meanwhile, thinly slice the onions. Set aside.

– Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan.

– Add cumin, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf. Fry for around fifteen seconds.

– Add the onions and cook on medium-low heat till they turn crisp, brown and caramelised.

– Now add the green paste and saute for 2 minutes.

– Add the corn and sauté again for 2 minutes.

– Add the red chilly powder, garam masala, salt and sugar and mix everything well.

– Add your pre-cooked rice and gently mix it with the tempering, careful not to break the rice. Cook for the final 4-5 minutes more and switch off the flame!

– Serve hot and enjoy!!

*Notes-

– If your sweetcorn kernels are not of a ready-to-eat variety, steam the corn before adding to the tempering.

– I have used the green peas only for decorating the dish! They haven’t been used in the recipe itself.