Black Eyed Peas & Plantain Pulao

Sometime back I was going through Shilpa's blog http://www.aayisrecipes.com/ and came across this recipe. Since I was neither too fond of dried black eyed peas nor fond of plantains and I always thought of pulao having traditional vegetables like beans, peas, carrots and cashew nuts and raisins, I didn't think I would ever try out this recipe. Ironically, yesterday after we came back hungry and famished from a long day out, I opened the fridge to find a lone plantain and carrot staring at me. Immediately, Shilpa's recipe came to my mind and I thought that's my only quick option now. I tweaked the recipe a little - we have stopped eating white rice, so I used brown jasmine rice. Instead of dried black eyed peas, I used fresh black eyed peas which is usually available in the freezer section of grocery store where frozen vegetables are kept. These cook faster and there is no need to soak the beans beforehand. I also added a carrot and a few cloves and skipped the curry leaves. The pulao was quick to cook and delicious. The coconut milk added a richness to it. The chopped plantain went well with the soft black eyed peas cooked to perfection. This is a hassle free quick one pot meal which I am definitely going to make again and again.

Frozen Black Eyed Peas / Lobia - 1 cup
Brown Jasmine Rice - 3/4 cup
Plantain / Raw Banana - 1 small, peeled and cut into small pieces
Carrot - 1, chopped
Coconut Milk - 1 cup (I used Trader Joe's light coconut milk which is without any added preservatives)
Clarified Butter / Ghee / Oil - 1 tbsp
Green Cardamom - 2
Cinnamon - 2 inch pieces
Cloves - 5
Ginger - 1 tsp, grated
Garlic - 2 pods, grated
Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped
Turmeric - a pinch
Red Chili Powder - 1/4 tsp
Roasted Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Water - 1 cup

Heat ghee in a pan. Add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Once they sizzle, add the chopped onion, ginger and garlic. Cook till the onion softens.

Now add the rice, black eyed peas, chopped plantain, carrot, salt, turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder. Saute for a few minutes. Add 1 cup of coconut milk and a cup of water.

In the meantime add 31/2 cups of water to a rice cooker. Transfer the rice mixture to a steel container which can be fitted in the rice cooker and cook til the water dries up. It takes around 45 minutes to cook the brown rice in the rice cooker.

Remove, fluff with a fork and serve hot with cilantro mint yoghurt chutney.

Sending this to http://gourmetglobal.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-blogging-event-seriestaste-of.html