Bisibelabath

Have been meaning to write this post for such a long time. Pulled up my fingers to type them today finally!!

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Raw rice                                                   
• 1 cup of veggies(mix of carrots,beans,peas,potato) 
• 1/2 cup of Toor dal                                      
• 1 Onion                                                        
• 4 or 5 small onions                                               
• 1 big Tomato                                                      
• 1 tsp of Jaggery or sugar                                         
• lemon sized ball of Tamarind                                                    
• 1 Tsp of Turmeric powder                                         
• Few strands of fresh Coriander leaves                                        
• 1 tsp of Saunf  
• 1 tbspn of Corainder seeds  
• 1 tbspn of Channa dal  
• 2 tsp of Grated coconut 
• 5 or 6 Red Chillis   
• 1 tsp of pepper corns 
• Mustard
• Curry leaves
• asafoetida or Hing

Pre-cooking

• Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the juice. Alternately you can use tamarind paste.

Method

• Dry roast all the ingredients highlighted in yellow color and grind them to a powder.
• Pressure cook dal along with tomato and turmeric powder. Dal should be cooked fully and must be mashed completely.
• Take the pressure cooker and add oil.
• Put the ingredients highlighted in green for tempering. 
• After mustard seeds splutter add the onions and saute them,followed by the veggies.
• After sauting for few minutes add the ground powder and mix well.
• Then add the tamarind extract along with some water.
• Add jaggery and salt to taste.
• Now pour in the mashed dal and check for spices.
• Atlast add the rice and close the pressure cooker for nearly 5 to 6 whistles.
• Measure the amount of water you add to the rice.Take care to keep the rice:water ratio in 1:2.5 ratio.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serving suggestions

• Add a few spoons of ghee after the rice is done.
• This goes well with chips or pappad.

Tips

• Bisibelabath is well done when the rice is mashed well with all the ingredients. So when in doubt with the water alway add more. Do not add less.
• To get a good consistency of mashed dal, pre-soak the dal for half an hour before cooking it.