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Basanti Pulao By Udaya Kumar Parida
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Winner - Utsaval Recipe Contest
Basanti pulao the name itself explains the recipe. The word basanti means ‘Bright yellow colour’ and pulao means ‘fragrant rice recipe’. It is a traditional Bengali food that has been prepared in the Bengali kitchen for ages. festive days such as Durga puja recipe or Jagadhatri puja prasad.
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INGREDIENTS
- Rice: A particular small grain fragrant rice variety of rice named gobindobhog chaal is used to cook the bengali pulao recipe. A good quality gobindobhog chaal fills the whole house with its fragrance during the time of cooking.
- Ghee aka clarified butter: Basanti pulao is a ghee laden rice recipe where a generous amount of ghee is used to cook it. Here ghee is used in two parts to prepare the dish.
- To marinate the rice grains
- To fry the marinated rice evenly
- Turmeric powder: It is used to get the bright yellow colour of the halud pulao.
- Whole spices & ginger paste: Whole spices- cloves, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and ginger paste are used to marinate the washed and dried rice grain along with ghee. It helps to induce their flavour into the rice.
- Even whole spices – bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, black cardamom are used for tempering to make the ghee aromatic before cooking the pulao. In the traditional basanti pulao recipe, only whole spices are used to make the pulao aromatic. No ground spices are added to it except turmeric powder.
- Dry fruits: In the traditional recipe, only raisins and cashew nuts are used. Both provide taste and flavour to the dish.
- Green chillies: They provide a soothing and refreshing aroma to the pulao with a slight heaty touch.
- Sugar and salt: Mishti pulao tastes more sweet than salty. So, sugar is added more as compared to salt. Both provide a balanced taste to the pulao.
- Hot water: One of the most necessary ingredients which is added to cook the rice.
PREPARATION
- to prepare perfect Basanti pulao Always use Gobindobhog rice (aromatic small grain ricfor the recipe. Don’t replace it with Basmati rice. Don’t replace the ghee with edible oil. Otherwise, the flavour and taste of the dish would dropdown. Don’t skip raisins and cashew nuts from the recipe. It provides both texture and flavour to the dish. Marinade the rice with ghee, spices and ginger paste and cover it for at least 1 hour for the perfect aroma. Fry the marinated rice thoroughly in ghee. The texture of the pulao partially depends on this step. As nicely as you fry them, the pulao will become perfect in texture. Don’t replace the whole spices with the ground spice mix. Whole spices give subtle flavour to the pulao without affecting its taste. Always use hot water to cook the basanti pulao recipe or else the pulao will become soggy. Add the measured amount of water in one batch and allow it to cook. Don’t add water slowly in batches. Follow the timeline to cook the pulao perfectly. After 10-15 minutes of cooking the mishti pulao, pour it into a large mixing bowl or else the pulao rice may stick to each other in the hot pan.
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