Basanti Pulao Recipe Bengali Style
Recipe to make delicious Basanti Pulao at home. Simple ingredients, instructions, and equipment to cook Bengali style Misti Pulao easily.
Equipment
- 1 Kadhai
- 1 Induction Cooktop
- 1 Mixer Grinder
Ingredients
- 3 cups Gobindobhog rice
- 3 tbsp Ghee
- 1 tsp Ginger paste
- 2-3 Green Chilis
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- 4-6 pcs Green Cardamom
- 3 Cloves
- 2-3 Bay leaves
- 2 1-inch Cinnamon sticks
- Sugar to taste
- 10-15 Raisins
- 10-15 Cashew nuts
- 6 cups Water
Instructions
Wash the rice
- First, wash the rice very well in cold water. Do not rub them vigorously, just wash them gently.
- Spread the rice on a large plate or serving tray covered with kitchen tissues. This will dry up the rice in 15-20 minutes.
Marinate the rice
- After 20 minutes, add 1 tbsp ghee, turmeric, ginger paste, salt to taste and sugar to taste. (The amount of sugar will be according to preference. However, it is needed a bit more as the pulao is made sweet, but not too overpowering. )
- Next, combine all the ingredients nicely. Make sure you handle the rice carefully. Broken rice will not give you a good result.
- Keep aside the marinated rice for an hour.
Prepare the ingredients
- After 1 hour, heat 2 tablespoons of ghee in a kadhai.
- When the ghee is hot, add the cashew nuts and fry them for about 1 minute. keep the flame on medium.
- Remove the cashews from the oil and keep aside. In the meantime, soak the raisins in water.
- In the same ghee add the bay leaves, green cardamom, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Stir them until the fragrance is released from the aromatics.
Add the rice
- Now add the rice mix to the pan or kadhai. Stir it continuously until the rice gets dry and shows an opaque appearance.
Add boiling water
- While the rice is getting fried, boil water in another pot.
- Keep the flame on medium and add the boiling water to the opaque rice.
Cook the rice
- Stir everything well and turn up the flame to high. Let the rice cook on high flame for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, turn down the flame to medium and cover the kadhai. Let the rice simmer for around 10 minutes.
- Next, remove the lid and give everything a stir. Be gentle with the stirring otherwise the rice grains will break.
- Check if the rice is tender and take a taste test. Add if anything is needed.
- If the rice is not cooked to perfection, cover it again. Keep on checking the rice at an interval of five minutes.
Add the cashews and raisins
- Now, add the cashews and soaked raisins (squeeze out the excess water from them).
- Scrape from the sides and bottom and give them a final stir.
- Add the green chilis by slitting from the middle. Keep the flame on medium and cover the kadhai again for 5 minutes. We want the rice to be fluffy and not mushy.
- After 5 minutes, turn off the flame and transfer the Basanti Pulao into a bowl.