Brownrice pulao

Ingredients

•	Brown rice	1 1/2 cups
•	Fresh coriander leaves,chopped	1 1/2 cups
•	Fresh mint leaves,chopped	1/2 cup
•	Garlic,chopped	8 cloves
•	Green chillies,chopped	2
•	Olive oil	1 tablespoon
•	Cinnamon	1 inch stick
•	Green cardamoms	3
•	Cloves	6-8
•	Ginger,chopped	1 inch piece
•	Carrot,scraped and cubed	1 medium
•	Cauliflower	7-8 small florets
•	Salt	to taste
•	Vegetable stock	4 1/2 cups
•	French beans,1/2 inch pieces	4-5

Method

Soak brown rice in two and half cups of water for two hours. Drain and set aside.

For green chutney grind coriander leaves, mint leaves, garlic and green chillies to a fine paste.

 Heat oil in a pan. Add cinnamon, green cardamoms, cloves and ginger and sauté till fragrant. Add carrot, cauliflower and brown rice and mix well.

Add three tablespoons of green chutney and salt and stir to mix well.

Add vegetable stock and French beans and mix well.

When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook till the rice/quinoa is done. Serve hot. 

Vegetable stock recipe:

Ingredients

1 to 2 onions
2 to 3 carrots
3 to 4 celery stalks
4 to 5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 small bunch parsley
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
Optionals: leeks (especially the green parts), fennel, tomatoes, mushrooms, parsnips.          Method:

Roughly Chop All The Vegetables, Cover with Water and Simmer, Cook for One Hour or So, Strain and Store also can store the leftover and freeze them to use later.

Additional Notes:
Roasting and Sweating - Two ways to add more flavor to your broth are to roast the vegetables beforehand or to let them sweat (start to soften and release their liquids) for a few minutes over the heat before adding the water.

Saving Vegetables for Broth – Pl. keep a sealable bag in the freezer where you can throw vegetable odds and ends: vegetables that have wilted beyond saving, the green parts from leeks, trimmings from carrots, and so on. Once the bag gets full, use the contents to make broth.

Paruppu Urundai Kozhambu

Want to comeback and update the blog with more recipes due to constant push by my family members.

This dish is called "Parruppe Urundai Kozhambu" this is very popular in Southern part of India. 

Ingredients needed are:

•  Toordal ---1cup
•  Chanadal—1/4 cup ( you can also take ½ cup each of chanadal & Toor dal with 1
•   tablespoon of rice which is optional as the whole sambhar gets too thick.)
•  Tamarind- - One lemon size soak and squeeze the juice.
•  Red Chillies-- 4
•  Asofeotida (Hing) -- half an inch if it is gum or half teaspoon
•  Turmeric powder --half to 3/4 teaspoon
•  Sambhar Powder—3 teaspoons
•  Til Oil – 2 Tablespoon
•  Mustard Seeds- 1 teaspoon
•  Methi seeds—1/2 teaspoon
•  Curry leaves –5-7 leaves
•   Salt to taste and little jaggery at the end mixing well.

Method: Soak the dals (Toor and Chana ) for one to two hours,grind along with chillies and hing to semirough consistency with very little water preferably,see the picture below:

Add one tablespoon of rice flour in the mixture if the consistency is watery.

If the grinded mixture is very loose, then place it in the microwave for one minute. 

Make small balls out of this dal mixture as below:

Complete the grinded mixture in round balls.     

Next step is to make the sambar liquid. 

Then place a vessel on the stove and add oil and season with Mustard and Methi (Fenugreek seeds).

Soak the lemon size tamarind in Water as above.

Squeeze the tamarind and discard the fibre as above

Then when the mustard splitters add sambhar powder,Turmeric and hing lightly fry them and then add the tamarind juice (Squeeze out the tamarind and extract the juice).Add more water and again take out the remaining juice. The tamarind juice should be of 3 cups or more) Bring to boil. When it starts boiling, add two to three dhal balls.

Finally add the jaggery and stir it mixing well with curry leaves.

Finally'Paruppu Urundai Kozhambu' is ready to eat with Rice Enjoy!