kheema pulaao and brinjal fry

I am late, I am late!

who says this? The rabbit in the Alice in wonderland cartoon! And I am joining him...I wanted to take part in a number of blog events..meeta's monthly mingle for 1 dish meal...I prepared that but never found time to post the recipe and the entry to the monthly mingle, now that march is long gone its no use, but the recipe is nevertheless a must try!
And you know the cartoons are doing a lot of impact on me no wonder I am talking in that way..thats evident from my first line... Sameeha(or for that matter all kids)is crazy about cartoons, just to keep her busy till I am done with my cooking,I used to put the tom and jerry cartoon, Now she has a huge collection of it...barbie, tom and jerry ,looney tunes,cinderella 1,2,3.mermaid 1,2....I have never seen so many cartoons....all we got those days was an hour of cartoon,...jungle book..or disney hour,duck tales,talespin...but now kids have cartoon network 24 hrs...
Huda on the other hand has learnt to stand up on her own,all these days she was holding the furniture and stuff to pull herself up, now she is doing it by herself,and yesterday she took first steps, only 3 steps...but on her own between two sofas....17 April 2008...I wanna write it down before it slips out of my mind... she is now enjoying attention from everybody,she understands if I tell her "badmaash" and starts whining whenever I say that:-) looks like she will start walking in a couple of weeks.

Last weekend we went to the desert safari with our family friends ,It was really fun, we made a tent,did barbecue...it was really fun, and the weather was also very good!
Anyways coming back to the food part, this recipe I learnt from my neighbor who is from mumbai, exactly this time last year we shifted to this house,huda wasn't there that time,that is when she brought this for us,and I liked it a lot and asked for the recipe and from that time made many times....along with that I made brinjal fry and cucumber raita...
I hated brinjal,except for the bagara baigan. So, I never tried to learn anything with brinjal. But,sometime back when we visited my husband's friend's house, who is from pakistan, we tasted this, and it was a super hit instantly,and is easiest thing you can make, and it can be eaten as a side dish with rice and dal or any curry, or you can have it with roti...and also you can have that by itself....super easy and super yummilicious...do try it out at least once.. even if you are a brinjal hater!

Brinjal Fry :
ingredients

2 large brinjal
chat masala
oil for frying
method
--wash the brinjal, and slice it! again wash it
--in a large bowl spread out the brinjal an sprinkle the chat masala generously, and toss the bowl so that each slice of brinjal gets the coating of chat masala, alternately if you think that each slice will not get sufficient coating,apply the chat masala to each slie that will be a long process
--heat about 1 cup of oil in a frying pan,when it is hot lower the flame and put the brinjal slices one by one,fry one side without turning for a minuite and then flip and fr the other side, fry till its dark brown.
--take it out on a paper towel so that excess oil is drained,repeat with the rest of the brinjals
--Enjoy it with roti, or as a side dish or by itself!!



Kheema pulaao

ingredients

kheema 400gms
basmati rice 500 gm
2 onion
1 tomato
2 inch cinnamon stick(2)
4 cardamom pods(2)
1 tbsp zeera
1 inch ginger or you can use ginger paste
2 flakes garlic
1 tsp red chilly powder(adjust to your level)
salt
1/4 tsp haldi
3/4cup whole masoor daal(whole red lentils or akhi masoor daal or daal moth)
1 cup yogurt
cilantro 1/2 cup chopped
mint2 sprigs
green chillis2-3
5-10 peppercorns

method
--wash and soak the rice.
--Soak the whole red lentil for at least an hour,finely slice the onion ,fry till golden, drain it on a paper towel.then crush it well.
--In a blender, blend ginger,garlic,zeera,cardamom,cinnamon,tomato. keep aside.
--wash the kheema well.
--In a saucepan heat oil,when its sufficiently hot,put the blended mixture,fry for sometime,then put chilly powder,salt,haldi,then put the soaked lentils, then fry it for some time,then put the fried and crushed onion to it,fry for sometime, then put kheema.
--Bhoonofy the kheema well, and then add yoghurt and mix well.
--Fry till the water evaporates,then put about half a cup of water and clantro.
--cover and cook till all the water evaporates,and both kheema and the lentils are cooked well.

--In another thick bottom saucepan, put about 15 cups of water,to it ad mint leaves,cilantro,green chillies,cinnamon,cardamom,peppercorns and salt, cover the saucepan with a lid.
--when the water starts boiling ,out the soaked rice to the boiling water.
--cook the rice till it is 3/4 done
--drain the rest of the water
--Now,transfer half of the rice in another large plate,layer the kheema over the rice in the saucepan, then again layer the remaining rice in the plate over the kheema layer.
--now put blobs of ghee on the rice layer.
--cover it it tight with the lid
--put it on high heat for about2 mins,then lower the flame and cook til vapours ooze out of the lid.
--turn off the flame and let it stand for about10 mins, then mix the layers well andserve hot with raitha.