Shevid Pulao/Pilaf/Pulos

Shiveet is dill weed in farsi. This Pulao is traditionally made with black eyed peas (alasande/alasandalu) and dill weed. I substituted lentils for black eyed peas as i did not have them on hand. A very aromatic item. When you cook this, you will get hungrier just by smelling the aroma. I feel like Tom from Tom and Jerry cartoons, floating to the kitchen with the aroma, if you can picture what i am saying. A complete one pot meal and it will certainly make your guests go mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! Just by smelling it. Easy to cook and certain to impress, you will be a hit when you make this pulao for your friends and family... here goes the recipe.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Servings: 3 to 4

Ingredients:

1. Lentils dry - 3/4 cup

2. Raw basmati rice - 1 cup

3. Onions - 1 big, thinly sliced

4. Garlic - 2 pods grated or minced or 1 tsp paste

5. Ginger - 1 inch piece grated or 1 tsp paste

6. Fresh mint - 1 tbsp, finely chopped

7. Coriander - a handful, finely chopped

8. Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp powder or 1/2 inch stick

9. Cardamom - 3 popped, with the skin. just open it by pressing hard on the top, the bud must be open.

10. Clove - 3 pods or less than 1/4 tsp powder

11. Fennel powder - 1/2 tsp

12. Bay leaf - 2 

13. Cashew or Pistachio or Almonds- broken about 1 tbsp (optional)

14. Potato - Medium sized, sliced about 1/2 cm thick. (optional)

15. Oil - 2 tbsp

16. Salt - to taste

17. Pepper powder - 1 tsp or to taste

17. Water - 2 1/2 to 3 cups (depends on kind of basmati and how long lentils soaked)

Method:

1. Wash and soak lentils for atleast 3 hours or soak them in very hot water for 1/2 hour. Wash and soak rice with 1 tsp salt for half hour.

2. Heat oil in a big pot on medium heat. Add cinnamon, clove, cardamom, fennel and bay leaf and saute for a few seconds.

3. Add onions with a little salt, saute for a few seconds, put the lid on and let it get golden brown.

4. Now add the nuts if you are using any or all of them and saute till they get slightly brown.

5. Add ginger, garlic and mint and saute for a few seconds. Add sufficient salt and pepper for the whole dish and mix in well. Keep in mind that rice was also soaked with salt.

6. Add dill and saute till it wilts.

7. Drain rice and lentils, add them and saute for a few seconds so that oil coats the rice and lentils well. Be sure to do it gently, so that you break as little basmati grains as possible.

8. In a another vessel or in a rice cooker, layer potatoes on bottom and side and spoon out the pulao mixture into this vessel.

9. Add water and chopped cilantro/coriander to the vessel and cook it till well done and pulao is ready to eat.

Serving Suggestions:

It is aromatic and slightly bland. So you can jazz it up by serving a vegetable  or NV korma or raita on side. I eat it just the way it is with home made yogurt.

For NV and Andhra recipes, please visit, my pal Sruthi's Blog...

Tips:

1. It will be good to cook this in a rice cooker, rice cooks well this way. You can add about 1/2 cup less water in rice cooker. It generally depends on how much your basmati rice absorbs water. So use water accordingly.

2. If you cook on the stove, cover the vessel half way through and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 mins, just stick a fork or spoon to the bottom of the vessel, if it feels dry and like potatoes\ rice is sticking to the bottom, turn the stove off.

3. Let it cool for 15 minutes with the lid open, this will ensure the rice does not get sticky. Take a big serving platter in which all of pulao will fit in, and reverse the vessel of pulao in it. In order to do so, Cover the vessel with serving platter, hold both vessel's mouth and platter together with a cloth so you don't burn your hand and invert the vessel. Pat the vessel and the platter on a flat surface and lift the vessel up. You will see, the pulao comes out in the shape of the vessel, makes it look beautiful to serve like that. Before you serve it, make sure you you mix it well.

Aash

Aash:

This is a highly nutritious Iranian soup. Filled with lentils, chick peas, blacked eyed peas and wholesome goodness of a bunch of different greens make this soup very delicious. Aash basically means soup in Persian, this is a heavily aromatic and heavy in the tummy soup. Have a bowl full of this and you will forget eating for the rest of the day :D.

Prep time: 30 minutes approx (including cleaning) 

Cook time: 1/2 hr to 2 hrs.

Servings: 8 to 10 approx.

Ingredients:

1. Black eyed peas - 1 16oz can

2. Chick peas - 1 can 16oz or half if you don't want too much.

3. Lentils - 1 16 oz can.

4. Big onion - 1 or 2 small medium onions.

5. Garlic - 4 to 5 pods

6. Parsley - 2 tsp (dry) you can use fresh herbs if available.

7. Chives/scallions - 4 tsp(dry) if using scallions about 1/4 cup.

8. Dill weed - 1/4 cup

9. Cilantro/coriander - 1/4 cup

10. Mint Leaves - 1/4 cup

11. Spinach - 2 cups or more if you like

12.Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

13. Ground black pepper - to taste

14. Salt - to taste

15. Oil - 2tbsp

16. water - enough to cook, please eye ball it. approx 6 to 7 cups.

17. Kashk*/Wine vinegar/sour cream - 1/4 cup

*Kashk is a yogurt based ingredient, used in Persian cooking. You will find it at middle eastern stores or where a lot of middle eastern people shop for groceries. Only substitute it if you absolutely cannot find kashk. It is the main ingredient which gives this soup an unforgettable taste. It is salty, so when you add salt to the dish, add less so it gets adjusted when you add kashk.  It is generally found as white dry balls or now in liquid form. Next best substitute to Kashk is sour cream.

Method:

1. Heat oil in a big pot.

2. Saute all the dry herbs first for a few seconds.

3. Add Garlic and saute for few seconds.

4. Add onions saute for a few seconds and add salt mix and close it till it gets slightly golden brown.

5. Now add Mint, dill, parsley, chives, scallions, turmeric and saute for a few minutes.

6. Add spinach and let it wilt slightly.

7. add all the beans from the can, add sufficient water and let it cook for atleast 20 minutes.

9. Now add cilantro and cook for 2 minutes.

10. Add kashk and black pepper and cook for a 3 to 5 minutes.Aash is ready to eat.

Tips:

1. You can soak all the peas and lentils overnight and cook them using the above method. However, it will easily take up to 2 hours for it to finish cooking. if you do not have enough time, use the can version. It cooks a lot faster.

2. If you hate garlic. Do not chop or grate them into your dish. Just crush them and add them to the dish and pull them out when the cooking is done. you will have the garlic flavour but no garlic. This trick can be used for all the dishes which uses garlic.
3. Canned beans contain salt in them, so be careful when you add salt to the soup.
4.It is always a good idea to cook in medium heat, if you are in a hurry, use high heat. Remember to stand near the stove if you cooking on high. for more flavour, simmer the stove for 5 minutes before you turn it off for soups.
5. Use a thick bottomed vessel for cooking all kinds of soup.

Goes well with Persian naan, if you can't find it, you can use pita bread.