Panchranga Pulao

This was made for a quickie lunch and also another one dish meal. As the name suggests panchranga ( 5 coloured ) pulao, it has veggies of different colours. This recipe is adapted from Sanjeev Kapoors Panchranga pulao. I avoided the capsicum as that is a big no no for my DH and replaced it with corn. Carrots, corn, beans, peas and cauliflower provided the pretty colours.

Here's the recipe:

PanchRanga Pulao

Basmati Rice - 2 cups

Corn - 1/2 cob (after microwaving for 2 minutes )

French Beans - 8 ( cut in to 1/2" pcs )

Carrot - 1 medium sized ( cut into 1/2 "pcs )

Cauliflower - 1/2 medium sized (separate into small florets )

Green Peas - 1/4 cup

Onions - 2 sliced thinly

Green chillies - 1 slit lengthwise

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Ghee - 3 tblsp

cinnamon - 1 " stick

Cardamom - 4

Cloves - 4

Peppercorns - 8

Bay Leaves - 2

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

cashewnuts, coriander leaves for Garnish

method:

Wash and soak rice for half an hour.

Heat some oil and fry quarter of the onions and cashewnuts for the garnish and keep aside.

Heat the ghee in which you plan to cook the rice and add all the spices and fry.

Add the remaining onions and ginger garlic paste and saute till translucent.

Add all the vegetables and green chilly and cook for a minute.

Add the soaked and drained rice and stir gently for a minute.

Add in four cups of water and salt and cook covered in medium heat till all the water is absorbed.

Mix and garnish with fried onions, cashewnuts and corinader leaves.

Serve with Raita, Papad and any non-veg curry or paneer curry.

gita

New Beginning!

Hey everyone! Its good to be back after taking off for a mighty long time. During the absence, I did enjoy a 10-week trip to India where we had a great time with the family. Yeah Li'l Sis and I did spend some creative time together making Little girl SS a birthday cake. And of course, after a holiday comes the pain of getting back into the grind again! Now that we are settled in, I thought I should start over. So, since this is kind of a new beginning, I thought I should share something I made for a friend's new baby.



I had seen these "Cupcake Hats" around the internet and had been wanting to try these for a long time. Somehow, I didn't have anybody to make it for. Little girl SS refused it, saying it was for babies. (She's "Big" now!) Ahem! Anyway, recently a friend of mine had a baby girl and I immediately knew what I was going to give her. There are so many patterns out there for the "Cupcake Hat", but I went with this one because I liked the way the picots looked at the transition from the cupcake wrapper to the frosting . The pattern was simple enough for me, a novice at knitting, and I didn't have any trouble at all with the directions. I used DPNs for this project.

The booties were made from the ever so popular pattern, Saartje's Booties . My only modifications were that I went for the Mary Jane straps rather than the cross straps. These booties are knitted using straight needles, so there is quite a bit of seaming. I also added a row of crochet picots around the first round of pink knitting to match the hat. I was lucky enough to find a Cupcake layette set complete with a sweater, onesie and pants in the same color scheme as the hat and booties. I don't think I'm pro enough to knit a sweater yet!



Finally, just to go with the theme, I made this Cupcake tag to go on the giftbox. Of course, if its knitting, there has to be something of Julie Williams. I'm always in awe of her work! I omitted the cake color from the pattern and went on to use the frosting color after the case color just to keep with the color scheme.

I thought it all turned out pretty neat. Baby S must be looking "as cute as a Cupcake", don't you think?

Mita.