Bengali basanti pulao (mishti pulao)
This traditional, Bengali bright yellow (basanti) colored, sweet rice recipe is made in ghee, whole spices and assorted nuts. Generally made for special occasions and festivals, this is 'the' pulao in Bengali cuisine
Equipment
- Shallow cooking pot with lid
Ingredients
- 250 g Gobindobhog rice or any short grain non sticky rice
- 80 g sugar
- 1 tbsp onion paste
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- ½ tbsp garlic paste
- 2-3 fresh chilis slit
- 1½ inch cinnamon stick
- 3-4 green cardamoms
- 3-4 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 blade mace
- 1 tbsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 8-10 cashews
- 8-10 almonds roughly chopped
- 10-12 raisins
- 4-5 tbsp ghee
Instructions
- Wash the rice 3-4 times throughly with water. Keep it soaked for 10 minutes
- In your cooking pot, add the ghee and let it melt. Add the whole spices (except the mace) and once they turn aromatic, add the onion, ginger and garlic pastes
- Fry over medium flame, until the raw smell of the pastes go away. Be careful to not let them brown, otherwise your pulao will not remain yellow
- Drain the rice and add it to the cooking pot, mix well, coating each grain with the ghee, whole spices and onion mixture. Pour 500g of water and stir gently
- Add the salt, sugar, turmeric, mace, chilis, cashews, almonds, raisins and mix gently. Turn the flame to medium high and cook until the water on the surface of the rice evaporates. Thereafter, lower the heat to minimum, cover and cook for 7 minutes
- Remove from heat and let it sit covered for another 7-10 minutes. Serve your amazing Bengali basanti pulao with a curry or dal of choice and enjoy!
Notes
- The color of your basanti pulao has to be lemon yellow and not dark yellow, so adjust the amount of turmeric powder to be added accordingly
- Even jeeraga samba rice variety works well in this recipe
- If you want to keep the onion and garlic pastes out, follow the same recipe and omit them
- Always add the sugar after you've added the water, otherwise, it could caramelize and make the rice turn brown which is undesirable
- You may also fry the nuts and add them to the pulao
- g - grams
- tsp - teaspoon
- tbsp - tablespoon