Kiran has provided this great recipe for Bagara Rice which is a traditional Hyderabad (South India) style rice dish otherwise called Bagara Annam in Telugu, a substitute for Biryani rice.

It is served as a main course dish and takes about 30-40 minutes to make.

The below will serve 2-3 people.

Ingredients:

2 cups Basmati Rice

2 tbsp Ghee/clarified butter or 3-4 table spoons sunflower oil.

2-3 Green Cardamom, black pepper corns and Cloves.

1 inch Cinnamon stick.

2 Bay Leaves.

3-4 Cashew Nuts if available.

1 medium sized Onion - sliced

Slit Green Chillies, ideally 2-3 (remove seeds).

1 tsp Ginger - Garlic Paste.

Few Mint leaves chopped

Chopped coriander

Fried onions

3 and 1/2 cup Water.

Salt to taste.

Instructions:

Wash the rice a couple of times and drain all the water.

Add ghee or oil in a pan.

Once the ghee or oil is hot, add the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves and let them crackle for a few seconds. Add the onions, green chilli, mint leaves, ginger-garlic paste and cook for 3-4 minutes until the onion slices and cashew nuts are golden brown.

Now sauté the above for a minute.

Add the water and salt.

Add the washed rice into the pan.

Cover the pan with the lid and cook on a medium to high heat until you see the water boiling, this will be around 20-25 minutes into cooking, and the simmer with the heat turned to low for another 10 minutes.

Cook until rice is cooked and all the water is absorbed.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the rice rest for 5 minutes in the pan.

Serve the rice hot and complement it with Raita (see my future recipe soon) or natural yogurt.

Garnish the rice with a sprinkle of fresh chopped coriander and fried onions.

If you give this a go, let us know how you get on, or if you would like to share any of the recipes you are using at the moment please e-mail [email protected]