Vegetarian Kabuli Rice from my Kitchen..

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Basmati rice
• 2 Onions, finely chopped
• 1 large Carrot, Juliennes
• 1 tbsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)
• 1 ½ tbsp Sugar
• 25-30 Sultanas (Raisins)
• 12 – 14 Cashew nuts
• 10-12 Almonds
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 420gm Chickpeas
• 1 tbsp garlic ginger paste
• 1 tsp Cumin powder (Jeera powder)
• 1 tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)
• 1 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 tsp Chaat Masala
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• Big pinch of Saffron
• 1 tbsp Milk
• Salt to taste
• Fresh Coriander
• Fresh Mint leaves

Method:

• Wash and soak Basmati rice for at least 1 hour.
• Boil water in a large pot, add salt in it. Once the water boils add the rice.
• Meanwhile in hot water soak almond and cashew nuts.
• In a heavy bottom pan add ghee, once ghee is hot add carrot and sugar. Caramelise the carrots they would change colour and become very shiny. Then add raisins to it and sauté.
• Once the raisins swell up remove the carrots and raisin (use a slotted spoon so that the ghee remains in the pan itself) on toweling paper and keep aside.
• In the same pan add the almonds and cashew . Make sure to remove skin from almonds and sauté them for a while and remove and keep it aside.
• Again in the same pan add oil and once oil is hot enough add the onions. Sauté onions till they are golden brown in colour and then add the chickpeas, corainder and all the dry spices along with ginger garlic paste to it. Sauté well till everything combined and remove it from flame.
• Once the rice are done, make sure not to cook the rice completely they should be 10% less to be done then drain the water and keep in colander for rest of the water to drain off.
• Heat the milk and add saffron and mix well.
• Now assemble, using an oven proof dish layer the rice in the dish pour the milk mixture over it and then add the onions and chickpeas mixture. Mix well till rice is well coated with the onions masala.
• Then layer the almond and cashews on top followed by caramelised carrots and raisin.
• Add roughly chopped mint leaves and sprinkle them on top.
• Cover the dish with foil and put it in the preheated oven at 200° for 30 minutes.
• And your tasty Kabuli Rice is ready!!

Tips:

• If you do not have oven then layer the rice similar way and cover it with foil. Then on the gas keep tava (flat pan) and then the rice pan on it. Similar to what we do for biryani to give dum.
• For non vegetarian version, cook meat separately and while layering first put the meat then layer the rice over it. Do not mix the meat with rice before.
• Feel free to add cauliflower, potatoes or broccoli to the rice. Cook it with onions and chickpeas.
• If you like it spicy then once you have layered the dish sprinkle some biryani masala on the top and then put it in the oven.