Vegetable & Sprouted Peas Rice

Hello there.... I learnt a very useful skill from the ladies of my house and it is called do not panic! Yes, that's right! Let me give you a bit of it's background....Years ago people in my village grew their own vegetables and fruits which were fresh, seasonal, organic and local. Very rarely they visited cities, towns and market places. Yet they were very well connected with the community they lived in. A week wouldn't pass by without having any guests at home. When I say that, literally we would have guests/visitors every week round the year and they were all unannounced visits! Back then we did not have access to telephone so there is no question of advance notice when somebody decided to visit! That sounds terrifying these days right? I know 😀 Since the vegetables and fruits were seasonal and my family was pretty large (I mean 15+ members living under one roof!) those supplies used to run out of stock quite quickly. We did not have a refrigerator at home (they still don't have&want one can you believe that?!) so never had any leftovers or stale food if I may say?!.. There was always food of course but limited choices. Co-incidentally guests would show up at 12:00pm just an hour before lunchtime and what next?!!! We had to make something 'special' or/and some sweet dish for lunch or evening snack or for dinner (if they stayed overnight). To me it looked no less than a pressure test in Master-chef competition!! But it was a way of showing that you were pleased to have them at your home. So the ladies had to produce a masterpiece with whatever they had. Then came the part of deciding what they were going to make. And that's the time I saw how my mom, granny and aunts got together at lightening speed and brainstormed as to what we had in stock, what dishes can be made out of it, who is going to do what and without wasting any time they all got into working and the 'special dish' a masterpiece was made with minimum ingredients by 1:00 pm sharp for lunch! And they served it with generous amount of affection and smile :-) Such fine management skills I have seen I tell you...From these experiences I gradually learned something - not to panic, how to be calm under pressure, be open to change, to have a can do attitude and how to be genuinely happy with whatever you have!!! If anybody wants some training on soft skills I can recommend some brilliant trainers (just look inside your homes😉). We are all being taught these finest qualities like simplicity, kindness, sharing, helping others, being hospitable, being on time, working in teams etc. etc etc...at a very young age in our very own homes. Like they say..home is the first school a child ever attends. How is that we end up paying money and attending training sessions on these things when we grow up??? Sitting in a training room of some corporate office and filling out the soft skill activity forms...funny isn't it?!! This wisdom was given to us absolutely free of cost by our elders. A lot of times I go back to my roots when I find myself in a challenging situation and I have always found solutions that work😊 Cheers to all those lovely, strong women, they are the real rock stars!!✨💕 Coming to the recipe - I ran out of fresh vegetables, milk, chillies, coriander, fruits and what not! So whatever I have used in this recipe was pretty much everything I had left (it wasn't extremely challenging as I did have all the spices and powders but I had to work around combination of veggies as this plays a very important role in enhancing the flavour of the dish) And it did turn out to be very delicious🙂

Ingredients: 3 cups basmati rice 2-3 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, 2 cardamoms, 1 star anise 1/4 cup sprouted green peas (dried) and 1/4 cup frozen peas One medium size carrot and potato Half cup soya chunks 8-10 mint leaves finely chopped One medium size onion finely chopped 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp chilli powder 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp dry mango/amchoor powder 1/2 tsp garam masala powder 1 tsp ginger garlic paste 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp paprika powder 1 tsp kewra water Freshly squeezed juice of 2 oranges 2 tblsp yogurt 3 tblsp ghee 1 tsp sugar and salt as per taste Method: -Soak the rice in water for 10-15 minutes -Boil 3 cups water and soak the soya chunks in it for 10-15 minutes. Later rinse it in cold water and squeeze the chunks thoroughly to remove the water. -Tear the soya chunks into pieces - this helps to absorb the masala well. -Heat the pressure cooker and add ghee followed by jeera, clove, star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon & cardamon -Once they turn aromatic, add the onions and saute for 2 mins -Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Now add all the spice powders, mint leaves, kewra water, yogurt, cut vegetables, soya chunks, salt, sugar and give it a good mix. -By now the mixture would have gone dry a bit - can add 1/4 cup water and saute for one more minute -Now add the soaked rice, 4 cups water and 1 cup orange juice & bring it to boil. -Once it starts to boil, close the lid and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Notes: -Adding orange juice while cooking rice gives it a very subtle aroma and flavour. -You can also add cashews while frying onions -Soaked rice needs less water to cook. So adjust according to the quantity of rice you are using. -Do not cook for more than 2 whistles otherwise the rice will get burnt at the bottom of pressure cooker Cheers!