Tri- color pearls fried rice

Celebration time !!! 😀

15 August 1947, India rang in it’s independent status from being a British Colony !!

India has been invaded several times, ruled for 331 years by the Mughals, followed by the British for another almost 100 years.

Every ruler has been successful in leaving its physical and cultural mark on this nation of 1.27 billion !!! 😀 Quite crowded, aren’t we ? 😉

I will not go into the history of India’s independence, The Google God has most of the answer for it 😉 😛

Pakhi was to attend a potluck gathering with her bunch of friends, as Independence Week celebration with the obvious theme of tri-color of the Indian flag. Menu was decided by them and each of us moms’ were given one item to cook.

Now Pakhi wanted something unique for her friends to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over it 😉 and i wanted to keep things a bit easier because it was a working day for me :/, so ultimately settled on Pearly Fried rice !!

Here’s what i did………..

INGREDIENTS 

For the pearls :

150 gms – cottage cheese

1 tbsp – refined flour or corn flour

Few drops of green and dark yellow/orange cake color

 

For the fried rice:

250 gms – uncooked basmati rice

1 cup – fried onions

1 cup – finely chopped onion

1 tsp – grated ginger

1 nos – bay leaf

1/2 tsp – peppercorns

salt to taste

 

For the tempering :

2 sticks – cinnamon

4-5 nos – cloves

2-3 nos – mace

2-3 nos- small cardamom

2 nos – star anise

1 tsp – clarified butter / ghee

METHOD

Mix and mash together cottage cheese and refined flour, as smooth as possible. Divide the mix into three parts. Add green and dark yellow color to the two portions and leave the third portion white.

Make tiny pearl sized balls.

Shallow fry them and keep aside.

Wash the rice and keep it soaked 20 mins prior to cooking.

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil and temper with bay leaf, peppercorns and grated ginger. Fry for a min and add the chopped onions. Fry for 2 mins. Drain the rice and add. Stir it lightly so that the oil coats it. Add salt and water. Cover and cook till rice is done. ( I sealed it with dough and cooked on ‘dum’ ).

Prepare the tempering with all the ingredients given and pour it on the rice. Mix and cover it for another 10 mins for the flavor and aroma to be infused into the rice.

Fold in the cottage cheese pearls gently and serve.

Happy cooking !!! 🙂

Wishing all a very Happy Independence Day, 2014 🙂

Photo courtesy : Google

Vande Matram !!!

Cheers !! 😀

 

 

 

 

 

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