Rice and Green Pea Pulao

Last week I shared about Vasi, a wonderful Malaysian woman who invited me to her home to learn to cook some amazing traditional Malaysian dishes. This week I’m sharing with you the rice dish she taught me to make, “Rice and Green Pea Pulao”. This rice is perfect with the Malaysian Chicken Curry I made last week. I have included soaking instructions, if you want the benefits of braking down the phtyic acid.  If you don’t plan on soaking that’s completely fine, Vasi’s original dish did not call for soaking the rice. This is a wonderful aromatic dish.

The morning you want to serve the rice for dinner, get out a bowl and add:

2 cups brown basmati rice
2 cups warm water
2 TBS acid medium (apple cider vinegar, whey, lemon juice, or kombucha)

Cover and let soak for at least 7 hours.

That evening drain off the water and rinse the rice to remove any bitter baste left by the acid medium. Your rice should have absorbed about 1/2 cup of water.

The rest of the ingredients are as follows.

Your soaked rice
3 1/2 cups chicken stock or water (if you didn’t soak your rice use 4 cups)
4 TSB coconut oil
1 medium onion
1/4 cup cashews and almond slivers
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 cloves
3-4 cardamon pods or 1/2 tsp cardamon powder
1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup frozen peas
1 tsp or so of salt

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lay the cashews or almonds on a cookies sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. Heat oil in pan, add cumin seeds, cloves, cardamon, cinnamon, drained rice and salt. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add chicken stock or water, peas, turmeric and raisins. Bring to boil.

4. Cover and cook until rice is done, about 40 minutes.

5. Garnish with nuts just before serving.

When I have made this rice I have only used my rice cooker. It turns out amazing and you don’t have to worry about your rice sticking to the bottom of the pan. Here are the rice cooker instructions

1. Same as above

2. Heat oil in pan, add cumin clovers, cardamon, cinnamon,onion and salt. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add rice, chicken stock or water, peas, turmeric and raisins. Cover and cook until the rice cooker turns off.

4. Garnish with nuts just before serving.

So simple and easy! Now I just need to find a rice cooker that is stainless steel, not aluminum….

This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday @ The Nourishing Gourmet , Monday Mania @ The Healthy Home Economist , Two for Tuesday @ Girlichef  and Tuesday Twister, Fat Tuesday,