Bengali Vegetable Fried Rice

Bengali Vegetable Fried Rice

So the week has come to an end,and its a Sunday evening once more.Monday morning blues are filling it up as always and the mood is on a low swing due to the upcoming heavily loaded schedule at work.I prepared this dish sometime back during a visit to my hometown. Its all memories that work wonders for the future I guess.There were two tasty rice recipes that we used to have, one was "Ghee Bhat" or "Yellow Bengali Pulao" and the other one, I call that "Bengali Vegetable Fried Rice".Both the recipes used to be tasty - primarily because of two reasons -First being the ingredients and procedure of preparation and second being the Love with which it used to be prepared.

So, something which I wanted to give back to my parents, I wanted to recreate the same thing and have them taste it and see how my cooking fares for them.Here is the recipe.

Servings: 2

Preparation Time: 20 mins.
Cooking Time: 15 mins.

Ingredients

• Rice: 200 gms.Use good quality Basmati rice.
• Beans - 50 gms.Cut into very small(1/4th inch in length) pieces
• Carrot - 50 gms. Sliced into long pieces.
• Peas - 50 gms(Seeds only).
• Cashew Nuts - 50 gms
• Soaked Raisins - 25 gms
• Black Pepper Powder - 1 tsp.
• Vegetable Oil - 1 tb sp.
• Melted Ghee - 2 tb sp.
• Sugar - 1 to 1.5 tsp depending upon the amount of sweetness desired.
• Salt - to taste

Whole Spices:

• Bay leaf - 1
• Green Cardamon - 3.
• Cinnamon Stick - One 1 inch piece.

Preparation:

• Soak the rice in water for 30 mins.
• Prepare rice like it is normally done - but add 1 tb sp of ghee and salt to taste during preparing.Spread it on plates under a fan so that the remaining moisture is vapourized and the rice becomes dry.
• Lightly steam the Beans,carrot and peas in some boiling water and add salt to the boiling water for 10 mins.This will ensure taste in the vegetables.Once steamed, remove the vegetables and dry it in a wide plate.

Cooking:

• Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil in a kadai/wok.
• When the oil is hot, add the whole spices. 
• After sometime the aroma of the whole spices evolve,then add the boiled vegetables - carrot, beans and pepper.
• Turn the heat to low.
• Sprinkle the powdered black pepper onto the mixture and stir for a couple of minutes.
• Then add the rice and continue stirring for 5 minutes at the end of which, add the cashew nuts and soaked raisins.
• Continue stirring for another 3-4 minutes.
• Then add ghee,sugar(as per desired quantity) and salt(if required),
• Stir for another 2 mins and serve ideally with a non-veg item of choice.

Tip: Generally the Bengali fried rice goes excellent with fish or chicken dishes.