The selection of recipes featured in Komali Nunna’s “Entertaining from an Ethnic Indian Kitchen” brightens up a vegetarian holiday feast and provides innovative and delicious ways to enjoy seasonal fare.
Get inspired to host a community gathering around a decorative table with this Jeweled Rice With Dry Fruits and Nuts. Dry fruits and nuts garnish are like jewels against the white bed of rice, while coconut milk adds a sweet taste to the rice.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup ghee
- 2 bay leaves
- 10 cloves
- 1-inch stick cinnamon
- 6 green cardamoms, lightly crushed to open the shell
- 2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh green chilies, such as serrano
Directions
Heat ghee in a medium sauce pan over medium high heat. When ghee is hot, add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Fry until cloves plump up. Add ginger garlic paste and green chili and stir for about 1 minute. Add salt and basmati rice. Stir well to coat all rice grains with a thin film of ghee and spices. Stir in coconut milk and water. At this point, you can transfer the mixture to rice cooker and finish cooking. Alternately, bring the rice mixture to boil. Reduce heat to lowest setting. Cover with the lid and cook until rice is done for about 20 – 25 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Fluff up the rice with fork. Transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with dry fruits and nuts and serve.
Cook’s Note: Whole spices are added for flavoring the dish and are not meant to be eaten.
Komali Nunna is the author of “Entertaining from an Ethnic Indian Kitchen.” For Nunna and her family, the table is a place to break bread, make friends, share joy and revel in the abundant produce found growing around their Southern California home. Picking the fruit growing in this area, such as the fall season’s orange persimmons that become ripe and found in yards and farmers throughout the fall season, Nunna has adapted traditional family recipes to the cyclical bounty of her new home.