Bagara Annam

The name itself says that this dish is from Hyderabad. You see I call myself a typical Hyderabadi because I still carry that typical language where we speak 3 different languages in one sentence etc...my friends in engineering used to just laugh at some of my words. Mostly Telugu and Urdu are mixed and formed into sentences. This one is called Bagara Annam, where Bagara as you know is seasoning in Urdu and then Annam is cooked rice in Telugu.

This is a common dish in Hyderabad for most festivals and get-togethers and even weddings. I guess this comes from Nizam zamana. You know they ruled Hyderabad for very long period and that's how those Biryanis, Mirchi Ka Salan form Hyderabad specialities.

To make this you'll need...

1 cup rice (basmati/sona masoori)
2 cups water1 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp freshly made ginger-garlic paste
4 tbsp ghee or more
2 tbsp shah jeera (small jeera compared to cumin)
3 green chillies, optional
few dry fruits kaju, almonds, optional
1 or 2 dry bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
salt to taste

1. Wash rice and keep it aside.
2. Heat the cooking pan and add ghee.
3. Add onions, shah jeera and cook until onions turn brown. You can add green chillies at this stage and keep mixing the whole thing for a minute.
4. Add freshly made ginger garlic paste and keep mixing for half minute. Don't let that
   stick to the pan.
5. Add mint and dry fruits and keep mixing for a minute. (Now you'll smell beautiful aroma in your whole kitchen). Add bay leaves and mix for just half a minute.
6. Add washed rice and mix the whole thing again (lot of mixing you see) and cook for a minute or so.
7. Add water and salt to the dish and cover it until cooked. You can even cook in a rice cooker, put the whole bagara in the rice cooker and add water and cook until done.

Things that make difference to this rice are fresh ginger garlic paste and fresh mint and ghee. At home when my mom cooks this, the aroma goes almost upto 2 or 3 houses in the neighborhood and my cousin's daughter comes running to see what's cooking in the kitchen. Goes well with the Capsicum Masala I posted below.

Try it out and see the difference.

Masoor Dal Kichidi

I felt like eating Rasam today with rice. And I remember when I made Rasam last time, I had it with Kichidi and the combination was awesome. I tried that combination this time too and it was perrrrfect. But, unfortunately the pictures of Rasam have come out real bad as I accidently moved the pointer to the night mode on the camera.

Kichidi is the easiest thing to make of all the foods I believe. Very less work involved and less time in cooking and overall result is mind-blowing, a tasty and delicious kichidi. You have both carbs and protein in this dish. We can make Kichidi using both masoor dal and moong dal. I even made kichidi one day with whole moong and served that with coconut chutney that was wonderful too. My mom makes kichidi with split moong and serves with cocunut or pudina chutney.

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Ingredients
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1 cup rice (basmati or sona masoori)
1/2 cup masoor dal
1/2 onion
3 spoons oil or ghee
2 cardammoms
2 cloves
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1. Heat oil in a pan. Cut onions into small pieces and add to the oil. Let the onions cook until brown.
2. Add coriander, coconut (optional), cardammoms, cloves, ginger garlic paste and keep stirring. Cook for 3 minutes.
3. Lower the heat and yogurt and leave it for a minute.
4. On the side, wash both masoor dal and rice and add salt plus 3 cups of water (2 cups for rice and 1 cup for dal) .
5. Add everything into the rice cooker, dal and rice and the onion mixture.
6. Cook until done.

Serve with Rasam or any Chutney. Picture shows Chole, Yogurt and Bitter Gourd fry. I had these at home, so we finished eating with this meal and but the main one was Rasam to go with kichidi.