‘Mummy, This is not fair’ grieved my daughter.
‘Whats the matter?’
‘You never serve me with a rose.’
‘But, you don’t eat raw tomatoes.’
‘Thats ok, I want that plate.’
She went ahead, ate half of it and rushed to school. I grabbed another serving and clicked my dish.
Evening when I was editing the photos and regretting for a poor lighting, my school returned scholar was watching me . She asked ‘ Do you have it anymore?’
I nodded, she went and fetched her own leftover from the fridge , microwaved and ate all by herself. Thats the power of taste .
I learnt this dish from my chitthi (mother’s younger sister) and is always my rescuer when I am late to get up in the morning.
Ingredients:
Basmati rice- 2 cups
Oil – 1 tbsp
Butter – 1/2 tbsp
Tumeric powder- 2 pinch
Chilli powder- 1 tsp
Cilantro
Few mint leaves
Medium onion- 1
Red poato-1
Frozen peas- 3/4 cup
Fennel seeds- 2 tsp
Large tomato-1 (Should be juicy and ripen one)
Green chilies- 3
Garlic- 4 cloves
Ginger- 1 inch piece
cloves- 3 no
cardomom- 1
cinnamon- 1 inch stick
Wash the rice once and soak for 10 minutes. Chop the onion finely. Peel and chop the potato into 1 cm cubes. Grind the last 7 items in the list into a fine paste. Heat oil + butter in the pressure pan. Sputter fennel seeds. Saute the onion. When it turns transparent, add potato , peas, mint leaves and ground paste. Add salt, tumeric powder, chilli powder. Saute till all oil comes out. Add the rice and fry slightly. Pour 4 cups of water. When the water boils, cover the pressure pan and cover the nozzle with a tumbler instead of the weight. Cook on medium heat for 12 minutes. This gives similar result of a dum briyani.Garnish with cilantro and roasted cashews. Serve with raitha/coconut chutney.
Anyway, I learnt a way how to tickle my girl’s hunger. So, for the moms who want to impress thier kutties, here is the illustration for the rosy tomato.Peel the tomato with a knife and take care not to break the continuity.Gently coil from one end, spreading as you proceed.
In our home, nobody eats it , so today’s rose will be in tomorrow’s salad/raitha.
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The rose looks really beautiful ! I used to do these too with tomato and cucumber peels. I used to be incharge of the salad plate in my home. I would spend 20-30 mins decorating it…making flowers..and ridged slices. Everyone at home would have lost patience by then and would be ready to eat it once I was done and that is when my tantrums would start..!! I couldn’t see my ‘artwork’ being eaten !!
Very delicious tomato pulao recipe, tried it yesterday for breakfast and also followed your steam cooking method, to my surprise came out very well! whenever I made pulao in pressure cooker, it would turn out to be a gooey mixture like khichdi rather than separate grains. Thank you very much for the simple and nice recipe and the steam cooking tip too!!
Hi Priya,
I enjoyed reading your experience. Back home , I love eating straight from the stove,especially the steaming idlis my mom makes.Here, my girl loves to be served as in the food TV, the result I reheat and eat.:->>
Hi Tejaswini,
Am happy to hear that it came out well for you.
thanks for stopping by my blog!
I love the tomato roses… I can fully appreciate the need to make food visually tempting for the kuttis! My 3 year old (called Aditi) will only eat her dosais if they spell her name! can u imagine turning over dosais shaped like A and D without tearing it?
planning to make inji poondu kuzhambu today… just reading it makes my mouth water!
combo sounds interesting. “kandippa try pannanum”. great site.
Made this last night using half the spice. Yum!
You are a savior.. thnks for the recipe. I will cook it again n again..
Your recipes are a jewel. Two nights in a row I have made your dishes. Tonight is tomato rice night! Love your stories. Please keep cooking and sharing! What I really like is the plate of ingredients that you show. That truly gives a visual measure. Especially something like pulli.. Lemon size could mean different for different people. When I made the ingi poondu kuzhambu, pulli proportion came perfect. I have never got it right in the past.
Thanks much Lakshmiammal!