Recipe: Restaurant-Style Peas Pulau

Food stylist and photographer Madhuri Aggarwal will show you how to make restaurant-style Green Peas Pulau at home with ingredients available in your pantry. The trick is to use cold rice that has been refrigerated for a few hours to make the one-pot dish.

Along with roasted walnuts, you can add raisins and other nuts like cashews. The pulau goes well with plain raita. Madhuri suggests a chicken, mutton or vegetable curry will complement the meal.

A food blogger too, Madhuri says, 'I have collected recipes from diverse sources ranging from house help, vegetable vendors to close friends to tv shows. I started Madaboutkitchen as a way to remember these precious recipes'.

Green Peas Pulau

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked basmati rice, refrigerated a few hours before use
• ½ cup fresh matar or green peas, boiled
• ¼ cup walnuts, roasted in ghee
• 1 onion, chopped + 1 tbsp extra
• Pinch sugar
• 1 tsp ginger-garlic-green chilly paste
• Salt to taste, about 1 tsp
• 1 tsp chopped pudina or mint leaves
• 3 tbsp ghee
• Oil
• Raita, to serve

Method

• Heat ¼-½ tsp oil in a kadhai or wok.
  Add the 1 tbsp of the chopped onion and fry until crisp and brown.
  Take off heat and keep aside.
• In the same kadhai, add the ghee, ginger-garlic-green chilly paste.
  Saute for a minute or 2 over high heat.
  Lower the heat to medium and add the remaining chopped onion.
  Add the sugar and mix.
  Fry until the onion turns golden brown.
  The sugar will help in caramelising the onion.
  Add the boiled green peas and saute for a minute.
  Add the cold, cooked rice and give it a good mix.
  Add the salt and stir while over high heat.
  Add the chopped mint leaves.
  Add the ghee-roasted walnuts and the fried onions and mix.
  Take off heat and serve with a raita of your choice.

Editor's Note: Match it with Arpna Anand's Lauki Raita or Bethica Das' Burhani Raita or Sheetal Mahurkar's Boondi Raita.

For a vegan version swap the ghee for oil or cashew butter.

Madhuri Aggarwal is a food stylist, photographer, artist, designer and cooking enthusiast.