A corn pulao or corn rice that is slighly spicy, fragrant and made with tender sweet corn, onions, herbs and spices. Serve with raita or vegetable salad for a comforting meal.
1tiny piece of stone flower(patthar ke phool) - optional
Instructions
Preparation
Rinse rice well in water for a few times and then soak in enough water for 20 to 30 minutes.
After 20 to 30 minutes drain the water from the rice well and keep aside. I used ambe mohur rice (mango blossom rice). You can also use basmati rice or regular rice.
When the rice is soaking, slice the corn kernels from the corn. Keep them aside. From 1 medium corn cob, I got 1.5 cups corn kernels. You can also use 1 cup frozen corn kernels.
Making green paste
Take the ingredients mentioned "for green paste" in a small grinder or chutney grinder.
Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water and grind or blend to a smooth paste. You can skip coconut, if you don't have. In this case, add 1 to 2 teaspoon water while grinding or blending.
If not blending then simply add chopped coriander and mint leaves after the onions are browned, directly in the pressure cooker. Also add 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and skip desiccated coconut.
Making corn pulao
Heat oil in a stovetop pressure cooker. Add all the spices mentioned under the list "whole spices". Allow them to crackle.
Then add the thinly sliced onions. Saute stirring often onion still they start becoming golden.
Then add the ground green paste. Stir well and saute for a couple of seconds.
Then add the corn kernels.
Season with the following spices - turmeric powder, red chili powder and coriander powder.
Stir very well and add the rice. Gently stir and mix the rice with the rest of the ingredients.
Now add 1.75 to 2 cups water. Depending on the type and quality of rice, you can add water. For basmati rice, you can add 1.5 to 1.75 cups of water.
Organic basmati rice requires more water to cook. So add 2 cups of water for organic basmati rice. Stir.
Season with salt as required. Check the taste and the water should have a slightly salty taste.
Cover and pressure cook corn rice on a medium heat for 2 whistles or for 9 to 12 minutes. Here I pressure cooked for 15 minutes, since ambe mohur rice takes a longer time to cook than basmati rice.
When the pressure settles down on its own, then only remove the lid. Gently fluff the rice.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
And then serve corn pulao with a side veggie salad or raita or plain yogurt or pickle of your choice.
Notes
Feel free to use any variety of non-sticky rice. You can also use basmati rice or long-grained rice.
I prefer to use fresh corn in most of my recipes. Though you can swap frozen corn kernels with fresh corn.
You can use sweet corn or regular corn or desi corn.
To make a spicy tasting corn pulao increase the number of green chilies in the green paste.
This recipe of corn rice is scalable to be made for larger servings.