Kashmiri pulao & Chicken Kababs

Hope you all are having a good time during the long weekend! We hadn't planned anything special for the long weekend and as usual JM is busy with work at home! So I decided to do a post on Kashmiri pulao that I made a few days earlier.

I had been meaning to make Kashmiri pulao for sometime. I've never had it before, but somehow the idea of fruits and nuts mixed-in with rice sounded apppealing. As I am readily open to sampling new dishes now, I did not think twice about preparing it the other day, when I got a chance. A foodie event looming on the horizon also helped me zero in on a recipe! I found this great recipe for Kashmiri pulao on Archana's blog spicyana. It is a beautiful blog with good recipes and great pictures! Check out her blog for the recipe. I used a brand of basmati rice which was new to me. So I was not familiar with its cooking time, hence it does not look as good as Archana's pulao or so I feel. I did not have any green cherries for the green color, so overall the rice is kind of orange-ish. I basically used dried apricots, fresh apples, raisins and red cherries. I actually used the drained left-over red cherry pie filling from my black forest cake. I also used cashews and almonds and just a few pistachios for green color. My li'l one also liked the "apricot rice".

Since it has both dried fruits and nuts, I am sending this recipe to "Waiter There's Something In My... Dried Fruit and Nuts" event hosted by Andrew of Spittoon.

We had it with raita and pan fried chicken kababs. I want to bring your attention to this wonderful recipe for chicken kababs that I had posted on my blog earlier on. It is simply superb!! It has been such a success at my house, I get requests for those kababs at home, very often now. It is inargueably one of the best and tastiest dishes I have ever made!! Please do try it out, it is fantastic. It is a very simple recipe with chicken and some basic ingredients like onions, ginger, garlic, chillies, tandoori masala, coriander leaves and yoghurt. Check out the recipe here. Dont forget to let me know if you liked it or not! Cheers !

Tips:

1. Try to find candied green and red cherries for variety in color.
2. I made the pulao in a regular pan and not in the pressure cooker. I had to add about 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups of water for cooking the rice. Since the cooking times of different varieties of basmati vary, use discretion while adding water.
3. I didn't add saffron or rose water and for cream, I used half-n-half.

Hope these tips help! Memorial day wishes to all of you!!

I am also sending this to the "Mixed rice varieties" event at EC's Simple Indian Food.