Tomato rice, No oil

Did you know that tomato is a fruit; a berry! The plant is a vine and grows well in our climate.

This is a one pot recipe; you use only a pressure cooker. Take care to use stainless steel cookers over aluminium cookers. Also stainless steel pans are better preferred over teflon coated nonstick pans. This is because when the coating starts to peel off, it could mix with the food and this is cancer causing. Also, when the nonstick cookware is heated, the plastic polymer which forms the teflon coating can release toxins. So choose your cookware carefully :-)

The components...

Basmati rice - 1 and 1/2 cup

Water - 3 cups for cooking rice + additional 1/4 cup

Cinnamon - a small piece

Cloves - 1

Pepper - 3

    Green cardamom - 1

Onion - 1

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Garlic - 3 cloves

Green chili - 1

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri chili powder - 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Tomato - 4 small

Lemon - 1/2

Celery leaves - a few

The means...

 

Wash the rice and souse in water for half an hour. Drain water and keep aside.

Chop onion into thin slices. Slit chili. Mince ginger and garlic.

Place a steel pressure cooker on low heat. Throw in cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and pepper. After a few seconds, cast in onion, chili, ginger, garlic and a splash of water. Saute for a few minutes or until the onions start to soften. Add in salt, chili powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Drizzle little water if the powders start to stick to the pan. Stir for a minute or two. Throw in roughly chopped tomatoes. Mash the tomatoes with a spatula as they cook. Mix for about 5 minutes, until a thick gravy is formed. Squeeze juice of lemon into it. Add in 3 cups of water and increase the heat. As the gravy start to bubble, cast in the rice. Stir and turn down the heat. Keep the cooker covered with a plate for about 7 minutes. Remove the plate and close the cooker with its lid and place the weight. Turn off the heat. Let it sit for 20 minutes. Open the lid, stir the tomato rice, decorate with celery leaves and plate it. Relish with papad.

A sketch by my daughter :-)