Egg Pilaf/Pulao

Egg pulao is favorite among busy moms to serve something fancy on a weekday night at dinner. It is easy, takes only about 30 minutes and you have something delicious for your taste buds. My mother used to do it on days we used to rebel and refuse to have plain rice and dal. Without further rambling, lets go straight to the recipe.

Ingredients

Rice - 1 and 1/2 cup (I used basmati)

Eggs - 4 (Hard boiled)

Onions - 1+1 medium, chopped fine

Carrots-1/2 cup, diced

Beans - 1/4 cup, diced (You can add any veggies of your choice)

Cardamom - 3-4

Cinnamon- 1" stick

Cloves - 3-4

Raisins - 1/4 cup

Cashews - 1/4 cup

Biriyani Masala - 2 teaspoon

Salt - To taste

Sugar - To taste

First thing first. Start boiling the eggs. Place the eggs in a pot with enough water and salt to it and boil it. I bring the water to boil and keep the eggs in it for 8-10 minutes, turn off the heat and keep the pot covered.

Wash the rice and let it soak for 10 minutes or so. Do not soak it too long, it will break the grains.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the 3C's (clove, cinnamon and cardamom), saute for a minute till the flavour comes.

Add half of the chopped onions to it and cook it for 3-5 minutes till translucent.

Add the raisins, cashews and the chopped vegetables (use any vegetables of your choice, peas and cauliflowers are very much welcome)..

Saute for 3-4 minutes or till the vegetables becomes a bit soft.

Add the rice to it. Now add the biriyani masala to it. This is a store bought masala that you get easily in Indian store. I am usually not a big fan of store bought masala, but use once in a while. If you do not have biriyani masala, no problem. Add cumin, coriander and cinnamon powder, half a teaspoon each, and also 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Mix well. Add salt and sugar at this point. Cover it with warm water. My rule of thumb is that the water level must be over one inch of the rice level.

While the rice is cooking, heat oil in a separate pan and fry the remaining half of the onions till golden and crisp. I really like adding the onion fries on top of any kind of pulao/biriyani/rice dish. It adds that extra flavor and taste and makes the dish a bit more special.

Once the onions are ready, fry the eggs till light golden brown in the same oil. Smear the eggs with turmeric and salt before frying, it will give a nice golden color.

When the rice is ready, top it up with fried eggs and onions before serving.

Egg pulao is ready for you. Instantly it will perk you up with a simple yet delicious flavors.

Enjoy!

I am submitting this dish for Cooking with Seeds event for the month of December. Rice is the seed of choice for this month. Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth is the host for this month's event. You can find the details here.