Pyaz Ka Pulao

 Pulao is supremely aromatic and its exquisite usage of elegant spices makes it a very sophisticated dish. It’s this very subtle elegance that played a key role in spreading it to the world at large. From ancient Persia it spread far and wide to the entire Muslim world and beyond.

 

Babur arrived in the subcontinent and abhorred the cuisine, he was used to a hearty meat-based nomadic shepherds diet, and hailing from central Asia the pulao was a fundamental repertoire to any central Asian kitchen. The cultural mesh of Persia, central Asia and India gave birth to an offshoot of pulao, the wonderful biryani; it was in the Mughal kitchens that the elegantly subtle pulao was introduced to the Indian spices giving birth to the delightfully fiery biryani; but that is another food story in itself.

The chefs in Lucknow prided in making the fragrant pulao and maintained that the sophistication of the dish was in its subtlety of flavours, where the floral essence of the rice was enhanced by the gentle fragrance of fennel and coriander seeds. The nawabs inherited their cuisine from the Mughal courts, and legend suggests that Awadhi cooks famously fed the domestic fowls musk and saffron so when they cooked the lavish bird its fragrance permeated haveli to haveli (mansion to mansion), speaking of luxury.

This Onion Pulao I learnt from my dear mother. She was an excellent cook and this no mess Pulao she used to prepare was simply par excellence! Many ladies had asked the recipe but complained that it didn't turn out the same in color. Mom's simple question used to be," did you fried onion in ghee and just medium brown to impart color?" and answer used to be "NO!"

 When I cooked this in my In-law's place for the first time, I was very apprehensive about their reactions.It was a winter and 3 years after my marriage I cooked this pulao there. As my in-laws were not flexible about their food habits, I dared not cook anything of my Mom's side, though I seldom got opportunity to cook anything else than dal,chawal,roti! One day, all of them had to go somewhere in family emergency and I was left to take care of my Nani- Saas and little son. Nani was bed ridden and was dependent for her daily chores. Saasu ma instructed to prepare lunch and in our home dal.chawal.roti, sabzi was considered  proper food. You can't skip any one of these. Taking care of completely dependent Nani and One and half year old son was trying my patience! So there was not enough time to prepare all that proper food. I thought to cook this simple yet yummy pulao with simple onion Raita and was quite scared in telling my Mom-in-Law that I could just prepare pulao (And that Pulao was also from my Maika side!) To my great surprise, father-in-law liked this and Mummyji also praised this pulao. That speaks much because they easily never liked any new food !

Ingredients:

1. Basmati Rice-1 cup (Soaked in water for about an hour)
2. Onion-2 cups thinly sliced
3. Black Cardamom-2
4. Desi ghee-2 service spoon
5. Water-1 cup
6. Salt-1 and 1/2 tsp. or upto your taste
7. ( 1 small Potato thinly sliced in rounds.7-8 cashews fried lightly and 2 sprigs chopped cilantro for garnishing) All these are totally optional, my mom did not use these for presentation!

Procedure:

• If you are using potatoes, first heat some refined oil to fry the chips.
• After potato chips, lightly fry cashews if using and set aside.
  
• Sprinkle salt, roasted cumin powder, Black salt, chili powder and amchoor powder or simply use salt,chili powder and chaat masala, keep aside for garnishing.
• In a pressure cooker, heat ghee and add black cardamoms then sliced onions.
• Fry on low medium heat till they are medium brown(Neither light coloredNor burnt)
• Take out 1 tsp. fried onion for garnishing.
  
• Add quarter cup water and stir so that onions release brown color.
• Now add soaked rice and a little less than 1 cup water, salt and cover and cook till one whistle.
• Depressurize and serve as such or after garnishing with fried cashews, fried onion and potato chips and cut cilantro.
• I served this with Coriander Raita.
• It tastes awesome even without any accompaniment!