Zaika-e-Basmati Khaas ~ Kofta Rice

Most of you must have seen/heard about Master Chef India.  Well, I followed the series and it was great to see all the contestants. I have tried Zaika-e-Basmati Khaas from their  site. The recipe show cased during the season you can check out here.

I have made few changes in the recipe as I guessed they have missed to include few ingredients or step, few have commented that the recipes are not properly mention.  But anyways I made few changes here and there to make the koftas.

So let's check out the recipe now ...

Ingredients:

For Basmati Khaas

Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Black Peppercorns - 2-3
Green Cardamom - 2
Black Cardamom - 1
Cumin Seeds - 1tsp
Yogurt/Curd - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste

For Koftas

Cauliflower - 1/2 cup [mined]
Carrot - 1/2 cup chopped
Beans - 1/2 cup chopped
Peas - 2 tbsp
Paneer - 1/4 cup
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1tbsp
Cornflour - 3 tbsp
Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2-3 tbsp


Method:

For Basmati Khaas

1. Wash and soak basmati rice for 1 hour. [I soaked for 10mins]

2. In a boil 1 cups of water with green cardamom, black cardamom and peppercorns for 5-7 minutes. Add salt, boil for two more minutes and keep aside.

3. In a bowl, whisk the curd with 1/2 cup water.

4. In a pan heat butter, add cumin seeds.  Once it's cracks added spiced water, curd water and bring to boli.  Add rice and salt mix well and cook in high flame and when the rice is just undercooked, reduce the flame and cook until done. Do stir in intervals.

~~ OR transfer everything into rice cooker as I did. It much easy to do that :).

For Koftas

1. Boil or microwave cauliflower, peas, carrot and beans and finely chop. 
 ~ I minced cauliflower and used frozen carrot, beans and peas so didn't boil anything.  Thaw all the veggies.

2.  In a heat 1 tbsp oil, add cauliflower, ginger-garlic paste,  red chili powder and saute in medium heat for 4-5 mins or until it almost cooked. 

3. Add all the other veggies, grated paneer and stir well, cook for 2-3 mins.  Add salt and mix well, cook for 4-5 mins or until everything is cooked .

4. Allow the veggie mixture to cool, add cornflour and shape into medium size koftas. [add more cornflour if required]

5. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of oil, place koftas carefully. Cook in medium heat each size 5-7mins or until golden brown.  Repeat the process for all the koftas and keep aside.
~ You can also deep fry the koftas as in original recipe

For Assembly

Place 2-3 koftas on bed of rice and garnish with cilantro leaves or mint leaves and/or fried onions.

For side dish I just used the koftas and prepared Koftas Makhani to go along with the rice..for the recipe stay tune.