Masale Bhat Recipe – Maharashtrian Vegetable Pulao
Masale bhat is a very flavourful Maharashtrian style vegetable pulao. It uses the well known Maharashtrian Kala / Goda masala, which can be easily prepared at home or can be purchased ready made from store. Normally, masale bhat has only one kind of vegetable in it, the most common being kundru or egg plant. But the basic masala is the same. However, you can always replace with other vegetables of your choice like carrots, green pepper, green peas and so on.
Ingredients
- Rice - 1 and 1/4 cups
- Kundru (Ivy gourd) - 1 cup cut into vertical slices
- Oil - 3/4 tbsp
- Cumin Seeds - 1 and 1/2 tsp
- Dry grated coconut - 3 tbsp
- Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
- Goda / Kala masala - 1 tbsp
- Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
- Aasafoetida (Hing) - 1/8 tsp
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Salt - To taste
- Green chilies (crushed) - 2-3
- Curry leaves - 4-5
- Ginger paste - 1 and 1/4 tsp
- Chopped coriander (optional) - For garnishing
- Fresh grated coconut (optional) - For garnishing
Instructions
- Wash the rice thoroughly in water and drain off all the water.
- Dry roast the cumin seeds and grated coconut in a pan till brownish in color.
- Grind the cumin seeds and the dry coconut to a coarse powder and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a pot and add mustard seeds. After they splutter, add asafoetida, turmeric powder, curry leaves, ginger paste, and crushed green chilies.
- Stir fry a little and then add the washed rice and slices of kundru.
- Stir fry for 2 minutes and then add 2 and 1/2 cups of water.
- Add salt, sugar, the cumin coconut powder from step 3, and kala/goda masala.
- Bring to boil. (To quicken the process, you may add hot water in step 6.)
- Continue to boil till the level of water reaches the level of the rice grains.
- Then reduce the heat to low and cover to cook till all the water is used up for cooking the rice.
- Turn off the heat.
- Sprinkle some chopped coriander and fresh grated coconut (optional) and serve hot masale bhat.
