Ashy's vegetarian recipes. ©Ashy Macbean 2003.
This is an Indian restaurant staple. By 'Indian restaurant' of course, I mean 'restaurant in India'. I would imagine that as far as balanced meals go, this must be pretty close to as good as it gets. Protein from the peas and paneer, carbohydrate from the rice and some, but not too much, fat - most of it unsaturated. Pilau makes a nice meal on it's own but you might find it a little dry, in which case I would suggest a raita and/or some dhal to go with it. Of course you can serve it with anything you like. It's your pilau (or it will be when you make it).
Ingredients
1 mug of long-grain rice
1.6 mugs of water
A large handful of green peas (fresh or frozen)
50 - 70g of paneer
Half a teaspoon of ground coriander
Salt
Oil
Put the rice, peas, salt and water into a pan and stir gently to separate the rice grains. Bring to the boil then turn down the heat to minimum. Give the rice another gentle stir and put a lid on the pan tightly. It should take twenty minutes or so for the rice to cook and absorb all the water. Try not to disturb it during this time. If you want to try it to see if it's cooked, lift a few grains out with a fork.
When the rice is ready, turn off the heat and leave the pan covered while you prepare the paneer. Cut the paneer into 1 cm cubes and fry it in oil with the coriander until it is beginning to go golden. About five minutes on a medium heat should do it. Stir the paneer and the oil into the rice and peas mixture. Your pilau is now ready to serve.