Pressure Cooker Masoor Rice

Masoor Rice or Masoor Biryani ? I am not sure what to call it. Ideally I would love to call it Masoor Biryani because it sounds so exotic ,but then a Biryani is no ordinary dish. It requires a good amount of organised preparation with multiple ingredients and the cooking also is a specialised. Contrary to that my rice is a very humble dish prepared with absolutely no particular recipe in mind. It took birth on a Sunday evening when the hubby wanted to have a spicy one dish meal, but definitely not moong dal khichadi (I do tend to make that quite often). So I came up with this . When I told him what I was making he was not convinced that it was what he wanted, but when he saw the finished product he just had to change his mind.

I used:

1 cup basmati rice,
3/4 cup whole masoor (red lentils) soaked in hot water for 1/2 an hour
1 onion thinly sliced,
5 cloves of garlic crushed
1 inch ginger pureed,
2 tomatoes coarsely pureed,
1 cup of chopped mixed vegetables of your choice (I used frozen peas, sweet corn and carrots)
1 heaped tblspn store bought biryani masala,
1 tblspn lemon juice,
1 heaped tspn chilly powder,
1/2 tspn turmeric powder,
salt to taste,
3 tbslpns oil or ghee
fresh chopped coriander , thinly sliced cucumber and hard boiled eggs for garnishing

The Method: (Couldn't be easier)

1. Heat the ghee/oil directly in the pressure cooker pan and start by frying the onions ,garlic and ginger until lightly browned,

2.Next add the tomatoes and continue frying on medium heat until they lose all the moisture,

3. Add the Biryani masala, chilly powder, turmeric powder , salt , vegetables and the whole masoor and give it a good stir. Keep the heat moderate.

4. At this stage add the rice and 2 cups and a little more water. Close the pressure cooker and cook as you would for any rice. I cooked it for 3 to 4 whistles and turned down the heat for one minute before switching off the gas.

Serve with quartered hard boiled eggs to make it a very filling meal.