Punjabi Vadiya Da Pulav/ Punjabi Vadiya

EVENT: RECIPE SWAP CHALLENGE

THEME:RECIPE SWAP 2

Increasingly I find that people are not fulfilling their commitments, whether it be at home, at work, with families, friends , causes, groups, clubs, as citizens. People are becoming less mindful of what is expected from them. What is commitment? Commitment is the willingness to give up your time and energy to something that you believe in, or a promise or as a firm decision to do something.

Its happening too often that people nowadays  feel that’s it alright to not carry out the task, duty or promise. There are some unfulfilled commitments that do not necessarily stop your daily routine for example when the iron man or presswala does not deliver pressed clothes on time, but image what happens when the milkman does not deliver milk in the morning. Your whole  hectic breakfast routine gets affected. Can you imagine if a doctor doesn’t show up in the operating theatre.  I remember a few years back I was  to take a flight from Nairobi to London. We patiently waited in the waiting lounge but no announcements were made as to why we had not started to board the flight. Finally one of the staff announces that the pilot is stuck in traffic. All the passengers got frustrated but we had no choice. Where was the commitment from the pilot to report to work on time taking into consideration traffic time, distance to travel etc to get to his job? Traffic is now a part and parcel of our lives all over the World.  Some of us got talking and the opinion was that if a pilot is late in getting to his job when he knows so many depend on him, can we really trust him to steer the flight?

When one is not committed to what is required from them, one loses respect, trust and unreliable. Remaining committed to a task involves discipline and time management. Once you draw up a daily task list, its so easy to remain focused and committed.

Today’s recipe is for the Recipe Swap Challenge Group. What is this group all about? Initiated by Jolly Makkar and Vidya Narayan, every alternate month the participants are paired up. We choose a recipe to cook from our partner’s blog. The recipe can be cooked as it is or make slight changes. This a great group as it allows me to prepare recipes that I’ve bookmarked or saved from fellow bloggers.

For Recipe Swap No. 2 my partner is Avin Kohli who blogs at The Yellow Daal. A relatively young blog, Avin has bakes, healthy food to authentic Punjabi recipes on her blog. I’d bookmarked two recipes from her blog, Mango Frooti and Punjabi Vadiya Da Pilav. I decided to try out the pulav/pulao.

I didn’t have Punjabi vadiyas for this recipe so made them at home. Cooler climate means that sometimes the sunlight is not as intense as one would like especially when you need to dry vadis. What are vadis, vadiya, badi? They are lentil based dumplings dried in the sun and added to curries. It can be easily be used to make a healthy and filling curry when fresh vegetables are in short supply. Making a pulao using  vadiya was what caught my attention as I love them. I tried looking for another recipe as I couldn’t make the frooti as its not mango season and I didn’t have vadiyas. However, I kept coming back to the pulao recipe.

Finally decided to make the vadiyas, enough sunlight or not. If the vadis do not get dried in the first round properly, they go bad very easily. The day I make the batter for the vadiya, it was cloudy! I put them in the oven at very low temperature and the vadis got dried  really well.

Vadi/vadiya/ badi can be made from any lentils like moong dal, chora dal, urad dal, chana dal, or a mixed of dals or lentils. Some spices are added to the coarse paste. Before I go into the recipe for the pulao I have to share with you the recipe for  Punjabi Vadiya.

PUNJABI VADIYA

Makes about 2 cups (my vadis were small)

1 cup urad dal

1-2 dry red chillis

1 tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)

1 tsp fennel seeds (valiyari)

1 tsp cumin seeds

8-10 peppercorns

½” ginger

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp asafetida (hing)

½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

1. Soak the urad dal in enough water for 5-6 hours.
2. Lightly roast cumin, coriander, fennel seeds, dry red chili and peppercorns in a pan over low heat for 2-3 minutes or till you get a pleasant aroma. Let the spices cool down a bit.
3. Grind the spices in a spice blender to a coarse powder.
4. Drain out the water and wash the dal.
5. Put the dal in the food processor with as little water as possible. Add the ginger.
6. Process it to a course paste.
7. Remove the paste from the processor into a bowl.
8. Add salt, asafetida, the ground spice powder and turmeric powder.
9. Mix it very well. The paste should not be watery and not too dry.
10. If you’re going to dry the vadiya in the sun then line a big tray with some plastic sheet or cling film. Lightly oil it.
11. If you’re going to dry them in the oven then line the tray with parchment paper.
12. To form the vadiya, scoop a small amount of paste using your fingers.
13. Using the thumb, push the paste slowly onto the prepared tray to form a small lump.
14. The size of the vadiya you want to make is your choice.
15. Place small lumps of the paste in the tray making sure there is some space in between all of them.
16. Dry the vadiya in the sun for the whole day. You may need to put it in the sun the next day too. When they have dried perfectly, they usually are light. To check, I usually try to break one vadi. If it has dried well, its difficult to break it.
17. If you want to dry the vadiya in the oven, then preheat the oven to 150°C.
18. Bake the vadiya for 1 hour. After 30 minutes, take the tray out of the oven and turn the vadiyas over.
19. Store the dried vadiya in an airtight jar or container.

 

PUNJABI VADIYA DA PULAV

Serves 4

Recipe Source: The Yellow Daal

1 cup basmati rice

2 tbsp ghee

1 cup vadiya

1 cup peas

1 large onion (about a cup),sliced

5-6 cloves of garlic

1 tsp ginger paste

2½ cups water

1-1¼ tsp salt

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala

½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

¼ tsp asafetida (hing)

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1. Wash and soak the rice in the measured water for 20-30 minutes.
2. Add I tbsp ghee into a pan and heat it over medium heat.
3. Lower the heat and add the vadiya.
4. Stir fry them in the ghee till they become light golden in colour.
5. Remove the vadiya from the pan and keep them on the side till required.
6. Add the remaining ghee.
7. Add cumin seeds and soon as they begin to sizzle add the sliced onions.
8. Saute them till they become soft.
9. Add the chopped garlic and ginger. Stir fry them for 1 minute.
10. Add the peas, vadiya , turmeric, chili powders, garam masala and salt.
11. Mix well.
12. Add the rice along with the water. Mix well and cover the pan.
13. Let the rice cook over medium to low heat for 20 minutes or till the rice and vadiya are cooked.
14. Garnish with some coriander and serve with some yogurt, pickle, salad etc.

 

Tips:

• I would probably add chopped tomato to this pulao.
• Remember that the vadiya will also soak up water so add water accordingly.
• Add vegetables of your choice.
• You can use store bought vadiyas.

 

A little request:

If you do try this recipe then please either

• add a comment below,
• send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
•  tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
• or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962

 

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