Bisibele Bhat

Bisibele bhat is a very popular South Indian rice dish which has all the flavours like sweet, salt, spicy, and can safely be called a whole meal since it has lentil and vegetables too. When it is eaten topped with a dollop of clarified butter and lentil crispies as accompaniment the the pleasure multiplies.

Ingredients
1 cup rice, I used brown rice, 1 cup split  pigeon pea lentil (Toor dal)
1/2 cup french beans chopped into medium sized pieces
1/2 cup broad beans
1/2 cup carrots chopped into medium sized pieces
1/4 cup green peas
6-7 curry leaves
A small spoon of turmeric powder and a small spoon of asafoetida
All the above ingredients need to be pressure cooked with 3 cups of water to three whistles, since there is brown rice. If you use white rice then 2 whistles will suffice.

Now for grinding into a paste
1/2 cuep grated dry coconut
1 t spoon cumin seeds
1 t spoon coriander seeds
1/2 t spoon black peppercorns
3 t spoons tamarind paste
2 marathi moggu, a spice looking like cloves used in South indian dishes
6 dry red chillies
A few fenugreek seeds

For tempering you need 4 teaspoons of oil, some mustard seeds, some turmeric powder, some asafoetida powder, 3 red chillies roughly broken, few curry leaves.

Keep 1/4 cup grated jaggery, the use of which I will specify in the method.

Method

Once the pressure cooked ingredients are ready which you will be directly making in the pressure cooker, continue the process in the pressure cooker itself. Add salt as required, add the ground paste, add the tempering, now comes the grated jaggery, mix all well, keep covered without the whistle, on the gas again on low flame for the jaggery to melt and all the spices get infused in the rice mix. This should take not more than 7-10 minutes, but keep a look out so it does not burn. The consistency should be a bit runny. Now serve the dish with crispies or papads of your choice, and a dollop of clarified butter. Tastes best with the Lijjat punjabi masala papad or the traditional South Indian Papad.