Vegetable Masala Bhat (Spicy Rice with vegetable)

Ingredients:

Basamati rice - 1 cup (don't use old rice)
For oil tempering - peanut oil, black mustard seeds, turmeric, hing powder
Green chili paste - 1 tsp (to your taste)
Red chili powder - 1/4 tsp (to your taste)
Curry leaves - 2 branches or about 20 leaves
Ginger - freshly grated - 1 Tb
Vegetable - 1 cup - cut into 1" pieces (potato, eggplant, green peas, cauliflower, cabbage, bell peppers)
Black masala - 2 tsp
Raw masala powder - 1 Tb (or to your taste)
Gud or brown sugar - 1 Tb
Salt to taste.
Cashews - handful and raw - roast them in Microwave or fry them in little oil
Chopped cilantro leaves - 2-3 Tbs
Freshly grated coconut - 3-4 Tbs

Recipe:

Heat 2.5 cups water in a pan on another burner.
Wash basamati rice at least 3 times and keep aside.
Heat pan and add 4 tsp peanut oil.
Prepare oil tempering and add curry leaves and green chili paste.
Add cut vegetables and sauté. Cook them half way.
Add Raw Masala and cook for a minute.
Add washed rice (and green peas if using) and stir well and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add 2 cups boiling water. Keep 1/2 cup water warm on the side to use if needed.
Add black masala, chili powder, gud or brown sugar, ginger and salt to taste.
Let the rice cook until you see holes in them.
Check if the rice is al dente.
If not, add hot water and cook more until the rice is al dente.
Cover the rice with the lid and keep it on low flame to simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Sprinkle with cashews, cilantro and fresh coconut (a must).
Serve hot with ghee on top or yogurt on the side.

Variations:

1) Rice will taste different depending on the vegetable used.

2) If you use eggplant - cut eggplant into 1" cubes and soak them in salted water (1 tsp salt to 2-3 cups of water) for 10-15 minutes. Remove from water and use the eggplant. Discard blakish water that has removed bitterness of eggplant.

3) If you use cabbage - cut lengthwise into thin 2-3" pieces.

4)  You can use frozen green peas with other vegetables.

5) If you want to use frozen peas, add them with rice and saute them together and then add hot water to cook the rice.

6) As a variation - Before you cover the rice with the lid, add 1/4 cup of yogurt (full fat), stir and cover with the lid and simmer for 8-10 minutes.

7) As another variation - After the rice is all cooked, add 3-4 tsp ghee from the side of the pan and stir with a fork and serve.

8) You can add handful of raw peanuts with washed rice brfore adding water.

9) This rice recipe is specifically from my state Maharashtra.

Notes:

1) I use Tilda basamati rice from Indian store. It is not old and has no old smell. Many people like to
use old basamati rice as it absorbs more water and gets fluffier after cooking. If you cook the rice as I
have suggested, rice will be fluffy. As we are not using onions and garlic in the recipe, the smell from old rice won't be covered up)
2) You can serve the rice with ghee (add 1 tsp ghee on top of the individual servings).
3) You can serve the rice with yogurt on the side.
4)  Serve with mango pickle (buy it in Indian store and serve as a condiment - 1 tsp) and fried papad (buy them in Indian store - they have many variety of papads like moong, urad, potato, poha)
5) You can serve the rice with slices of red onion, tomatoes and cucumbers.