Corn and Methi Pulao

There was this really nice restaurant called Bombay Post in the Indiranagar area of Bangalore. The decor was very Bollywood, with pictures of movie stars and old movie posters adorning the walls there. Nice old Hindi film music generally playing in the background, though people trying to talk above the music, always created a bit of a din.



This place was one of standard ones for team lunches and one of the places where I met up with my friend from college, for our 'weekly lunches', at least thats what we hoped it would be, but we did try and meet up at least once a month.
Very very nice food, though during our lunches, the food really did not matter, it was more to chat up non-stop, share our woes about the men in our lives, gossip a bit and generally have a good time.

This one pulao we had there was really nice - it did have a fancier name though and had fried paneer instead of corn, but when I made this pulao the other day it reminded me a lot of the one from Bombay Post. This one's for you Maya...

What you need -

2 onions
2 tomatoes
1/2 cup curd
1 bay leaf
1" stick dalchini
3 cardamoms
5 cloves
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 cup fresh methi leaves
2 cups corn
2 cups basmati rice

Masala -

2 green chillies
1 small piece ginger
5 cloves garlic
1/2 tomato
1/2 tsp chilli powder

What you do with it -

Soak the basmati rice in water for about 30 mins
Chop onions lengthwise
Chop the tomatoes
Grind together all the ingredients listed under Masala, to a smooth paste
In a large kadai / handi, heat 2 tsp of oil
Add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and fry for 2 mins
Then add the ginger-chilli-garlic paste and fry for 3-4 mins
Add onions and fry till the onions are slightly brown
Add tomatoes and fry till they get a bit squishy
Then beat the curd till its smooth and add it to the kadai with the chilli powder
Stir and heat till the oil starts separating
Add the soaked rice, methi, corn and salt into the kadai
Fry for 5 mins and then add water
Cover and cook on medium flame
Should get done in about 12-15 mins
Or it can be cooked in the microwave or a pressure cooker