Sweet ... as they should be ...

I occasionally try my hand at cooking. And more often than not, I end up making mess of the dishes. "Salt to taste" is beyond my comprehension. Either it ends up being too salty or too bland. And when it comes to cooking sweet dishes, I score a big fat zero.

Disregarding the limitations of my cooking, I decided to cook sweet yellow rice on the day of Basant Panchami ... a family tradition. Mum was visiting relatives and I wanted to make up for her absence too by serving sweet rice to Gran. I searched the net and grabbed an apron and started cooking. And this is what I made

This was neither sweet (I added very less sugar for the fear of overdoing the sweetness), nor yellow (saffron was not available and I added the wrong colour : I choose orange red when I should have selected yellow and then again, I added just a pinch). And if this was not sufficient I added far too much water and forgot to drain it, so it ended up being all mushy and sticky.

So, today, the full moon night, when we are supposed to eat sweet things only, I asked mum to cook it again for me. So, we ate today

Sweet yellow rice as they should be. Proper sweet, proper yellow and soft and fluffy.

Well some things are better left to Mom. She can do it like you can't even dream of.

And there is nothing much to recipe. All she did is boiled water and added sufficient color to it (yellow and definitely more than pinch. But that will also depend on the quantity you are cooking). Once the water was boiling, she added rice to it and let it cook. When the rice became soft, she drained the excess water. (She did not even have to use the colander. Super cool). In another flat bottomed pan, large enough to hold the rice, she heated some clarified butter, added cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and fennel seeds. After a minute or two she added slight (just slight) water and sugar and covered the pan, and stirring it every now and then. When sugar dissolved, she added cooked rice, some grated coconut and chopped almonds and raisins. She covered the pan and stirred the rice but not too often, else the rice would not have not fluffed up. And that was it, when the water and sugar were completely absorbed by the rice, she sprinkled the grated coconut and chopped almonds on top.

I am adding it to a recipe diary that I keep. And will try it out some day all by my own. Till then, I am waiting to be asked for another helping. :)