Cranberry Rice ~ Cranberry Pulihora

Cooking with cranberries in the past few days, I noticed that although cranberries are tart and sour, using only cranberries is not enough to get the required tanginess in the prepared food. I felt adding little bit of lime, tomatoes or tamarind might give the right amount of tanginess than using only cranberries. I tried cranberry dal few weeks ago and I felt I should have added a tomato or some lime juice along with the berries. I made cranberry pulihora couple of weeks ago and I felt the same, I should have added a little bit lime juice or tamarind to get that perfect tangy pulihora. Last time I made cranberry pulihora I could not take pictures. Of the two recipes I tried few days ago; dal & pulihora, I liked pulihora better and if I wanted to post that recipe today, I had to prepare it again.

For this week's Blogging Marathon, I cooked all the recipes the day before. Cooking with cranberries for two - three days in a row was too much for me and was not sure if I wanted to cook with these berries for another day. I liked all the recipes I have posted with cranberries but these berries are not the fruit I would want to cook on a daily basis. Moreover, Mr.U is not a pulihora fan and I knew he would not even taste the cranberry pulihora, just because it is a pulihora.

So for today’s post, the last day of the marathon, I was in a dilemma whether I really wanted to cook with cranberries again or if I should post a dessert I made last night. The dessert I made last night is a bake and was not sure if that would quite fit the theme, cooking with fruits. I know some of my fellow bloggers have posted bakes for this theme, but I wanted to stick to the cooking part and not post a baking recipe. Then I saw some leftover cranberries in the fridge and decided to go ahead with the cooking. I will post the bake tomorrow, which is a perfect bake for the coming holidays.

This is a quick recipe and only time consuming part of the preparation is cooking rice. If the rice is already cooked, this pulohira can be prepared in a jiffy, as cranberries cook very fast.

Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 1

Ingredients:
The measuring cup used here is the one that comes with the rice cooker.

• 1 cup Rice
• 1 ½ - 1 ¾ cup Water

Cranberries Paste

• ¾ cup Fresh Cranberries washed
• ¾ cup water
• 1 tsp. Oil
• ⅛ tsp. Fenugreek ~ Methi Powder
• ¾ - 1 tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• 1 Dry Chili (I forgot to add it today)

Tempering

• 2 tsp. Oil
• ⅛ tsp. Mustard Seeds
• ⅛ tsp. Cumin
• 3 – 4 Curry Leaves
• 2-3 Green Chilies slit length wise and cut into 2-3 pieces (If using red chili for the paste preparation, cut back on green chilies)
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• 2 tbsp. Peanuts
• ⅛ Turmeric

Preparation:

1. Cook rice in a rice cooker using 1 ½ - 1 ¾ cups water and let it cool. I used a rice cooker but rice can be cooked in a saucepan or in a pressure cook.
2. In a small saucepan take cranberries, ¾ cup water, 1 tsp. oil, fenugreek powder and bring it to a boil. Once water begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium low, cover and cook until cranberries are soft and mushy, and water is evaporated. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
3. Once water evaporates, the cranberry mixture is in a paste consistency, remove from the stove and keep it aside until ready to use.
4. Once the cooked rice cools, mix the cranberry paste with rice.
5. For the tempering, heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, cumin and let the seeds pop.
6. Add peanuts, green chilies, curry leaves and salt, and sauté until peanuts are roasted. This would take 1 ½ - 2 minutes.
7. Add turmeric and remove from the stove.
8. Add the tempering to the rice and mix well.  Taste the rice  and adjust salt to taste.
9. Serve the pulihora with shorva or serve it as it is. I prefer eating it with out any side dish and love it with some plain yogurt.

Note:

• I did not use lime juice or tamarind today and i felt it was ok. But some people might want the rice or pulihora bit more tangy, so i would recommend adding little lime juice when mixing together the cranberry paste and rice. OR Can add little tamarind juice or paste to cranberries when preparing the cranberry paste. The former would be a better option as one can taste the pulihora and add some lime juice to the rice, if it is not tangy enough.
• Cranberries cook very fast and cranberry paste preparation step can be skipped.  Instead, cranberries can be cooked during the the tempering. In step 7 of the preparation, add all the ingredients listed under Cranberries Paste except water and cook until cranberries are soft and mushy.