Remembering Jayasree with Soya Vaangi Bhath

A week ago, I was shocked to learn from Priya's post that Jayasree of Experiments in Kailas Kitchen is no more. She passed away on 12th of this month from Pneumonia. I did not know her that well but did a few blogging marathons with her this year. In fact, just in August she was part of the last marathon and felt very bad to learn about her demise. Just like me, many in the food blogosphere could not believe the news. To remember her and her love for food, Aparna, Harini & Lata Raja wanted to do something to remember her & her food blogging. They came up with an idea that we cook something from her blog, take a picture of it and upload it to her Facebook fan page along with the link to the original post. This should be done before Nov 12, before one month anniversary of her demise. I think that is an excellent idea to remember Jayasree.

My deepest condolences to her family. I wish and pray that they come out of this tragedy very soon.

I wanted to pay my tribute to her and made Soya Vaangi Bhath from her blog. I followed the recipe as given and it turned out awesome! I made it for lunch yesterday and had some leftovers. I was not sure if U would like it and made it for myself. He came hungry last evening and ate the left over rice. He loved it too! I intended to follow the recipe as give but forgot to add the lemon and garnish it with cilantro.. 🙁

Total Time: 55 minutes (If you already have cooked rice, then 25 minutes)
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 1 – 1 ½

Ingredients:
For Masala:

• 1” Cinnamon - 1" piece
• 3 Cardamom - 3 pods
• 1 tsp. Poppy Seeds / Khus Khus
• 2 tbsp. Dried coconut (I used desiccated coconut)

Other Ingredients:
Measuring cup used here is the one that comes with the rice cooker.

• 1 cup Basmati Rice (can use any long grain rice)
• 1 cup Mini Soya Chunks (can use regular soya chunks as Jayasree did)
• 2 tbsp. Oil
• ½ tsp. Mustard Seeds
• ½ tsp. Urad Dal
• 5-6 Curry Leaves
• ½ medium Onion sliced
• 2 Small Green Chilies grinded
• 1 ½ tsp. Ginger Garlic paste
• 3 small round Brinjals / Eggplants diced into 12 cubes (I cute each brinjal into 12 pieces)
• Lemon Juice (I forgot to use it)
• Cilantro to garnish (I forgot to use this too)

Preparation:

• Wash rice and cook it. Once cooked spread it on a plate to cool it or just leave it in the cooker to cool, as I did.
• Once the rice is done and is cooling down, cook/boil the soya chunks as per the instructions on the box. That is, take some water and soya chunks in a sauce pan and bring it to boil. Once the water comes to boil, let it boil for 5 minutes and turn off the heat. Let the chunks sit in the hot water for another 10 minutes. Then discard the water, wash the chunks 3-4 times in water and squeeze out all the water. If using the regular size chunks, according to the original recipe, break the chunk into small pieces. Keep it aside.
• As the soya chunks sit in the hot water for 10 minutes, do the rest of the preparation. Dry roast all the ingredients listed under masala for few minutes until they are brown. It won’t take more than 2-4 minutes. Let it cool and then grind it to fine powder.
• Slice the onions, dice the brinjals and grind the ginger garlic chili paste. All three; ginger garlic & chilies can be grinder together to taste. I always have ginger garlic paste in my fridge, so I grinded the chilies separately.
• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and let the seeds splutter.
• Add onion and fry until light brown.
• Add brinjals, ginger garlic and chili paste. Sauté on medium – medium high flame until the brinjals are tender. This would take about 3-5 minutes.
• Add the soya chunks, salt and sauté for a minute or two until the seasoning coats the soya chunks. Add some water if requires, to avoid burning.
• Add masala powder, rice and mix well. Cook for a few minutes until the spices are well incorporated into the rice and the rice is nicely flavored with the reasoning.
• Turn off the heat, sprinkle some lemon/lime juice, garnish with cilantro and serve hot.
  I ate it without any side dish and it was fantastic.