Pudina Rice/(Mint flavoured rice)

Why did i make pudina rice??  :-?
 I actually have a truckload ,ok  2 ziploc medium size bags full of pudina leaves and I had to put them to good use.
N did not know that i had them in stock and bought more !!!! Now i am thinking of ways to use up all the Pudina.So it is going to be a pudina filled week ahead- mint and lemon juice, pudina chaas, pudina paratha,pudina chammanthi,pudina sandwich.. hmmm...what else can I think of… do let me know other options if u have!!

Ingredients


Basmati Rice-1 cup,soaked in water for 1/2 an hour)
Water-2 cups
Black cardamom-1(optional)
Mace- 1piece (optional)
Bay leaf-1
Cloves –4
Pepper corns 4-5
Cinnamon –1 inch piece or if using powder-1/2 tspn
Onion-1 finely chopped
Clarified butter/Ghee 2 tbspn
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons  broken cashew for garnish(fried in ghee )

To be ground to  paste
Pudina leaves(mint leaves)-almost 1 cup 
Grated fresh coconut- 1/4 th cup
Green chilli-1( according to your preference)
Garlic- 3big cloves
Ginger  an inch piece or say 1tablespoon chopped

How i made it?

Heat the ghee in a deep pan or kadai(wok).Put in cloves,pepper,black cardamom(open it),cinnamon stickand mace.Saute for 30 seconds.
Then put in the onion and mix well. If you are using cinnamon powder , you can tip it in now.
Let the onions become translucent.
Then add in the ground paste and mix well for a minute. ( I don’t make it a fine paste, just a course paste so that u can see very small bits of the mint leaves)
Next add in the rice.Stir well and pour the water.Adjust salt.
Close and let it boil.
Give it a stir in between so that the flavours are evenly spread.
When the water drains off completely and the rice is ready turn off the stove , garnish with fried cashewnuts and serve with raita of your choice.
I served with plain simple jeera raita garnished with ,y favourite ingredient-dhania leaves(cilantro).. sorry just can't do without that!!!!

To make jeera raita(cumin raita)
Beat 2-3 big spoons of curd with water(depending on how thick or thin you want the raita to be)
Add salt and roasted jeera powder.(I don’t use the packet cumin powder, I roast the cumin and crush it coarsely with my mini mortar and pestle)


Note:

My kadai(wok) was a non stick one and the rice came out extremely well without sticking to the pan or to each other.
Since it was cooked in with paste it had a good flavour.