Mattar pilau is very similar to the plain pilau to make but the flavours are not the same. It’s amazing how much difference the addition of peas can make to the taste. When we were kids my brother used to ask my mum to make this ALL THE TIME, it used to drive me crazy. He’d eat this, by itself, for every meal, every day if given the choice.
Instructions
- Rinse the rice through gently with 3 changes of cold water, then cover with cool water and leave to stand for an hour or more.
- Warm the oil in a large pan and stir in the onions, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves and black cardamom pod. Cover and cook on a low heat until the onions are softened, around 15 minutes.
- Increase the heat to high and brown the onions until they’re a deep golden brown, stir in the garlic and ginger and cook until they start to take on a golden colour which takes around 2 minutes.
- Pour in the blended tomato and yoghurt and stir in all the remaining spices including the whole cumin seeds, dried red chillies, green chillies and the salt. Cook until everything is well combined (1 minute).
- Stir in the frozen peas and pour in the boiling water.
- Drain the rice and gently add to the boiling water, stirring very gently to level out the rice. Return to the boil and leave uncovered to cook until you can see the rice poking through the water at the top of the pan.
- Reduce heat, cover and simmer on a low heat until the rice has absorbed most of the water, this should take about 10 minutes.
- Remove the lid, gently stir through the rice with a fork to recombine the peas into the rice. Cover the pan with a tea towel and place the pan lid over the top ensuring a tight seal. Fold the tea towel corners over the top of the lid away from the heat source. Leave to cook for a further 10 minutes on a very low heat or until cooked through.
- Remove lid and transfer to a serving dish by scooping out the rice from the outside edge of the pan. Gently loosen the rice in the serving dish with a fork and serve.
Note: You can also add potatoes to the matter pilau at stage 5 of the cooking process. Dice them up into 1 inch squares and stir them in with the frozen peas. They take the same amount of time to cook as the rice so you won’t even need to adjust the cooking time.
Ingredients
(Serves up to 6 people)
- 150g butter or olive oil
- 2 large onions diced
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 5 bay leaves
- 12 cloves
- 1 black cardamom pod
- 1 tbsp. ginger paste
- ½ tbsp. garlic paste
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- 1 fresh tomato, blended
- 1 tbsp. garam masala
- 2 heaped tbsp. ground coriander
- ½ tsp. cumin
- 1 tbsp. cumin seeds
- 1 heaped tbsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. natural yoghurt
- 2 cups frozen garden peas
- 4 cups of basmati rice
- 8 cups boiling water
- 2 dried red chillies