6 years back when we lived in Peoria, Illinois...a beautiful coincidence happened in the apartment we lived! There were 4 pass outs from REC, Trichy and incidently 2 of them happened to be my hubby's batch mates! Imagine meeting your batch mates after almost 10 years of passing out in some infamous place somewhere in the middle of US! World is too small!
It is from this 4th pass out of REC, Trichy...Bhuvana that I learnt this recipe and am not sure if I have perfected it though till date! We had been for dinner to Bhuvana's place one night and she had made this super simple dish which she called "Kuska"...I heard about it for the first time in all my life only that night! The moment "kuska" was mentioned...she and my hubby set out on a lengthy flashback on how tasty the dish would be at the road side shop outside the college etc, etc and all the nostalgia of college life....
If now it brings back some fond memories of your college life too...then am glad it did the job!
Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup basmati rice washed and soaked for 10 mins
- 1 medium onion slit across
- 2 tomatoes slit across
- 2 to 3 green chillies slit across
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp saunf
It is from this 4th pass out of REC, Trichy...Bhuvana that I learnt this recipe and am not sure if I have perfected it though till date! We had been for dinner to Bhuvana's place one night and she had made this super simple dish which she called "Kuska"...I heard about it for the first time in all my life only that night! The moment "kuska" was mentioned...she and my hubby set out on a lengthy flashback on how tasty the dish would be at the road side shop outside the college etc, etc and all the nostalgia of college life....
 |
| Kuska...ready to eat! |
If now it brings back some fond memories of your college life too...then am glad it did the job!
Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup basmati rice washed and soaked for 10 mins- 1 medium onion slit across
- 2 tomatoes slit across
- 2 to 3 green chillies slit across
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp saunf
- 1/4 tsp khus khus
- 2 tsp oil
- a few curry leaves
- 4 to 5 chopped cashews
Preparation:
- Wash and soak the basmati rice in a bowl and set aside
- In a pan, heat the oil and let the saunf and khus khus roast a little
- Add the green chillies, ginger garlic paste and curry leaves and fry for a few seconds.
- Now, add the onions and fry for a couple of minutes before adding the tomatoes.
- Add salt and cook on medium for a couple of minutes. Adding salt releases the juices in the tomatoes faster.
- After 2 minutes, add the rice and fry everything for a minute. You could add some small pieces of cashews for taste
- Transfer the contents to a rice cooker, add 3/4th cup water and cook.
- Kuska is ready to eat or pack off for lunch with any kurma or raita of your choice!
Foot note:
- Alter the quantities of the ingredients based on the amount of rice you plan to cook.
- If you plan to cook in a pressure cooker, use 1/2 cup water for 1/2 cup rice...cause I have found the tomatoes juices also add on to cooking the rice and if 3/4 cup water is added, the dish turns out little watery.
- If you are not very diet conscious, you can substitute half water and half coconut milk to cook this rice.
- This a very favorite dish among the Muslims and I believe they usually make it with Chicken broth or Beef broth.So, if you are a non-vegetarian you could use any broth to cook this dish!
- You could add more masala to this recipe by adding mint leaves, bay leaf etc too.
- 2 tsp oil
- a few curry leaves
- 4 to 5 chopped cashews
Preparation:
- Wash and soak the basmati rice in a bowl and set aside
- In a pan, heat the oil and let the saunf and khus khus roast a little
 |
| Heat Saunf and Khus Khus |
- Add salt and cook on medium for a couple of minutes. Adding salt releases the juices in the tomatoes faster.
- Kuska is ready to eat or pack off for lunch with any kurma or raita of your choice!
 |
| Kuska ..ready in the box! |
- Alter the quantities of the ingredients based on the amount of rice you plan to cook.
- If you plan to cook in a pressure cooker, use 1/2 cup water for 1/2 cup rice...cause I have found the tomatoes juices also add on to cooking the rice and if 3/4 cup water is added, the dish turns out little watery.
- If you are not very diet conscious, you can substitute half water and half coconut milk to cook this rice.
- This a very favorite dish among the Muslims and I believe they usually make it with Chicken broth or Beef broth.So, if you are a non-vegetarian you could use any broth to cook this dish!
- You could add more masala to this recipe by adding mint leaves, bay leaf etc too.
I am sending this recipe to the Herbs and Flowers - Garlic - Event being guest hosted by:
Hyma,
ReplyDeleteGuess what, I made this with some added veggies (cauliflower/beans), came out pretty good! I think it's the saunf that does it :) Keep the recipes coming, those pics inspire me to cook;)
Thanks!
hey Chitra, that is so cool...am so happy u r inspired by my recipes...he he:-)! Adding veggies would make it more like vegetable rice...but original kuska to my knowledge is without veggies or meat...jus masala and rice. do a search in the net and u will get more ideas abt this recipe:-)!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for ur comments and variations...they really inspire me to keep posting....
Hello Hyma, This Kuska was really good. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Moutushi, thanks. glad u liked it and enjoyed it too:-)
Delete