Hyderabadi Bagara Rice

Cooking Time: 10-15 mins                     Servings: 5
Preparation Time: 20-30 mins               Category: Veg

Bagara rice or Bagara khana is a spiced rice delicacy of Hyderabad, India. Bagara means tempering the oil with spices, a traditional Indian practice of cooking to enhance the aroma of a dish.
The most simple and easy to cook rice dishes of India. This dish tastes much better when prepared using basmati rice or a short grain, aromatic rice locally known as Chittimuthyalu (tiny pearls). This rice grain looks like a tiny pearl and hence the name. Vegetarians who do not eat Hyderabadi biryani enjoy this rice more.

Let's see how the dish is prepared. The recipe is as below:-

Bagara Rice

Ingredients
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Basmati Rice - 1 KG.
Ghee - 150 gms or 3 to 4 Table spoons.
Green Chillies - 12 (vertically slit).
Onions - 3, vertically chopped.
Ginger garlic paste - 2 Table Spoons.
Coriander - 2 bunches, finely chopped.
Pudina/Mint - 2 bunches, finely chopped.
Rock Salt - 1 Table spoon
Bay leaves - 3 or 4
Cardamom - 5 to 6
Cloves - 6 to 8
Cinnamon sticks - 3 to 4
Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp

Preparation

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• Take the rice in a bowl and wash it in water and when done drain out the water. Now soak rice in water and keep it aside for 20 mins before cooking.
• Heat a vessel on the stove and add ghee. Once ghee melts, add all the spices, bay leaves and simmer them for a minute.
• Now add onions and cook till it turns light golden brown in colour. This would take about 5 to 7 mins
• Now add the green chillies and cook for another couple of mins. Add ginger garlic paste and salt and simmer it for couple of mins. Still well as the paste tends to stick to the bottom of the vessel.
• Add 1/2 the quantity of chopped coriander and pudina, 1/2 tsp of garam masala and stir well.
• Now add water [Rice to water ratio is as 1:1.5, if 1 cup of rice is used, then water should be 1 & 1/2 cups), close the vessel with a lid and let it come to a boil.
• Simmer the flame and add remaining coriander, pudina, garam masala into the vessel and mix well.
• Earlier, we soaked rice in water and kept it aside. Take it and drain out the water completely. Once done, add this soaked rice to the boiling water in the vessel.
• Close the lid and cook the rice for about 10 mins on high flame. It will be half cooked by that time.
• Open the lid and stir the mixture gently (we do not want to break rice grains), simmer the flame and close the vessel again.
• Cook for another 15 mins until all the water is absored by rice and it is perfectly cooked. Open and check whether it is perfectly cooked, else cook it for another couple of mins.
• Turn off the stove and close the vessel again.
• Serve hot with bagara baingan curry, dalcha hyderabadi, methi chicken or any spiced/masala gravy curry.

PS:- Open the lid on your dining table infront of your family/guests etc just before serving. I bet the aroma it releases will be heavely and everyone will want to savor it as soon as possible.