Quick-Fix Meals - Baked Beans Pulao

Long time between posts, I know - its just that I haven't been eating out (so much) nor have I been cooking (at all), so there has been no fodder for the blog. But here I am, better late than never!

This is an incredibly quick-fix meal - IF you have a tin of baked beans in tomato sauce at hand. Else, don't bother trying it, there are better ways to reach foodie heaven. (plain Rajma-Chawal, for instance)

Ingredients:
1 tin (mine weighed 420 gms) baked beans in tomato sauce
1 medium onion, or 1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon garlic paste / 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon Bonde Masala/Garam Masala/Chana Masala (basically any spice mix of your choice)
salt, to taste
Chilli sauce, to taste (I used Nando's Hot Peri Peri sauce, but any hot-and-slightly-sour sauce should do)

1 katori/ 1 cup Basmati rice, washed
1 pod green cardamom, 2 black peppercorns, 1 clove, 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds and 1 bay leaf
Process:

Cook the rice with the whole spices in 2 cups water.

While the rice cooks, you can get the beans ready. For that:

Heat 3 teaspoons oil to a wok/kadhai/saucepan.
Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin is done spluttering in the hot oil, add the turmeric. Stir.
Add the chopped onion and saute till transparent.
Add the garlic paste/minced garlic and saute for 1 minute.
Add the red chilli powder and the spice mix of your choice and saute till the oil starts separating from the onion at the edges.


Add 1 cup water and stir through.
Tip the baked beans (entire tin) into the wok. Stir well.
Add the salt and chilli sauce till the taste is just right.

Take care to ensure that the gravy is slightly saltier and spicier than what you'd like since it is to be married with the bland rice later.

By the time this beans-in-gravy stage is done, the rice will have been cooked.

Fluff out the rice using very light hands (or forks) in a wide bowl. Add the gravy-and-beans (more beans, less gravy - you want a bean-studded rice, not a wet slop), till the rice is coated with th sauce and generously strewn with beans.


Taste, and adjust the seasoning as required.

Serve hot, with a garnish of fresh coriander leaves.

Handy Tip:
If you are preparing this dish beforehand and plan to reheat it before serving, add a touch extra gravy while mixing the rice and beans - the rice absorbs the gravy on standing, and will get dry. Else, if you have got leftover gravy, add it to the rice while reheating it.