Recipe: Pomegranate Rice

Recipe Source: Padmanabhan, Chandra.  Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India.  Periplus Editions, North Clarendon, 1994 p. 74

It's funny how our own mental impressions of ourselves frequently differ so strongly from those of the people around us.  I had a friend who has always come off as one of the most collected, poised, self-confident people I've ever known.  She would describe herself, and has described herself, as a complete basket case.  I know people who spend a fortune on hair dye, cosmetics and high-end fashions who only wind up looking like Bozo the Clown.  People often criticize my cooking as being too "fancy," too fiddly.  What they mean, or at least what they say they mean when I push further, is that because my recipes sometimes use a lot of ingredients - exotic ones, sometimes, if you don't know where to shop - my recipes seem overly complex.  I don't think most of them are at all complex, of course.  While I try to break out the processes into tiny chunks so that they can be easily followed, at the end of the day most of them only consist of putting a bunch of things in a pot, in one or two additions, and letting things go until they're done.

This is not one of those recipes.

This recipe was a pain.  It was long, it was complex, it was filled with weird ingredients, it required a lot of changes and it was frustrating.  There were several times while I was making this dish where I just put my tools down and said, "**** it, I'm just going to serve plain boiled rice."  I didn't though.  I kept going, and I came up with a nutritions and delicious side dish that could easily have been a vegan main dish of its own.  I think it probably would have been more worthwhile had I served it as a main dish, because a side dish really isn't worth this much fussing.  Don't get me wrong.  People loved it.  People who hate lentils loved it.  People who love lentils loved it.  It was just a fussy, PITA dish.

As I mentioned, I made a few changes.  I used brown rice because it has more nutritional value, and I had to increase the cooking liquid to accommodate that.  I used olive oil instead of ghee because that's my cooking fat of choice.  I used mild chiles because my guests were not folks who handle heat well.  I hadn't any yellow split peas so I substituted more lentils.  I felt that my curry leaves had finally outlived their useful lives so I omitted them.  The biggest change, and the reason this is now called Pomegranate Rice instead of Spicy Sambar Rice was the substitution of pomegranate juice for tamarind water.  I had been firmly convinced that I had tamarind concentrate in the refrigerator but as it turns out I was mistaken.  I cast about for something that would add the right amount of sourness to the dish and came up with a bottle of pomegranate juice.  In it went.

Pomegranate Rice (serves 8; approx. $2.14/serving)

8 ounces red split lentils, picked over and rinsed, divided

1 cup brown basmati rice

5 cups water

3 cups pomegranate juice

1/2 cup chopped shallots

1 bell pepper, diced

1 small eggplant, diced

1 potato, finely diced

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

9 tablespoons olive oil, divided

10 red chile peppers, chopped

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

3 teaspoons poppy seeds, divided

4 cloves

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

3/4 cup dried coconut (unsweetened, obviously) plus 4 tablespoons divided

1 teaspoon asafoetida

a little water

3 teaspoons uncooked rice

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon black gram dal

1 red chile pepper, halved lengthwise

Equipment:

• Medium saucepans
• Frying pan
• Wok
• Mini-prep miniature food processor

1. Combine the lentils, rice and water in the saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the water has been mostly absorbed by the rice, about 40 - 45 minutes.
3. In the meantime, combine 1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon oil, the chiles, the cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, fengreek, 3/4 cup coconut, asafoetida and 3 teaspoons uncooked lentils in the frying pan.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Transfer to the food processor with a very little bit of water and process to a paste.
5. Combine 3 tablespoons uncooked lentils, the remaining poppy seeds, the uncooked rice and remaining coconut in another saucepan.  Dry-roast them.
6. Transfer to the food processor and process to a fine powder.
7. Heat the remaining oil in the wok.
8. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, black gram dal and chile pepper.
9. When the mustard seeds splutter add the chopped shallots.  Saute 2 - 3 minutes.
10. Add the vegetables.  Saute until partially cooked.
11. Add the pomegranate juice, turmeric and salt to taste.  Cook until the vegetables are tender.
12. Add the paste.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes.
13. Add the undrained rice and lentil mixture.  Simmer over low heat.
14. Add the powder mixture.  Remove from heat.
15. Serve.