Dil rice, Fenugreek leaves rice and mint leaves rice recipes

I been cooking rice more frequently than the healthier chapatis these days as I feel too lazy to roll chapatis in this cold weather.

I discovered the recipe for Methi i.e. Fenugreek leaves Pulav on the internet and followed the same recipe for Pudeena /Mint leaves  and Sabsige soppu/Dill leaves and all three tasted great! 
It takes less than an hour to make.

Ingredients:
Rice: One cup of rice with two cups of water in rice cooker. Any rice will do but I use Basmathi. Keep the cooked rice aside. Less than 8 minutes to cook rice in cooker and about 5 minutes for the cooker to cool down...don't open cooker lid as soon as you take it off the stove!

For the mix: 

• Cooking oil :Four table spoons

For taste: (Hot, sour and salty)

• Lemon juice :half of one lemon
• Salt:half to 3/4 tea spoon.
• 3 Green chillis: chopped (I was using hot Thai chillis in the past; due to stomach issues now switched to large green mild chillis)

For the flavours:

• One Bay leaf:whole
• Half inch of cinnamon stick: whole
• One table spoon of black pepper: whole
• 4 cloves : whole
• Cummin/Jeera : one tea spoon
• Mace:one strand: whole
• Dry or fresh grated coconut: one to two table spoons.
• Fresh ginger: half inch, grated
• Garlic: one large clove, grated.
• The reason I say whole is that the taste is different if the spices are crushed. For this recipe, I want a gentle flavour and so I do not crush the spices but use them whole.

For the body:

• Peas: one cup or less
• Onion : one medium size, chopped
• One bunch of Methi leaves(100gms) chopped fine or Pudeena leaves(50gms) ground in blender or Dill leaves chopped fine (50gms) 

To be added after taking off the heat:

• Coriander leaves :chopped, about 25 grams.
• Juice of half of one large lemon

Steps: 

Heat cooking oil

Add whole Bay leaf, whole cinnamon stick, whole black pepper, Cummin, whole cloves whole mace, whole cloves. Saute for one to two minutes

Then add onion, green chillis and peas. Saute for three minutes

Then add salt.

Then add the grated garlic and ginger(if you add these earlier, they stick to bottom)

Then add whichever of the three leaves you are using today : Methi or Pudeena or Sabsige. Saute for about 4-5 minutes

Then add grated coconut.

Take it off the stove. When it cools slightly, add lemon juice and coriander leaves and stir.

Mix as much of this mix as needed with rice to eat. Tastes better hot than cold.

You can add a tea spoon of butter or ghee to this hot pulav, and it tastes great!
It would be really comfortable for the eater, if you took the trouble of removing the whole spices before serving the rice, so that one does not bite on them. It's a bit annoying to pick out the whole spices (pepper, cloves, cinnamon, mace and bay leaf) from the mix. If you remove these whole spices, then you don't have to eat 'carefully'.

I do not use an entire bunch of Dill leaves as I find the Dill flavour overwhelming. For some reason I do not find the Pudeena flavour overwhelming. Maybe the Pudeena in Canada has lost it's strong flavour after all the hybridization?

My tongue is so burnt out after years of eating hot spicy stuff that I cannot really taste the fenugreek flavour. Fenugreek leaves are bitter and so, for those of you, who cannot stand bitter taste, add more lemon juice.