Cranberry Pulihora

Blogging Marathon# 36: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Online Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Cranberry Pulihora

For the final week of blogging marathon, I chose to do 'Online Bookmarked Recipes'. I thought this will be a great way to try and make some of the dishes from my ever-growing bookmarked recipes. It was quite a task to decide on the 3 dishes for this week. Finally based on the ingredients in the fridge and pantry I made 3 delicious dishes.
First up is this colorful Cranberry Pulihora that I bookmarked from Usha's blog. Using cranberries to give the required tartness/ sourness to pulihora sounded absolutely delicious and I wanted to try it right away.

Usha boiled the cranberries to make a gojju/ paste, but mentioned that they can be sauteed as well. Being the lazy bum that I am, I took the easy way and cooked the cranberries along with the other tempering and the cranberries cooked to perfection in just about 5~7 minutes. So this is a dish that can be made in less than 30 minutes and does not need any prior preparations.

This pulihora is definitely a keeper and I'm sure I'll be making it many more times during the cranberry season. I added a little lemon juice to jazz up the flavor, but this is purely optional and up to your taste.

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Cranberries - 1cup, halved
Peanuts - 2tbsp
Chana Dal - 2tsp
Urad dal - 2tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Dry Red chilies - 2~3, broken
Asafoetida/ Hing - ¼tsp
Ginger - 1" piece
Green chilies - 3, slit
Curry Leaves - 8~10
Ground Fenugreek (Menthi pindi) - ¼tsp
Turmeric - ¼tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cook rice, make sure that the grains are separate and not mushy. Remove the rice into a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a saute pan; add chana dal, urad dal and peanuts. Once the dals start to turn golden, add mustard seeds and once the seeds start to splutter, add dry red chili and asafoetida.
• Next add green chilies, ginger and curry leaves. Fry for 1 minute.
• Next add the chopped cranberries, turmeric and ground fenugreek. Cook covered until cranberries are cooked and turn almost mushy.
• Add the cranberry mixture and salt to the cooled rice. Gently mix to combine, make sure not to break the rice.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 36.