Pulao and the modern day Panipat

Egg Pulao, my mom's recipe.

The first 3 battles of Panipat were fought between armies on the battleground, ours is fought every evening at the dinner table - between me and the brats!!!

Monday to Friday, dinner is battle of wills. On weekends, since they eat lunch at home too, its double the hostilities!!! 

Every evening it is the same old story -

I start laying the groundwork early on. Feigning loads of enthusiasm, to cover up the heebie-jeebies I am starting to feel come dinner time, I chirp: "We are having _________ today!! Yeaaay!!!"

V1, ever the strong, silent type like his daddy, just grunts!

V2, who's forever oozing charm, grins and as always, gives me a verbal pat on the back: "Wow! Well done, Mamma!"

One would say that sounded like a promising start, if there ever was one! But hold on, remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! 

So as soon as we start, the problems start creeping in -

V2 looks at his food, picks at it and says suspiciously, "What's this???"

Me, trying to do a silent mental count of 1 to 1000, explain as calmly as I can, "That's an onion"

V2 starts the bipartite talks: "Me no like onions."

Me, trying to strike a conciliatory note; no point starting the battle this early on : "Fine, leave it. Eat the rest"

V2, explaining as clearly as possible just in case I didn't get him the previous 295 times: "Me no want veshhtebles. Me no like veshhtebles. Me no like peas, me no like carrots. Me want chicken. No veshhtebles"

By now V1 also has joined in. 

His saving grace is that he loves fruits of every shape, size, color and type. The problem is he wants to substitute every meal with fruits. Some days I have these nightmares of him turning into a fruit eating vegetarian!!! Nothing can be more horrifying to a carnivorous Bengali mother than the thought of her son turning into a plant eater! Plants are filler, side dish! Since when did they become main course??

But I digress. By now V1 joins in. "Mamma", he says. "Give me strawberry, me want strawberry. Me no want this chicken". 

Some days I make up stories. 

"You know the chicken/pig we met in Deen's farm? Well he gave us this chicken/ ham to eat" or "You know the cow we met at Deen's? She gave us milk and the farmer made paneer and sent it to us" or "You know the tram we saw y'dy? Well, Mamma took that and went to market and got the beans" or "You know the tomato plant you watered y'dy? Well she was so happy, she sent us this". Sometimes it works. But for about 10 minutes and then we are back to square one!

Some days I just resort to good old bribery - one peanut or one little bite of namkeen after each spoonful of food or a kaju katli/ slice of cake after finishing the meal but then it entails waving the bribe in their faces every two minutes so they don't forget! I don't have the patience to do this every single day. Some days I just give up and give them their favourite cereal for dinner and then cringe thinking what my mom would have to say to that!!!! 

Making threats like "you can't get off your chair if you don't finish" never work. The Vs bypass every threat with consummate ease by gagging & vomiting the minute I make them eat a spoonful under duress. (Note : Gag reflex, by the way is an extremely selective phenomenon - if you think about it, chocolates, sugar loaded candies and potato chips, even mouthfuls of these, never make a kid gag and throw up!!!)

I used to think they just happen to be fussy eaters. After all when the Vs were babies, our nanny would sit in the condo garden or by the pool and sing and play and feed them for what seemed like hours. 

Then I discovered that they eat everything that's put on their plates in school!!!

Yes. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!!! 

They eat mac and cheese at school. They spit it out at home. 

They eat mashed potatoes at school. They gag and choke on it at home.

They eat Thai vegetable curry in school. But if I make a vegetable curry for dinner, V2 throws a fit, "No mamma, don't want vheshhtebels"!!!

They don't venture around bell peppers and lettuce at home, but they eat them in school.

I used to be sceptical at first. I mean these were kids who took an hr and a half to finish a meal. So I double checked, with every teacher there. They took videos and photos. They called me to watch. Yes, they eat everything. And what's more insulting, they seem to enjoy everything they find on their plates! The problems surface only with my cooking!

Even for a second, even when I am at my most vulnerable or most haunted by niggling self doubt, even on those occasions, I don't believe that the cook at their school cooks better than me!!! I have eaten what she cooks. I am not narcissistic and vain, but simply truthful, when I say I cook better. Then why??? 

"Bhala usmein aisa kya hai jo mujh me nahin????" I feel like pulling my hair and screaming in the filmiest of fashions!!!! Or since the Vs are half Brits now, complete with the accent, maybe I should try attempting the English version, "What's she got that I ain't got"??

But then where the boys' are concerned, I'm not one to give up without a fight, so I called the one person, whose cooking and recipes can usually tempt even the most unwavering of hunger-striker into breaking his fast! My mother. 

So she gave me the recipe of this Egg pulao. When we were kids, we couldn't have enough of it! It was a treat on some days and a reward on some others!

This is how my mom makes it. Its simple and yet is flavorful and tasty. This recipe was made with about 1/2 cup or around 125gms of rice as it was for 2 toddlers, so you can alter it accordingly.

What you need is

Basmati rice - 1/2 cup 

Eggs -2 

Onion - about 1/4th of a medium onion finely chopped.

Ginger - 1 small tsp - finely grated or paste 

Cumin (jeera) powder - 1/2 teaspoon (again I went easy on the spices as I was making it for the boys but I also feel adding too much of spices only makes the flavours too overwhelming. So use your judgement!) 

Coriander (dhania) powder - 1/2 teaspoon 

Turmeric (haldi) powder - a little for color 

Chilli powder - as per taste. I added only a sprinkle as my boys can't eat spicy food. 

Salt - to taste 

Sugar - 1/2 spoon 

Bay leaves 

Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Black pepper, Mace, Star Anise - make a rough powder. 

Raisins (optional) 

How to:

First wash the rice and put it to dry. 

Then boil the eggs and shell them. Make slight slits all over the egg. 

Mix some cornflour, turmeric, salt and chilli powder. Don't add water to this powder.

Coat each egg with this powder and shallow fry. Keep aside. My mom sometimes cuts the egg into 2 and then fries them but I prefer mine whole as I don't want the yolk coming out. 

Now heat ghee or oil. Add bayleaves and the rough powder of all the cardamom/ cinnamom et al. After 1-2 minutes, when it smells wonderful, add onion, fry till golden. Add raisins fry a minute more. Add grated ginger, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder and sugar. Fry for about 5 minutes on low flame so it doesn't burn.

Then add rice and fry for a while, till the rice gets coated in this powder and if you pick the rice in your finger, it feels brittle.

Add eggs, add salt and add boiling hot water. Always add hot water and not cold or warm water. And the water qty shoould always be exactly be double the amount of rice. So if you take a cup of rice, add 2 cups of water.

Then cover and cook on high flame. When the water is almost dry, immediately put the flame on low and let it cook till done. Add some chopped, fresh coriander leaves before serving.

I thought this was it!! The battle was won! 

I was wrong. The brats ate up the egg and left the rice in the pulao behind!