Mochai Sadam-The Mildly Spiced Rice Cooked with Dolicho beans

I happened to savour this rice delicacy in my co-sister, Suki's house in Coimbatore and it was absolutely 'a love at first taste' experience for both V and me! :)
Being 'never a hesitant guest to jot down a good recipe', I just couldn't wait to try the rice, back home, the very next day, with the Mochai, already peeled and ready in my chiller.

I googled to find out the amazing facts about Mochai or the Dolichos bean, here !

Here's how to make it..

To serve 4, you need :

Fresh green Mochai/Dolichos bean-peeled- 2 cups
Rice- 2 cups (I used ponni raw rice)
Shallots/big onion-minced-2 tbsps
Oil- 1 1/2 tbsps
Garlic-minced-a tbsp
Green Chillies-sliced lengthwise-2 nos

Thick tamarind extract 2 tsps. ( if tamarind paste, 1/2 tsp will suffice)
Salt- to taste
Coriander leaves-minced-to garnish

To grind to a smooth paste :

Pearl onions- 8-9 nos
Garlic cloves-8-9 nos-(I used larger cloves of malai poondu and restricted to 5 cloves, so use them according to the size)
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Sambhar powder-1 1/2 tsps

Chilly powder 1 tsp
Jeera powder-1/2 tsp
Curry leaves- 3 sprigs

• Grind the ingredients mentioned above to a smooth paste adding minimum water.

• Heat oil in a 5 ltr pressure cooker pan, crackle mustard seeds, sauté the minced garlic, onions, green chillies, and Mochai in order.

• Add the ground paste and sauté till the raw smell disappears.Say for abt a minute or two in low-medium flame. Add *water(scroll further down for the amount) and bring to a boil.Add the washed rice and salt and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Stir well.Close the cooker with its lid and pressure cook till **done.

• Open the lid, after the steam vents off by itself and fluff the rice gently so as to mix the beans and the rice.Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot with raitha.

* Amount of water used- Since I used Ponni year old raw rice I needed 2 parts of water for one part of rice.So it was 4 cups of water for 2 cups of rice. For Mochai to get cooked, it needs one part of water. Hence I used 2 cups of water for 2 cups of Mochai.
Therefore the recipe above demands 6 cups of water in all.
Friends, be careful with the water you add to cook as it depends upon the quality of rice.

**The cooking time- The rice should be rightly cooked.Not too mushy and not too grainy. in other words the grains should not stick to one another and should be moist, mildly coated with the masala cooked along,with that bursting aroma of soft cooked Dolichos with creamy insides.
I closed the pressure cooker after it simmered for 3 minutes, placed the weight and waited for the first whistle. I lowered the flame and put off the stove after 3-4 whistles. Waited again till the steam vented out, fluffed the rice gently before serving.Thus, a total cooking time of 10-12 minutes and my dish was perfect in the very first attempt itself :)

...My 'first attempt failure' is the picture you see, the very first click with my new cam :(( whoaahh...

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