Bengali Mishti Pulao, Basanti Pulao

Bengali Mishti Pulao or Basanti Pulao is one of the traditional pulao recipes of Bengal. This sweet pulao is almost everybody’s favorite dish at any time.

What is Bengali Mishti Polao?

As the name suggests, ‘Bengali Mishti Pulao‘ is a kind of sweet pulao [the Bengali word ‘Mishti’ means sweet]. Since this Bengali Mishti Pulao have a nice yellow color, many of us like to say it as ‘Basanti Pulao‘.

Basanti Pulao or Bengali Mishti Pulao, an authentic dish, prepared in many of the Bengali festivities like Durga Puja, Jagadhatri Puja, Lakshmi Puja and many more. This pulao is being offered as ‘Bhog’ or prasad during puja.

Not only in festivals, we never hesitated to prepare this Bengali Mishti Pulao recipe.

Since I stay away from my home, so whenever I visit my family my mom used to prepare Bengali Mishti Pulao recipe for me. It doesn’t matter whatever time it is.

Even on Sunday, many of us cook this pulao and enjoy it with a spicy side dish.

The specialty of this Pulao is that it is sweet in taste and has a vibrant yellow/saffron color. The yellow color makes this more appealing. Bengali Mishti Pulao is loved by all age group people, from kids to young people and even our grandparents.

The recipe of Bengali Mishti Pulao is very easy and doesn’t take much time. Even the ingredient list is also simple. One just needs ‘Gobindobhog rice’ which is the main ingredient of this recipe. Gobindobhog rice is a typical aromatic short-grained rice variety available all over Bengal. If you don’t find Gobindobhog, you can simply replace it with Basmati rice. But make sure to use ‘Gobindobhog rice’ as it fulfills the pulao with its nice aroma.

Ingredients:

1. Gobindobhog rice 250gm
2. Ghee 50gm
3. Raisins, Cashews 20gm each
4. Sugar 4-5 tablespoons
5. Salt as required.
6. Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves 2-3 pieces each
7. Bay leaves 2 pieces
8. Yellow food color

 

 

Method of Preparation:

1. Wash off the rice properly and keep it aside after draining.
2. Now take a heavy-bottomed pan or Kadhai and pour 1/2 tablespoon ghee in it. Let it be heated.
3. Add Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves & Cashews, Raisins and fry those on low flame till light golden in color.
4. Now add the rice.
5. Mix all well and fry it for 2-3 mins on low flame.
6. After that add water, sugar & salt. Make sure to add enough sugar to have the perfect sweetness. Add 1-2 drops of yellow food color. Don’t add much as it may ruin the vibrant color of the pulao and make it dark.
7. Cover the pan and allow it to cook.
8. It will take around 15-20 mins depending upon the amount of rice. Make sure to check in between so that the rice should not get overcooked.
9. Finally, turn off the flame. At this moment, add about a teaspoon of shahi Garam Masala powder and mix it well very carefully so that the grains do not break. Cover the pan and allow it to cool.

Serve the Bengali Mishti Pulao with a spicy Chicken/Mutton dish. For veg options, it can be served with simple Aloo Dum/Chanar Dalna. Please give it a try and let me know how this turned out. 🙂

What makes a good Bengali Mishti Pulao?

• Use an aged raw variety of Gobindobhog rice.
• A good pulao needs lots of ghee.
• This pulao needs more sugar than salt. Avoid using chilly so that the sweetness of the pulao remains.
• Wash the rice thoroughly so that excess starch is removed from the rice. This will make the pulao fluffy; otherwise, it would become mushy.
• The amount of water should be exactly double the amount of rice. This makes a good pulao, otherwise, the pulao can be drained/mushy or if there is less water rice will stick to the bottom of the pan.

Few more Bengali recipes that you may like:

• Bengali Tomato Chutney
• Cholar Dal
• Fish Curry
• Bengali Fried Rice
• Gur Aam
• Dhokar Dalna