Cranberry Puliyogre | Cranberry Rice Recipe

I know that I am quite irregular in blogging these days due to my travel.I will take a couple of more days to come back to regular blogging and visit your blogs.I really missed all your posts and I have lots to catch up as my dashboard is over flowing with those yummy posts.I sincerely thank everyone for visiting my blog regularly and kept it active even in my absence.
I love dried sweetened cranberries and always stock a pack in my pantry.But the fresh cranberries are slightly sour and bitter to eat them plain but they can be adapted in many south Indian recipes and today's recipe is one such example.

Puliyogre is one of my favorite rice items for its unique taste.When I got hold of a fresh pack of cranberries recently I could not stop myself from experimenting some thing new with it. While I was browsing for the recipes I ended up here and basically adapted the idea from there and followed the regular puliyogre recipe.The puliyogre with cranberries turned out quite delicious and almost tasted like the regular puliyogre with a slight hint of taste from cranberries and the only difference is the bright red color because of cranberries.If you are accessible to fresh cranberries I suggest you to go ahead and try this recipe and I am sure you would not get disappointed with the outcome.

Cranberry Puliyogre Recipe:
(Serves 2)
minimally adapted from : Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 cup Sona Masuri or Basmati Rice(uncooked)
Salt to taste

for Cranberry Gojju:
1 1/2 cups fresh Cranberries
6-8 Red chillies
1/4 cup grated dry Coconut
1 tsp Methi seeds
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp grated Jaggery
Salt to taste
1-2 tbsp Oil

for Tadka:
1/4 cup Groundnuts(roasted and skinned)
2 tbsp Chana dal
1 tsp Urad dal
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
2-3 Red chillies,broken
a sprig of Curry leaves
a pinch of Hing
2 tbsp Sesame Oil(or regular Oil)

Method:

• Clean,wash and cook the rice with the ratio of 1:2(1 cup rice:2 cups water) and once it is cooked spread it on a wide plate leaving it to cool.
• Dry roast methi seeds and red chillies until they are roasted and slightly brown and remove them into the mixer.
• Dry roast mustard seeds until they pop up and drop them too in the same mixer.
• Dry roast the grated coconut slightly for a minute and put it in the same mixer.
• Grind everything together into a fine powder and keep it aside.
• Clean and wash the cranberries and cut them into halves.
• Heat 1-2 tbsp Oil and add cranberry halves and fry them for a minute.They will start popping in some time and also will get soft in another 4-5 mins.Slightly press with the back of the spoon to let it form like a mushy paste(Gojju).
• Add grated jaggery,salt and the ground masala powder to it and let it cook for some time until the oil leaves the edges and a thick pulpy paste(gojju) is formed.Let it cool.
• Heat 2 tbsp Oil in a big kadai and crackle the mustard seeds and add groundnuts and fry until they turn slightly brown.
• Add chana dal and urad dal and fry for half a minute until they turn brown.
• Add red chillies,curry leaves and hing and fry for half a minute and switch off the stove.
• Add the cranberry gojju to the tadka and mix well.Remove 1/4 cup of gojju and keep it aside.
• Add the cooled rice into the rest of gojju and add enough salt and mix well until everything is well incorporated like how we do for puliyogre.
• Check for the salt and sourness of the rice and adjust it by adding enough salt and the remaining gojju and mix it thoroughly.

Serve it warm or at room temperature.Let it sit for a couple of hours for a nice tasty puliyogre and also it is ideal for lunch boxes.