Varagu Pulao | Pulao with kodo millet

My ingredient for this week is Kodo millet (Tamil: Varagu; Malayalam: Koovaragu  Hindi: Kodra;  Telugu: Arikelu; Kannada: Harka). I have just started experimenting with millets. The only millet I use extensively in cooking is Ragi - Finger Millet. So wanted to try out with other millets. This time when we visited lal bagh for the Independence day special show - I saw an organic outlet selling millets. I got a kg of Kodo millet for Rs 100/-. Mind you it is very costly when compared to ragi as a millet.

I bought this at the right time. I was thinking of some special ingredient - which I haven't yet used in cooking to feature in one of the weeks of this mega marathon. So Kodo millet is the one... I read a lot of blogs to understand how this is cooked. Actually cooking millets is easy. Atleast from my experience kodo millet gets cooked really fast when compared to rice. 

I read the varagu pulao recipe in Rak's kitchen and took the idea from there. Since this was my first attempt with kodo millet, I wanted to make something interesting so that people at home don't reject it. After cooking, when I opened the cooker, the aroma was same as vegetable pulao and very inviting. Tastewise also there was absolutely no compromise. 

Ingredients:

Varagu/ Kodo millet - 1 cup

Water - 1 & 1/2 cups

Chopped Carrot, beans, green peas, mushrooms - 1 cup

Onion - 1

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Green chilli - 2

Mint leaves - few

Salt - As needed

To temper

Ghee/ oil - 3 tblsp

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Fennel seeds/ sombu- 1 tsp

Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 3

Bay leaf - 1

Method:

Wash the millet. Drain and keep it aside.

Heat a small pressure cooker with oil/ ghee. In medium flame, add cinnamon, fennel seeds, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf. Do not let fennel change its colour. Add onion and give it a stir. 

Add ginger garlic paste. Fry for a minute in medium flame. 

Add the chopped veggies, mint leaves. Fry in medium flame for about 2 mins. 

Add washed millet to it and mix well. Let it dry. Flame should always in medium.

Add water, salt and bring to boil. mix well and cook for a whistle in medium flame and then in low flame for another 3 minutes. 

Open the pressure cooker. Transfer the pulao to another big vessel and let it cool so that the whole thing doesn't become mushy.

Varagu Pulao is ready!! I Served it with boiled egg curry.

Notes:

Mint, fennel adds a nice flavor, so do not skip it. We can also garnish with coriander leaves.
Do not fry in high flame at any stage as it will change the colour of the pulao.
Also while cooking the millets, let the flame be low to ensure even cooking.

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