Tomato Bhath/Tomato Rice

Yet another Baath & a family favorite is Tomato Baath. The day we have tomato baath for lunch, we have all members of the family fasting from morning to savor it with cool raita. We (MIL&me) do not use basmati rice here, coz the end product is kept moist. You can add a handful of basmati rice just for fragrance) Here is our version,

Ingrediants :Time taken to make tomato rice with preparation : 45mins

Rice (Ponni/...) : 250g (you can add a handful of basmati for fragrance)
Water to cook rice.
Over ripe big tomatoes : 5
Masala:
Mint Leaves/Pudina : 1 bunch (small)
Coriander Leaves : 5 lines
Wet coconut grated : 6-7tbsp
Cinnamon Stick : 1'' piece or 1tsp of powder
Cloves : 5 or 1tsp powder
Ginger: 1.5'' piece
Garlic : 1 big pod (old) or add according to the taste
Red Chillies according to the hotness levels. I use 10 chillies.
Note:
Take note cloves +Chilli= more Spciy. Use chillies accordingly
Tadka:
Oil : 2tbsp
Chana Dal and curry leaves

Pick Juicy and Big Tomatoes. The below picture is just for drooling and these tomatoes in the picture are suitable only for salads.




Preparation:
1. Puree tomatoes and keep it aside.
2. Fry cloves, cinnamon, red chillies in a drop of oil and grind it with rest of the masala ingrediants with little water to make a smooth paste.

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker pan or any large pan you have at home which is used to cook rice. We do not pressure cook (you can if you want) tomato rice, so use a big vessel.
2. When oil is sufficiantly hot, add chana dal and when it turns red, add curry leaves.
3. Add tomato paste and keep stirring till 3/4th of the water from the puree is evaporated
4. Add masala paste and sautee. Fry till the 3/4th of the water content in it is evaporated.
5. Resulting liquid is a semi solid with less water.
6. Add required water to cook rice. Add 1 cup of water extra as it is cooked openly and to keep the rice moist.
7. Add salt and bring the water to boil. Check salt levels.
8. Add washed and drained rice when water starts to boil.
9. Cover the vessel with a lid and cook stirring in btw occasionally.
10. Keep checking the rice grains, it takes about 20 mins for the rice to get cooked.
11. You can pressure cook the rice. We find the opend cooked rice taste much better than pressure cooked tomato rice.
12. Once the rice is cooked, switch off the stove, cover the lid and let it aside for 10 mins.

13. Serve it with your choice of raita. A simple onion, tomato yoghurt raita will go well with this preparation.

Tomato Rice goes to MEETA for her one dish dinners event.