Maharashtrian Masala Baath is such an amazing comfort food option and tastes awesome when paired up with tomato saar!
Some weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend on whatsapp and she told me how her comfort food is Masala Baath with Tomato Saar and how she misses it so much. The way she described had me really drooling over and I knew I had to make it soon.
I put it in my next week’s menu (have you checked my post on Weekly menu planning? Also follow me on instagram for following all the weekly menu updates) and started the search for a recipe online, a few books and a couple of websites later. I jotted the recipe down on a paper to experiment and I am happy to say that I was impressed with the results.
I showed the picture to my friend and she told me it looks good, apart from the fact that the rice is too dana dana for the masala baath. So I will increase the quantity of water next time I make it or may be the rice looks a bit dana dana because I cooked it in the rice cooker. I feel the rice is always get cooked with more separate grains when I cook it in the rice cooker and add correct amount of water when compared to the stove top cooker. So Masala Baath is a rice preparation from Maharashtra which gets it unique taste from the addition of Goda masala and is best enjoyed with Tomato Saar, a tomato rasam like gravy. Its the conventional Goda masala provides the spicy and tangy flavour to this rice preparation and the unique taste. Tomato saar, I found, is so similar to the south Indian tomato rasam, minus the rasam spice powder and it.
Maharashtrian Masala Baath
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice long grained
- 1 carrot small chopped in cubes
- 2 brinjals small chopped in cubes
- 1 capsicum small chopped in cubes
- 1/2 cup Peas
- 1 potato small
- 1 onion sliced
- 2 tbsps yogurt
- 1 bay leaf tejpatta
- 3 tsps masala goda
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- pinch asafoetida
- 2.5 cups water
- to taste salt
- 1 tbsp coconut fresh grated
- 10 cashews
- 1 tsp ghee
Instructions
- Wash and soak the rice for 30 minutes in enough water.
- Heat oil in pan and add the mustard seeds, fry till they crackle. Add bay leaf and fry for one minute.
- Add the onions and fry till they turn translucent.
- Add the all the chopped vegetables and fry for another 2 minutes. At this stage add the yogurt.
- Saute the veggies for 3 to 4 minutes stirring often. In the meanwhile heat 2.5 cups water and bring it to a boil in a different pan.
- Add the red chili powder, goda masala, asafoetida, salt to the sauted veggies. Stir and saute for a minute, add the rice and saute for another minute or so. Now add the hot water.
- Cover the pan and simmer the rice on a low flame till the grains are softened and cooked well. I use the rice cooker to cook it and at this point forget about it. If you are using an open pan method, keep checking on the rice. If you are using a pressure cooker, switch it off after one whistle.
- In a small pan, roast the cashews in one tsp of ghee till golden brown.
- Garnish with coconut and cashews before serving with hot tomato saar.
That sounds doable..Will try it out! Thanks for sharing!
If you loves this then you should also try
– Vangani Bhaat as in began rice &
– Phodni bhaath. Which is basically made with prev day ka rice and tadka with onion & lehsun plus they put some laal masala which is very spice. You will lick the plate clean I am telling you.