Nasi Lobak Merah (Carrot Basmati Rice)

I prepared a totally different rice dish for Eid Mubarak. I had second thoughts about preparing it because our younger son is not a fan of carrots.  But to my surprise, he loves this dish and I haven't had the heart to tell him that he is eating Carrot Rice! For this dish, I added Basmati Rice and cooked it in the rice cooker.  Of course, you may cook it the traditional way over the stove.

Ingredients (serves 4):
500 g basmati rice, to be washed and strained
2 medium-size carrots, to be peeled and grated into sticks
1 big onion, to be peeled, halved and finely sliced
1.5 cm fresh ginger, to be peeled and finely pounded
4 pips garlic, to be peeled and finely pounded
1/2 tsp jintan manis (cumin), to be coarsely pounded
4 cm cinnamon stick
2 pcs cardamom
2 pcs cloves
150 g tomatoes, to be finely minced
550 ml water
salt to taste
4 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp ghee

Method:
Add grated carrots to basmati rice and leave aside.  Prepare the rest of the ingredients and set aside.

In a medium-size pot, heat oil and ghee over medium heat.  Stir-fry onion slices and all pounded ingredients until fragrant and slightly light brown in colour.

Add minced tomatoes, cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves and water.  Bring to a boil. Add salt to taste.  Add basmati rice and cook over stove as you normally cook your rice.

If using a rice cooker, add basmati rice and pot contents to rice cooker.  Switch on rice cooker.

Once rice is done, fluff up rice by using a fork or wooden spatula.  Serve hot!

Bon Appetit!