Pilaf with coconut and saffron

I missed blogging this summer.Feels so healing to cook something new and blog about it.
Since I had fresh coconut halves at home, I extracted fresh coconut milk and made pilaf with it. Added some sprouted moong to up the nutritive intake.

1.5 cups basmati (Royal Chef brand works best)

2.5 cups water
1/3 cup coconut milk ( 1/4 cup grated coconut yields little more than 1/3 cup milk)
1.5 cups mixed veggies ( beans, carrots, peas)
1/4 cup sprouted mung bean

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp fennel seeds
5-6 cloves

2-3 Spanish cardamom pods slightly opened
1 Bay leaf
1/4 tsp Spanish Saffron

1 tbsp broken cashews
1 tbsp raisins

1.5 jalapeños
Salt to taste
1 tbsp ghee


In a skillet, warm the oil and toast the cumin. Then toast the other spices with cashew,raisins.

Once they are slightly roasted, add the jalapeños and veggies with sprouts.
Stir fry them for a minute or two.

In the meantime,  grate the coconut until the shreds are 1/4 cup. Grind them with little water and extract the milk from

shredded coconut. You could use the same procedure with dessicated coconut.
Heat the milk until it's slightly warm, 20 seconds should do in the microwave.
Soak the saffron strands in the milk and keep covered.

Once the veggies are partly stir-fried,  mix in the rice with salt.  Add the coconut saffron milk and mix thoroughly so that the spices are evenly distributed. Cook the rice for 3-4 mins on the skillet until the coconut milk is absorbed.
Transfer the contents into rice cooker and add the water to cook.If making the rice on stovetop,  make sure they don't get mushy.

Serve the rice with cucumber and onion raita. It is a very mild but soothing dish. Add more chillies for extra spiciness.