More than just rice

Nishant Arora of Kohinoor likes to use his brand's products for recipes.

I’m disappointed at stepping into a vegetarian household for our assignment, especially because we were promised a yummy biryani. While I start imagining pieces of succulent mutton buried in rice, I contend with the preparation of vegetable pulao.

The pulao looks fresh, and one bite into the steaming hot, mildly flavoured dish, complete with vegetables, ensures that we give our thumbs-up to Nishant Arora. “I make sure that the aroma of rice doesn’t get lost in too many flavours,” says Arora, business head (food division), Kohinoor Foods, a brand that’s synonymous with rice. It’s also a brand that forayed into the business of food processing and packaging almost five years ago. Dressed in immaculate casuals, Arora is doubling up as a chef for us to dish out a vegetable pulao prepared with — what else — Kohinoor’s super long-grained basmati rice. Arora also served us samosas and vegetarian shammi kebabs, products from Kohinoor’s frozen foods category which, with a dash of mint chutney, are fantastic.

Arora’s four-year-old labrador Joey follows us into the very spacious living room and sprawls lazily on the floor while Arora and I get down to the business of talking about brand Kohinoor. For someone who joined the family business five years ago (it was started by his father and his uncle), Arora says that the company (with a turnover of Rs 630 crore) aims to reach the Rs 1,200-crore mark by 2011. Taking a sip of his iced tea, he adds that the brand also aims at expanding its range to include a wide variety of organic products. In addition, Kohinoor is also doing frozen foods for a lot of private labels and exporting its products to the USA, UK, Australia and the Middle East too. “While 85 per cent of the entire business of Kohinoor is rice, only 15 per cent is that of food processing. We will grow by 30-35 per cent in the segment on a year-on-year basis,” confirms Arora, while proceeding to the kitchen to give us a glimpse of his cooking skills.

A self-confessed foodie, Arora says he’s fond of Lebanese cuisine. “Whenever I visit our company’s London office, I have to eat my dinner at Maroush,” he says, readying to prepare the pulao in olive oil. Arora has also trained his cook to prepare dishes like Lebanese falafel, cottage-cheese fajitas, spring rolls and what have you. Arora enters the kitchen to prepare anything from paranthas to cheese balls, noodles and even “simple paneer bhurji” (scrambled cottage cheese). By his own admission, he likes talking about his meals. “From the choice of ingredients to what gives different dishes a unique flavour, I like knowing everything,” laughs Arora, adding that he’s a “nightmare for most chefs”.

As Arora dresses the vegetable pulao for the photo shoot, I notice that a majority of spices are from Kohinoor.

No wonder this household is a treasure trove of amazing flavours and aromas.

FAVOURITE RECIPE

VEGETABLE PULAO
½ kg super long-grained basmati rice (boiled)
100 gm tomato puree
50 gm onions, chopped
10 gm garlic, chopped
10 gm ginger, chopped
A pinch of powder of each of these spices: red chilli, black pepper, cinnamon, green and black cardamom
50 gm carrots, French beans, broccoli, capsicum, steamed and diced
30 gm olive oil
20 gm thick curd
Salt to taste

In a wok, heat some oil and add ginger, followed by garlic. Add the onions. Once they’re translucent, add the tomato puree. Stir the mixture in the wok until the oil starts separating from the tomatoes. Combine the spices in the thick curd and mix well. Put this into the wok and stir well. Add the vegetables and continue stirring. Put the rice, sprinkle salt and mix well. Serve hot with raita, mint chutney and onion-tomato roundels on the side.