Ads 468x60px

Monday, January 23, 2012

Vegetable Biryani

This dish is dedicated to all my vegetarian friends. This dish is surely a strong contender for its meaty counterpart and is an absolute winner on flavours.

Ingredients:
Rice -
Basmati rice - 4 cups
Cloves - 3
Cinnamon - 2"
Cardamon - 4
Shahi jeera - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Saffron - two pinch soaked in 100ml warm water
Cashew nuts - ¼ cup, chopped
Almonds - ¼ cup, chopped
Salt to taste

Masala -
Oil - 4 tbsp
Cloves - 4
Green cardamon - 4
Black cardamon - 1
Mace - 1
Cinnamon - 2"
Shahi jeera - 1 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 ½ tsp
Biryani masala - 25 gm
Fried onion - 2 large finely sliced
Green chilly - 6 diagonally sliced ½" chunks
Coriander leaves - 1 cup, chopped
Mint leaves - 1 cup, chopped
Curd - 2 cups, whisked to creamy texture
Cauliflower - 1 ½ cup, large flower
Paneer - 200 gms, cut into 1" cubes
Carrot - 225 gms, cut into ½" thick and 2 ½" long strips
Soya chunks - 1 ½ cup, soaked in warm water, cut into half (squeeze the water off)
Potatoes - 2 large, ½" thick and 2 ½" long strips
Salt to taste

Atta Seal-
Atta dough to seal the biryani vessel

Method:
In a large flat surfaced vessel, heat some oil. Saute the dry masala (cloves, green and black cardamon, mace, cinnamon). Once the flavour have been infused into the oil, add shahi jeera, ginger garlic paste. Saute till the garlic gives off its aroma. Now add all the vegetables except the soya chunks and paneer. Let this cook till the vegetables are 70% cooked. Add some salt. Now add half of the coriander and mint and green chillies, biryani masala. Cook  for a minute. Add ½ of the curd followed by panner and soya chunks. Mix thoroughly and cook cook for a minute or two. Keep this aside.

In a large vessel, boil abundant water, add salt, add the dry masala (cloves cardamon, shahi jeera). Add rice and cook till the rice is 70-80% cooked. Drain the excess water.

Heat another thick bottom vessel, put half of the vegetable masala. Add curd and the nuts (cashew nuts, almonds), adjust the salt. Now sprinkle ¾ of the fried onion on top of the masala. Evenly spread ½ of the rice on top of this. On top of this, spread the rest of the masala and the fried onion. Cover this with rest of the rice, sprinkle coriander & mint leaves and the saffron water.

Seal rim of the vessel with atta dough and cover the lid. Cook on high flame for 5 minutes, then 15 minutes on low flame.

Serve the briyani with onion raita.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Mutton Biryani (Thalassery Style)

Here's a different style of preparing biryani that is native to my home town Thalaserry in Kerala. Cooked this for my family on new year's eve. I'm sure you will like the simplicity of this recipe.


Ingredients:
Masala-
Mutton - 1 kg
Tomato - 6 medium sized (sliced)
Ginger paste - 25 gms
Garlic paste - 25 gms
Green chilly - 25 gms ground
Mint leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Garam masala - 1 tbsp
Lemon - 2
Salt to taste

Rice-
Basmati rice - 3 cups (Thalaserry Biryani uses short rice called "kayama". But I've used basmati here)
Water - 5 ¼ cups
Cinnamon - 1 inch x 2
Cardamon - 3
Cloves - 4
Ghee - 130 gms luke warm
Salt to taste

Garnish & flavouring-
Rose water - 1 tsp in 2 tsp water
Raisins (kishmish) - 50 gms
Cashew-nuts - 50 gms
Saffron - Two pinch soaked in ½ cup warm milk

Fried onion-
Onion - 6 medium sized (finely sliced)
Oil


Atta Seal-
Atta dough to seal the biryani vessel

Method:
Heat some oil in a kadhai and deep fry the finely sliced onions. Fry the onions till golden brown and crisp, be careful not to turn them into black mass else it will spoil the entire biryani.

Heat a pressure cooker, add tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes till they are nicely cooked and you get a pulpy texture. In case the tomato pulp becomes too dry, add may be 1/8 cup of water. To this, add ginger paste, garlic paste and ground green chilly. Stir nicely and cook for around 3 minutes or till the raw flavour of ginger, garlic is completely gone. Now add mutton, add salt to taste, mix thoroughly. Add ¾ of the mint leaves. Put the lid on the cooker and pressure cook till 2 whistles. I haven't added any water since mutton would anyways give away water in the cooker. But in case you feel you can add, may be around ¼ cup of water. Once done open the lid, keep the flame to medium, add ¾ of the fried onion, mix and leave for 2 minutes. Now add garam masala, lemon juice (2 lemons), ¾ of the coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly and cook for another 2 minutes. Take it off the heat.

Heat a big vessel, add water, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and bring it to a boil. Now add ghee and salt. Add rice, bring to a boil. Once the rice starts boiling, lower the flame and cover the vessel. Keep stirring in between, make sure you don't mash the rice. Once the water evaporates, switch off the heat. Separate the rice with the help of a fork.

Take a large biryani vessel (thick bottom), empty the cooker into this. Level the mutton mixture, add the remaining mint and coriander leaves. Add half of the cooked rice. Sprinkle rose water. Top it with kishmish and cashew-nuts. Add rest of the rice, spread the balance fried onions on top of this. Sprinkle the saffron milk. Seal rim of the vessel with the atta dough and cover the lid. Put on the heat, cook on high flame for 5 minutes and then 10 minutes on low flame.

The fragrance of rose water and ghee is definitely a crowd puller. Enjoy the mouth watering biryani with onion raita. Please do leave in your comments and tell me how the recipe turned out for you.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Dum Murgh Ki Kachchi Biryani

My wife has been trying various biryani recipes. Over time she has trialed (unfortunately on me) these to come up with the perfect recipe for biryani. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I love savouring this delicious and rich biryani. I have not used ghee in this recipe, this is purely optional. The flavors in this recipe arise from the fresh ingredients used and grease from chicken fat and curd. Moreover I prefer rice-bran oil over others in all my recipes'.

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1 Kg
Onions - 3 Large ones sliced (for frying)
Green Chillies - 3 to 4 Chopped
Coriander Leaves - ½ Bunch
Lemon - 1 Medium sized
Saffron - ½ tsp (Optional) soaked in 2-3 tbsp of warm milk
Oil - 2 to 3 tbsp

For the Marination
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Curd - 2 cups
Salt to taste

Biryani Masala
Bay Leaf - 1
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1" Long
Green Cardamom - 2
Black Cardamom - 1
Cumin Seeds - ½ tsp
Grind the above into powder.
For the Rice
Basmati Rice - ½ Kg
Green Cardamom - 1
Cinnamon Stick - ½"
Cloves - 2
Bay Leaf - 1
Whole Black Pepper - ½ tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Seal for Dum
Atta Dough to seal biriyani vessel

Method:
In a vessel add in all the ingredients for marination along with biryani masala and chicken. Mix thoroughly and leave it for 2 hours.
Soak basmati rice in water for 1/2 an hour and drain thereafter.
In a kadhai, take some oil and deep fry onions till crispy brown (Make sure you don't burn the onions). Add the fried onions to the marinated chicken. Mix thoroughly and leave it for another ½ an hour.

In a vessel take enough water (since we are going to par-boil the rice and drain excess water) to cook the rice. To this add bay leaf, cardamom, whole pepper, cloves and cinamon. Bring to a boil, add salt, add rice. Boil till the rice is half cooked (The rice is said to be half cooked when the grain breaks into tiny pieces when smashed between your fingers). Drain excess water with the help of a strainer.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadhai, add the marinated chicken mix thoroughly for 3 minutes on high flame (intention here is not to cook the chicken).
In a thick bottom vessel firstly layer the chicken, press slightly and pack it well. Now spread chopped corriander leaves, chopped green chillies, squeeze a lemon. On top of this spread the half boiled rice, evenly. Sprinkle the saffron on top of this. Seal the vessel tight with the atta dough.

Cook for 5 minutes on high flame, then 15 minutes on medium flame and finally 10 minutes on low flame. Switch off the flame. Let it stand for some time. Mix the biryani well while serving. Enjoy this delicious mouth-watering biryani with onion raita.
Note. If you do not have a thick bottom vessel, you can also cook the biriyani in a regular vessel over a thick tava. Optionally you can add, fried rasins and cashewnuts on top of the rice.