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.

Pasta with Tomato & Basil Sauce

An excellent choice for a holiday brunch. I cooked this today and the family just loved the flavours. My daughter couldn't resist the taste, ended up with a sparkling clean cutlery :).

Ingredients:
Red ripe tomato - 6 medium sized
Pasta (Penne rigate) - 250 gms
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp
Basil - ¾ cup
Garlic - 4-5 cloves, minced
Red chilly flakes - 1 tsp
Rosemary
Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste

Method:

Cut the tomatoes into half, remove most of the seeds using your fingers. Then cut them into quarters. Heat the oil in a pan, add garlic and the chilly flakes. Saute till the garlic gives off its aroma. Add tomatoes and cook on a high flame till the sauce thickens. With the help of a wooden spoon mash the tomato as much as possible. Add roughly chopped basil and salt. Cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, roughly run the hand blender for ½ minute in the sauce to smooth any tomato chunks.

Cook the pasta (I used penne rigate here, but you could use any other pasta that you can get hold of) in abundant boiling water (add salt to the water) till done. Also add may be a 1 tbsp of oil into the boiling water. Drain the pasta, drizzle some olive oil into the pasta and mix it well with the sauce.

Serve with grated parmesan and sprinkle rosemary lightly over the top.

Crispy Golden Fried Prawns

Ingredients:
For the marinade -
Prawns (big/tiger) - 6 
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Black pepper powder - ½ tsp
Salt to taste

For frying -
Almonds - ½ cup, peeled and ground to bread crumb consistency
Bread crumbs - ½ cup
Egg white - 1
Cornflour
Oil for deep frying

Sweet chilly dipping sauce -
Ginger - 4cm, finely sliced (julienned)
Green Chilly - 2, de-seeded (julienned)
Light soy sauce - ½ cup
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Groundnut oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

De-vein the prawns, mix along lemon juice, salt and pepper. Marinate it for around 30 minutes.

Coat the prawns one by one in the corn flour, pat the prawns to remove any extra corn flour. Dip into the egg white and coat it with almond and bread crumb mixture. Deep fry on high flame for ½ a minute and then on a low flame fry till golden brown.

For the dipping sauce - Mix all the ingredients except the groundnut oil, whisk it nicely. In a wok heat groundnut oil, once it is hot enough, carefully add the mixture into the oil. Take it off the heat.

Enjoy crispy golden fried prawns with oriental dipping sauce.

Kaju Katli

Ingredients:
Water - 200 ml
Sugar - 400 gms
Cashew nuts - 400 gms
Pistachio - 50 gms, chopped

Method:

Coarsely grind the cashew nuts into bread crumb consistency.

Heat water and sugar in a sauce pan, bring to a boil and cook till sugar forms a 3 string consistency.

In another thick bottom vessel, mix together the sugar syrup and ground cashew. Cook on a low flame stirring continuously till the mixture is thick and glossy. Switch off the gas, and mix ¾ of the pistachios, let the mixture cool.

On a greased surface, slightly knead the cashew mixture to form a ball. With a rolling pin flatten like thick chapatti (½ cm thick). With a pastry cutter, cut into diamond shapes. To garnish, sprinkle the rest of the pistachios over the cut kaju katli. You could also use the silver warq on the kaju katli.