Vegetable Biriyani

This again is another recipe from Indu aunty. When it comes to biriyani, mutton Biriyani is the favorite in our home, followed by fish biriyani and chicken biriyani. But this vegetable biriyani has found its place in our home and hearts recently. This biriyani has excellent flavor and taste. Best part is, its really simple to make. I generally don't add chili powder for any of my Biriyani, but in Indu aunty's recipe, she adds chili powder and green chillies too, so its slightly on the spicy side. So, if you think you can't handle too spicy food, leave out the chili powder part. You can either make it in the pressure cooker or the evaporation method in any tight lid container. There is no oven baking involved here. So, I wouldn't prefer the layering method for this biriyani.

Ingredients

Basmati rice - 3 cups
Ginger garlic paste - 2-3 tablespoons ( adjust according to your taste, biriyani tastes better with a little more but not too over powering, so adjust accordingly)
Green Chillies- 2-3
Chilli powder - 1 table spoon
Tumeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Tomatoes - 2-3 ( 2 large or 3 medium)
Onion - 1 large.
Mint leaves -  a hand full
Coriander leaves  -  a nice bunch
Salt - to taste
Curd 2 -3 table spoons
Raw Spices -  Cinnamon -  1 stick
                       Star anise -2
                       Elachi 4-5
                       Cloves 3-4
                       Bay leaves -8-10
                       Fennel Seeds - a teaspoon

Vegetables -  Carrot 2 - Chopped length wise
                      Beans - 10 - 15 lengthwise cut
                      Frozen Peas - thawed , 3/4 cup
                      Paneer- optional
                      Potatoes - 2 medium chopped not too small

Fried Onions - 1 cup
( I fry onions in large batches and store extra in freezer and use it whenever i make biriyani, tried rice, ghee rice, this way it saves you the trouble of frying every time you make biriyani)
Ghee/ Oil/ Dalda - Enough to sauté ( Add according to your health and taste, you can keep it low, you don't want it to be too greasy, let it be healthy, so adding 2-3 tablespoons would be enough )



1) Soak rice not more than 10 minutes.
2) Add Ghee/ dada /Oil , once its hot add the raw spice.
3) Add half the onion and sauté well.  ( The other half, grind it into a paste with the mint leaves and keep aside)
4) Add ginger garlic paste and sauté well till all the raw smell goes.
5) Add the powders and the onion mint leaves paste , sauté well, then tomatoes and green chillies, let it cook well.
6) Add the vegetables and sauté well. Let it cook 1/2 way through. Add 1/2 of the coriander leaves.
7) Add salt.

Pressure cooker method

For every 1 cup of rice, take 1.5 cups of water and cook till you hear one whistle, switch off.

Evaporation method.

For every one cup of rice take 1.5 cups of water, and a 1/2 cup more . Add the Rice and the vegetable masala , give a quick stir, check the salt, Cook on high flame, open till it boils well. When it starts boiling, close it with a tight lid and cook for another 20 minutes on medium. Switch off.  I spread it on to a tray immediately so that it won't get mushed.

Enjoy this tasty biriyani with Raita , pickle and some papadom.

Simple Ghee Rice

This recipe is so simple and so tasty. Here is how we make it.

Rice - 1 cup , cook and keep aside

cloves 1-2

Cardomom - 2

Cinnamon -  1 -1.5 " stick 

Ghee 2-3 table spoon 

Shallots - 2 -3 sliced

Dry red Chillies - 2-3

Curry leaves - fresh a handful

Salt

1) Cook rice with little salt and keep aside.

2) Heat the kadai, pour ghee, add the spices, shallot slices, curry leaves, dry red chillies and sauté well. ( this gives a beautiful aroma )

3) Add the cooked rice, stir well, let it coat well with the ghee and spices flavor. Check salt. 

4) Add some fried onions ( optional)

Chinese Chicken Fried Rice

You don't have to run to the Chinese restaurant every time you have a craving for some Chinese food. This a good recipe that I found online some time back. Its a simple one and almost better than the Chinese takeaway.

2-3 Chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
3 cups of cooked rice, cooled
2-3 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 small white onion chopped
1 cup frozen peas and carrots ( thawed)
2-3 tablespoon soy sauce ( adjust to taste)
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 tablespoons chopped green chillies

1) Cook the chicken breast with some pepper and salt. Shred it.
2) Preheat the wok or skillet.Pour sesame oil. Once the oil is hot, add onion, peas, carrots and fry until tender.
3) Slide these to the side and pour the beaten eggs and scramble.
4) Mix the veggies and the eggs.
5) Add the cooled rice and chicken to the wok, pour the soy sauce and stir fry till its heated through. Switch off and garnish with some green onions.

If your Indian taste buds demands some spicy flavor , then you may want to add some Chilli sauce to the fried rice and some pepper too. Another way to make it a little more spicy would be to add some dry red chillies slit lengthwise and added to the sesame oil in the beginning.

This can be eaten with or without any sides. I have a nice recipe for sesame chicken, you can have it with that too .

Fish Biriyani

This is second best to nothing. This is an absolutely fantastic main dish for any seafood lovers. To make this use Salmon or Kingfish.

Here is the recipe

FISH MARINATION

Salmon (King Fish)  - 3/4 kg
Salt - to taste
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Lemon Juice 1 tablespoon

Marinate the fish and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Then, fry them and keep aside.

INGREDIENTS FOR MASALA

Onions - 2 large
Shallots - 7-8
Curry leaves - 1-2 sprigs
Green Chillies 5-6
Tomatoes - 3
Pudina (mint) - a handful
Corriander leaves - a nice bunch
Chilli powder - 1 table spoon
Perum jeerakam (fennel seeds powder)podi - 1 teaspoon
Tumeric
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tablespoon
Curd - a little less than 1/4 cup
Whole garam masala - Patta (cinnamon) - 2 sticks, Elachi - 2-3, Cloves - 4-5, Perumjeerakam - 1 tsp
Lemon Juice - 2-3 table spoons
Salt
Make a paste of 5-6 Almonds, 7-10 Raisins, a table spoon of poppy seeds and keep aside.

GRAVY PREPARATION

Deep fry one and a half onions (bista) and keep aside.
In the same oil that you fried the fish, add the whole garam masala spices.
Add the remaining onion and the sliced shallots.
Add ginger garlic paste.
Add curry leaves.
Make a paste of Tomatoes, green chillies, Pudhina and three fourth of coriander leaves bunch. Add this paste to the above. Saute well.
To this add chili powder, turmeric powder and fennel seed powder.
Add the ground paste of Almonds, poppy seeds and raisins.
Add Curd to this.
Add the fried fish pieces, bring down the flame and add lemon juice.
Check for salt.

RICE (4 cups)
Cook the rice with some spices in the water while its boiling , Drain it and spread the cooked rice on a flat pan so that it doesn't get mushy.

Optional
In 7-8 tablespoons of milk, add a few drops of food coloring and 2 table spoons of vanilla or pineapple essence and keep pouring it in between layers.

Then layer the rice and the masala, garnishing the layers in between with Bista, chopped coriander leaves.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degree F for one hour.

Enjoy it with some Raita and pickle, that's two trips to heaven and back !

BEHIND THE SCENES ;)

Fried the fish...

 Gravy prepared...

Layered it...ready to go into the oven

Opening it after taking it out from the oven....

Ready to pounce on it....

29th Jan - Special Day !

So, today it was mood for some Mediterranean food... Googled, and saw this recipe on a website. - Sayadiyah - Arabic Fish and Saffron Rice. Looked very tempting and also easy. Easy to make and tasty too ! Finished it off with a coconut pound cake. Awesome !

Mutton Biriyani

Mutton Biriyani ! My all time favorite. Anytime of the day you give me this I can relish this food. I never get bored, my taste buds love them. Yum Yum Yum ! Absolutely delicious ! With a side of Indian raita, Lemon pickle, pappodom ! That feeling you get when it all goes to your mouth its indescribable ! 

Kerala Biriyani

This is my first post in this blog and I thought I will not be doing justice to this blog if I would start with anything else other than my favorite food "Biryani" ! :-)

This I should say is a variation of the Thalassery biriyani found on youtube. I have used two steps from their recipe into mine, rest of the recipe I can say , is absolutely my creation ! I have more than 3-4 recipes for Biriyani and I am sure most of us must be having multiple recipes. I think after trying out this recipe, I have never till now, gone back to my previous ones.

This one is a very simple one, the only thing that takes time here is frying the onions, which the Thalassery people call it the "bistha". Love that word, sounds so much better than "fried onions " ;-).

I generally, like making mutton biriyani when I have guests, because the fat from the mutton makes the biryani much more tastier.

Anyways, yesterday I had a couple of families over for dinner and this was my menu . To start with , we had palappam, Fish molee and tuna cutlets. Then, we had this chicken biryani with of course its never separable companions, raita, pickle and papoddom.

Okay, let me go to the recipe.


What you need to get started 

Basmati Rice - 5 cups ( U.S. measuring cup ) ( I used Royal Basmati rice)
Chicken - 1.1/2 kgs
Onions - Large yellow ones from Costco - 2 No.s
Tomatoes  - 3 no.s
Pearl Onions or Shallots (Kochulli )- 10 no.s
Pudina (mint leaves) - a handful
Malliella ( coriander leaver )- a hand full or a little more
Curry leaves - nice large sprig
Green chillies - 7-8 ( depending on your tolerance )
Ginger - 3 tablespoons ( chopped )
Garlic  - 2 table spoons ( chopped )
Curd - 2 table spoons
Lemon Juice - 2 tablespoons ( Add more if you like the tangy flavor)
Poppy seeds - 2 tablespoons
Almonds - 10 nos.
Raisins - ( I use the black ones ) - 3 tablespoons ( you can use 2, if you want to reduce that sweet flavor , I really love that taste and smell )
Spices:
Cinnamon - 1-2 inch long
Cloves 4-5
Fennel seeds- a teaspoon
Star anise - 2 nos.
Bayleaf 2-3
Elachi  3-4
Vanilla essence 2 table spoons
Milk 5-6 table spoons
Yellow food color if you want
Salt - ofcourse :-)
Method

1. Soak the raisins, poppy seeds and almonds in 3-4 table spoons of hot water, keep aside
2. Start frying the large onions, the whole thing should be fried to a golden brown color and kept aside. (Don't fry it too dark, it darkens as it sits)
3. Make a paste of the Tomatoes, pudhina, malliella, green chillies.
4. On your pester mortar or if you don't have one, in your small grinder jar, make a paste of the ginger garlic. In malayalam, I would say, chathechedutha paruvam.
5. Soak the rice.
6.Add dalda or ghee or oil into the pan. I generally use Dalda and ghee. Add the raw spices, Cinnamon, Cloves, Elachi, Star anise, Fennel seeds, Bay leaf
7. Add the sliced pearl onions with the curry leaves. This brings a good aroma in the house, pearl onions, curry leaves cooking in ghee, makes an Indian house smell good ;) bringing back memories of home in kerala.
8. Once that is sautéed , add the paste of ginger garlic.
After the raw smell of that goes, add the paste of tomatoes, mint leaves, coriander leaves and green chillies.
9. Once the raw smell goes, add the chicken and cook for 5-10 mins., closed with a lid, stirring in between. At this point, you may want to add the salt.
10. Add 3/4 portion of the "Bista" now.Keep cooking
11. Add the paste of raisins, poppy seeds and almonds.Keep cooking
12. Add Yogurt, let it still keep cooking
13. Finally the lemon juice.
Check the taste, switch off now  !

(Within 25 minutes, your chicken should be done cooking. Add needed amount of salt as needed.)

Then comes the story of rice

1. Dont soak the rice for more than 30 minutes.
2. Keep a big pot of water to boil, and once it boils, add the raw spices, 1 cinnamon stick, 3-4 cloves, 2 star anise, 2-3 bay leaves, Elachi 3-4, add the rice and then some salt ( this is your last chance to decide the right amount of salt for your biriyani). Now, keep checking the rice, when you think its almost done, you can drain the rice. I spread the rice on a flat foil tray so that it doesn't get cooked in the heat in your colander.

Marriage between the Chicken and Rice


1. Mix the Vanilla essence and milk, if you want you can add food color or saffron.
2. On a flat foil tray, add a few table spoons of ghee, then add rice, a thin flat later, add 1-2 spoons of the milk vanilla essence.
3. Add your cooled chicken gravy a portion over the rice.
4. Keep repeating the process, until its all done. Cover with foil.


Preheat oven to 300 F, put the tray of biryani into the oven and let it bake there in the oven for a nice 60 minutes. You can keep it longer, by bringing down the oven temperature to 275 F and baking it for 2 hours.

Once, its done. Take it and serve it to your guests, Enjoy !