BIRYANI - The king of Spices!! A photo tutorial.

How can I not post a biryani when it’s the king of spices.....well, I have been trying out biryani for a couple of years now. Aj adores biryani. It’s the first dish he would order in any Indian restaurant. For me, initially, getting the right flavour was very difficult, but as they say practise makes perfect J.

Now for some gyaan on biryani. Usually, there are 2 methods to cooking biryani- one is preparing the meat and rice separately and then mixing the two by means of dum, called pakki dum biryani. The second method is to cook the meat with the rice which is what I’m going to give you a demo of. This is called kachi dum biryani. What is “dum” - in authentic method the layered meat and rice were cooked by steaming over coals in a sealed container. Don’t worry, I will demo dum minus coal and almost sealedJ.

Biryani has a lot of varieties from Arabic to Hyderabadi to Malabar. The recipe here is for Malabar biryani. The highlight of this biryani is the rice used. We use kaima rice and not the regular basmati. This variation of basmati comes from the paddy fields lying low beside the Western Ghats in Kerala. But of course you can always use good ol’basmati. No issues there!

I’m cooking chicken but you can use the same recipe for lamb also with minor variations that I will mention in tips n tricks section.

If you have a hotplate, use that for dum process. For those like me who love the fire, heat a pan or tava and place the biryani vessel in that.

Btw, this would be my first official picture tutorial J Do temme how u liked it!!!

Now down to the recipe....

Ingredients: (serves 6)

Rice- 3 ½ cups of basmati or kaima rice

Chicken - (1200grams) whole (remove skin and cut into large chunks as in picture)

Onion- 7 medium sized finely sliced

Garlic- 12 cloves coarsely ground

Ginger- 3 pieces (2 inches) coarsely ground

Tomato- 4 medium size finely chopped

Green chillies- 8 to 10 coarsely ground(change as per taste but minimum 8)

Mint leaves- 1 cup finely chopped

Coriander leaves/cilantro - 1 cup finely chopped

Garam masala - 3 teaspoons (use freshly ground for best taste)

Yogurt- 1/2 cup
cashew nuts - 8 pieces finely ground into powder

Lime juice- from 1 whole lime

Ghee (Indian clarified butter) - 3 tablespoon

Milk- 3 tablespoon
garam masala powder- 1/2 tablespoon+1tsp for rice

Whole Spices required:

Fennel seeds- ¼ teaspoon

Cinnamon stick- 3 pieces of 1 inch each

Clove- 6

Green cardamom- 2

Mace- 1 piece

Aniseed- 2 small piece

Bayleaf- 1

Garnish:

Oil for frying

Onion- 1 medium finely sliced

Cashew nuts- 10

Rasins- 15

Method:

1.       Soak rice in water for 3 hours.

2.       Boil rice in water, salt and 1 teaspoon garam masala for 15mins, drain and keep aside. The rice will break when you press between your fingers but won’t be fully cooked. That’s the consistency we want. Do not over do it.

3.       Clean and cut chicken into large chunks. Make slits all over as shown in picture.

4.       Heat ghee in a vessel which is big enough to hold chicken and rice, has a heavy lid and a thick bottom.

5.       Toss in whole spices and let the aroma come out.

6.       Add onion and salt. Cook till onion is almost transparent. Reduce flame to medium low.

7.       Add freshly ground ginger and garlic and sauté till the onion is well done (at the verge of turning golden).

8.       In goes the tomato and green chilli. Now let the mixture cook till tomato gets mushy.

9.       Next toss in chopped mint and coriander leaves. Cover lid and cook for ten minutes.

10.   Mix in the yogurt, cashew nut powder and garam masala powder.

11.   Add lime juice. Adjust salt.

12.   Add chicken pieces and mix well into gravy, covering pieces in gravy generously. Close the lid and cook on a medium flame till water starts coming from the chicken. then mix well and add rice as below.

13.   Now slowly spread the rice on top in a leveled layer

14.   Sprinkle milk over the rice throughout.

15.   Spread a kitchen towel on the mouth of the vessel and place the lid over that. So we have an almost sealed atmosphere in thereJ.

16.   Now heat your pan or tava on high and place vessel in that. Let the flames remain high for 2 mins. Then reduce to minimum and let it cook for 45-50 mins.

17.   Meanwhile, heat oil to deep fry items for garnish.

18.   Deep fry onions till brown. 

19.   Next fry cashews till golden.

20.   And last rasins for just a minute.

21.   When the long wait is over, mix the rice and meat slowly part by part.

The first mouth watering scoop!!!

22.   Garnish with some coriander and deep fried items before serving hot.

Tips n Tricks:

1.       If you plan to make lamb:

a.       Use very tender meat.

b.      Marinate & refrigerate overnight (Marinade: yogurt -1 dollop, white vinegar- 1 tablespoon, garam masala powder- 1 teaspoon).

c.       Cook rice for only 10 mins.

d.      Cook in dum for 1 hour 15mins.

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