Vegetable Biriyani
It’s Bank holiday here in UK and I’m still recovering from a bad cold. I wanted to make something that’s like a one pot meal and involves minimal effort.
Biriyani is what everyone wanted today. It’s a very simple dish and you can add chicken or any meat if you wish.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup basmati rice: soaked in hot water for 15 minutes.
- 1 cup mixed veggies: carrots, beans, peas, potato. Suggested other veggies: green bell pepper, cabbage, cauliflower
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 tbsp Dry spices : Cinnamon, clove, fennel seeds, cardamom, bay leaf
- 1/4 cup thick yoghurt
- To grind into paste: 1/3 cup each coriander and mint, 1 tbsp each garlic and ginger, green chillies depending on how hot you like it.
- 1/2 tbsp garam masala
- Butter as needed
- Salt to taste
- Raisins, optional
Instructions:
- Whisk together yoghurt, the ground paste and garam masala and keep aside. In case you use meat, you can marinate the meat too along with this.
- Heat butter in a pan and add the dry spices. Roast until fragrant.
- Add the onions and cook until translucent.
- Add the chopped veggies and sautรฉ for a couple of minutes.
- Add the whisked yoghurt mix, salt and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add basmati rice and cook in a covered pan until done.
- Once cooked, top it with some more butter and serve hot.
To get a depth of flavour, make a stiff dough with plain flour and seal the sides and any openings in the pan. This process is know as “Dum”. In case you are using a hob, please be careful because we don’t want to burn the Biriyani.