Vegetable Biryani

 Dum Biryani

Biryani, the word it self can make us hungry. I still remember the day I first tasted vegetable biryani and so many days I don’t even know the difference between Pulav and biryani. Later I came to know that both are different and the one which I used to eat at my home was Pulav but we call it as Biryani.

Still lot people don’t know the main difference b/w Pulav is and Biryani?  

Pulav is where we cook rice, spices, and vegetables or meat all together. Where as for biryani we cook rice, spices and veggies separately and then tries to bring the spices flavor to the rice.

When I first made my Biryani, I took some suggestions from Preethi, the author of Preethi’s Kitchen and then watched different versions of sanjay’s biryani, and finally came up with my version and my own biryani masala.

Click here for Biryani masala

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice – 2 cups

Water – 8 to 12 cups

Whole spices – 4 clove, 1 inch cinnamon, 2 green cardamoms, 1 star anise, and bay leaf

Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp (optional)

Shajeera or Black Cumin – ¼ tsp

Biryani masala – 1 tbsp

Potato – 1

Carrot – 2

Green peas – ½ cup

Beans – ¼ cup

Cauliflower – 4 or 5 small florets

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Onion – 1 small

Green chilli – 4 or 5

Yogurt/ Curd – ½ cup

Hand full of chopped Coriander leaves

Hand full of chopped mint leaves

Salt – to taste

Oil - 4 tbsp

Optional Ingredients:

Pinch of turmeric mixed in 1 tbsp of milk – (optional)

Saffron – (optional)

Some Dry Fruits – cashew, raisins, almonds etc

Procedure:

Wash Rice couple of times and set aside.

Boil water with sufficient amount of salt, all the whole spices and cumin seeds, when it reaches boiling point add rice and cook till it is 90% cooked.

Drain the water and ser aside.

In a separate cooking vessel, add oil, when it is hot enough add 2 tbsp of oil, when it is hot enough add black cumin and fry for 2 sec. then add onions, and green chilli and cook till onion turn soft and then add ginger garlic paste and cool raw smell goes off.

Now add all veggies of your choice add some salt and cook for 5 min.

Now add yogurt, biryani masala, adjust salt and cook till all veggies are cooked well. If needed add little amount of water.

Now take baking tray/ baking pan, just spray non stick sprayer if you have or just sprinkle 1 or 2 tbsp of oil.

Make your rice into 2 parts and spread one portion of rice in the tray, followed by a layer of vegetable mixture, followed by another layer of rice. Total of 3 layers.

Now arrange chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves, dry fruits the way you like, and sprinkle saffron color and turmeric water which is completely optional.

Finally on top of that sprinkle 1 tbsp of ghee/ oil and cover it with aluminum foil.

Place the tray in the pre heated oven and bake it at 400F for 30 min.

Once you are done with it, switch off the oven and let it be inside the oven for next 10- 15 min.

You can serve biryani as it is as layered or you can give a nice mix and serve.

Notes:

1. You can soak your rice for 30min to 1 hour before cooking
2. You can use any kind of dry fruits you want, like dates.
3. If you don’t have pre heat option in your oven, leave it for 20 min before you place the tray.
4. You can use butter or ghee instead of oil
5. I suggest you to use home made freshly grounded ginger garlic paste and also the home made biryani masala.
6. You can make this Dum style biryani on stove- top too. For that arrange your layers in a pressure cooker vessel, place your vessel in the cooker with 2 cups of water at the bottom, and cook on low flame for 30-40 min.
7. You can add some fried onions on the top.