Veg Biryani

Yesterday was Sunday... As usual our special food cooking day... I had made-up my mind last weekend itself that its gonna be the "Biryani" special...

I love making Biryani. Its a special dish for me which shows why I love cooking so much... The experience of cooking biryani is very special. The array of vegetables chopping, the aroma of spices, lovely saffron and the fragrant aroma of frying onions in ghee always amaze me... You will find different ways of cooking biryani's everytime... The ingredients may vary but the end result is always same...Fantabulous....

Veg Biryani with Carrot Raita

Ingredients:
3 cups basmati rice, washed and soaked for 30 minutes
3 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 big carrots, cut into long strips

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

8-10 Green beans, Cut into long strips

3/4 cup of Green peas

10-12 florets of Cauliflower

1 tbps Ginger paste

1 tbsp Garlic paste

1 tin of Coconut Cream

1/2 cup Ghee or vegetable oil

3 tbps Everest biryani mix

Pinch of saffron stands

1/2 cup of Milk, warm

2 tbsp of finely chopped coriander

Handful of raisins and cashwes, fried in ghee

1 Cinnamon(pulao) leaf

Salt to taste

Veggies used in Biryani

To grind coarlsly:
1" Cinnamon Stick
4 Cloves
4 Green Cardamom
1 Black Cardamom
1 Maratha Muggu

Method:

Fry 1 onion slices in hot ghee until it becomes golden brown and little crisp. Keep them aside.

Fry rest of the onion slices in hot ghee (or oil) until golden.

Add ginger and garlic paste to it and fry till they leave their raw smell.

To this add the ground mixture and fry for a mintue.

Add potatoes, carrots, cauliflower,green peas, beans.

Then add 1 cup of coconut milk, salt and Everest biryani mix. Fry for 15 minutes.

Add about a cup of water and cook on low heat until the vegetables are tender.

Then increase the heat and stir fry until the oil separates from the gravy.

In a pressure cooker add 2 tblsp ghee and add cinnamon leaf and rice. Fry this rice for 2-3 minutes till ghee covers it all.

To this add remaining coconut milk, milk, salt and enough water and pressure cook the rice.(3 whistle)

Now layer the pressure cooker with Rice-Vegetables-Rice-Cashwes & Raisins-Fried Onions.
Add safforon starnds to 1/4 glass of warm milk and mix well. Sprinkle this mixture to the layered biriyani.
Put a banana leaf(I used tin foil instead) on the top of this layer and keep some weight on it.
Close the lid of pressure cooker and keep it in medium flame for 5 mins.
Mix well and Serve hot with raita or your favourite curry.

Veg Biryani

Variations:
Instead of coconut milk you can use yogurt.
Try using little bit of mint paste which adds wonderful frgrance to the biryani.

The main ingredients in Biryani Mix:
Black Cardamom.
Black Pepper.
Caraway.
Cardamom.
Cassia.
Cassia Leaf.
Chilli.
Clove.
Coriander.
Cumin
Kasuri Methi.
Mace.
Nutmeg.
Turmeric.