I had been making this for a while now, but its only yesterday that I actually managed to click the photos. So here I am posting this recipe, esp for all my vegetarian friends who are craving for Biryaani.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
350g Bhendi
250g Small Eggplants
250g Carrots
2 Raw Bananas
4 Potatoes
4 Onion
3 Tomato
2 Spoon Pudina Leaves
10 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Grated Ginger
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Almonds
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Dried Red Chillies
1/4 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
3/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Cardamom
2 Cloves
3 Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Milk
A Pinch Of Saffron
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook 2 potatoes
• Soak rice in warm water for half an hour.
• Soak poppy seeds and keep aside
• Fry the whole egg plants, bhendi, peeled and diced bananas, 2 potatoes, and carrots and keep aside.
• Boil a pot full of water and add in the soaked rice. Cook till almost done Let the extra water drain completely through sieve.
• Heat a spoon of ghee and add in cardamoms, a cinnamon stick, cloves and salt. Add it to the rice and keep it aside.
• Heat oil and add in finely chopped 2 onions. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In same pan heat another spoon of oil and add in jeera, red chillies, coriander seeds, black pepper, saunf, dried coconut, cinnamon, 1/4 cup cashews and almonds.
• Add in garam masala, red chili powder, poppy seeds, pudina leaves and earlier fried onions. Cook till spices start spreading aroma.
• Let the mixture cool down and then adding the chopped tomatoes grind it to fine paste.
• Heat the ghee and add in the ground mixture. Fry till oil separates
• Add in all fried vegetables and salt to taste and cook for couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Warm the milk with safron and keep aside.
• Deep fry the thin sliced onions and cashews till they are crisp and light brown in color. Keep aside
• In a greased cooker layer the sliced boiled potatoes, then 1/3rd of rice, 1/2 of vegetable, again 1/3rd portion of rice, remaining half of the vegetable and remaining portion of the rice.
• With big spatula make through and through wholes in the layer and sprinkle the safron milk.
• Let the cooker sit on low heat till the pressure builds up. Garnish with the earlier fried crisp onions and cashews. Serve hot with raita.

Notes
Instead of cooking vegetables in gravy i added fried vegetables to the gravy. The taste was awesome and i could make sure that none of the vegetables are underdone or overdone.
I also wished I had those baby potatoes instead and could use them whole deep fried instead of diced ones.

Recently we started getting the crabs from Costco. The first thing I made was this Pulav, an impromptu attempt to make something quick yet tasty. It turned out such a hit that we craved for more for days.. So this dish these days makes appearances in our meal quite regularly.


Ingredients
1.5 Cup Rice
300g Crabs Meat
1 Cup Curd
1/2 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/2 Cup Black Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder
A pinch of Cinnamon Powder
A pinch of Cloves Powder
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method

• Mix in curd with red chilli powder, black pepper powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, Cinnamon powder, cloves powder and salt to taste.
• Add in the crab meat to the mixture and keep aside for hour or two.
• Soak rice for half an hour.
• Boil water and add in rice. Cook till rice is almost done. Keep aside.
• Heat ghee and add the crabs-curd-spices mixture and on medium heat cook till the crabs are done and the mixture separates from the ghee.
• Add in the cooked rice and mix lightly. Sprinkle salt to taste.
• Cook for a minute or two. Serve with raita.

Notes
Here we get big crabs, we got around 1.5lb = 0.7Kg and then after washing removed the meat from the shell and used the meat. If the shell is too hard or crabs or small try with shell.
To get the crab meat out from shell, we cut the shell with sharp knife and take the meat carefully out.

These days Thai is one of my preferred cuisines when eating out. Fried rice is must and if it has pineapple then its like sone pe suhaaga :) But its been while i cooked thai at home, so today I decided to make this rice instead of normal pulav.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
3 Cup Broccoli
2 Cup Pineapple
1 Cup Carrot
1 Cup Celery
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Onion
2 Green Chillies
1/4 Cup Soya Sauce
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Soak rice in water for half an hour
• Bring water to boil and add rice to it. Cook till its almost done. Strain and keep aside
• Heat a pan and add onions, green chillies, carrots, celery, broccoli, bell pepper. Stir well and cook till the raw smell of vegetables go away and they seem to be half cooked.
• Add in pineapple, soya sauce and salt to taste. Stir for a minute.
• Add the cooked rice and stir well. Fry for 2-3 minutes and rice is ready

Notes
Soya Sauce does give the salty taste to the rice, so while adding salt be careful to consider that.

I like black pepper a lot. Not powdered one but whole ones or the crunchy ones, like in papad. Since we moved here, I have been having only garlic papad instead of the spicy one that I normally like. Blame it to Ajoy ;-) for he likes that one or on me that I am bored to serve two different varieties to both of us. But then yesterday I said - that's about it. I have to have those black pepper by hook and crook and that's how this recipe came up :) It was huge hit and I am going to make it again sometime soon.


Ingredients
2.5 Cup Rice
2 Cup Cauliflower florets
2 Raw Bananas
1 Medium sized Eggplant
1 Potato
1 Cup Mutter
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Jeera
4-5 Cloves
4-5 Cardamom
A pinch of Saffron
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

• In a pan bring water to boil and add rice. Cook the rice over high flame, with constant stirring till its done.
• Strain remaining water from the rice and keep the rice aside.
• In another pan, heat oil and fry cauliflower florets, egg plant pieces and raw banana slices. Keep aside.
• Fry mutter for a second and keep them aside too.
• Grate potato and fry them making in chunks to get crispy hash brown like chunks. Keep them aside too.
• In another pan, heat ghee, add cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, jeera and let them splutter.
• Add rice, fried cauliflower, eggplant and banana slices. Stir it and let is cook for couple of minutes.
• Heat a spoon and add saffron crushing it a bit. After it starts sending nice aroma, mix in rice lightly.
• Add in salt and stir for another minute. Serve by garnishing it with fried muttor and crispy potatoes.
  

Notes I wanted rice to be white and yet give that saffron filled rich aroma and hence I didnt put it while making rice but added it at last minute. I used black pepper in abundance as you already know the reason about it too :) but i didnt use much of cardmom or cloves, because I do add it to some of the vegetables or chicken/mutton dishes and also because I dont like them as much as black pepper :) So adjust spices according to your taste. The above portions worked wonders for me and right now enjoying even during lunch while writing this. yummy.

Last week I made this but didn't get time to post it. Long time ago Anuja had asked me about preparing the biryaani with something veg. I remember she mentioned that she doesn't want it with paneer but I just couldn't help but make it with paneer. So sorry for fulfilling your wish only half way through but this recipe is just for you. Hope you get to try it and like it :) It turned out a simple affair and yet very delicious. This one is inspired by Spicy Biryaani recipe but I modified it little bit so as to take Paneer taste into account.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
400g Paneer
4 Tomatoes
3 Onions
2 Potatoes
1 Cup Cashews
1/2 Cup Almonds
8 Cinnamon
15 Cloves
15 Cardamons
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Spoon Saunf
1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Cup Curd
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Pinch Saffron
8 Spoon ghee
4 Spoon Butter
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Cut the paneer into cubic pieces
• In a bowl, mix turmeric powder, red chilli powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, curd and salt to taste.
• Add cubed paneer pieces in it and mix well so that the marrination is completely covering the pieces. Keep it in dry, cool place for around couple of hours.
• Soak rice in warm water and keep aside
• In a pan add butter and shallow fry the paneer pieces to light brown tinge over medium heat. Keep them aside
• In same pan, in same butter, add 4 cinamon, 5 cloves, black pepper, poppy seeds, jeera, sauf, corriander powder, almonds and 1/2 cup cashews and roast it over low-medium flame till light aroma feels the air. The masalas would be light brown by now.
• Add one diced onion and cook till onion turns light brown. Let the mixture cool down.
• In a mixie grind 3 tomatoes and keep aside.
• Grind the above cooked masala with remaining tomato to form fine paste.
• In a pan, add 2 spoon of ghee and this masala and roast for a while.
• Add tomato puree and salt to taste in it and cook till the gravy thickens
• Add paneer pieces and cook till the gravy dries completely. Keep aside.
• Pressure cook potatoes, cut them into slices after removing their cover and keep aside.
• Warm Milk, add saffron and keep aside.
• In a pan, boil water and add the soaked rice. Cook till almost done.
• Drain remaining water and run it through cold water.
• In a small pan, heat 4 spoon of ghee and add 4 cinamons, 10 cloves, 15 cardmom and salt to taste. Roast for couple of minutes and add it to the rice. Mix well and keep aside.
• Cut the remaining 2 onions into thin slices.
• In a Pan, add little oil and fry the onions onto medium-high flame till they are light brown in color. Keep aside.
• In same oil, fry the remaining 1/2 cup cashews and keep aside.
• Grease the cooker with 2 spoon of ghee and layer biryaani. Spread the potato slices to cover the cooker bottom first. Spread 1/3 of rice, then spread a layer of half of paneer masala, sprinkle some cashews, and browned onions.
• Do the same layering again (Rice, masala, cashews and onions) and then cover it with remaining 1/3 portion of rice.
• Sprinkle Some more cashews and onions, keeping aside a few for decoration.
• Make few through and through holes through the layered biryaani with the back of spatula.
• Spread the saffron milk in them.
• Cover with the lid and pressure cook over low heat for 25- 30 minutes.
• Garnish with left cashews and onions and serve.

Notes
I used 1 layer of rice 1/2 paneer and then again another layer of rice with rice from just 2 cups of raw rice. Also used half quantity of cashews, onions and garnishing spices. Stored the remaining half portion of paneer masala for later use this week. I just had to do the rice and onion portion again and could quickly make the dinner. Helped on the hectic day a lot. :) And it tasted even much better as well because of storing masala for few days :)
I always use the potato layering to cover up cooker so that the biryaani doesnt get burnt while pressure cooking it. I am speechless for that idea, helps a lot.
Also stored the marrinated paneer in fridge since it was quite hot here. But i think even in other time thats a better way so that it dries even further and the marrination sticks to paneer.

Well, I know its been long since I posted here but I was on a little break from cooking for few weeks. I was busy with work and tired to cook everyday. When I was in India, I use to get this rest when I use to go to pune almost everymonth. Both my mom and mother in law were sweet enough to feed me without doing anything at all :) God.. I miss those days.. Now I had to take this break and rely on MacD/Subway/TacoBell/Husband's cooking once in a while. But now I feel fresh and motivated for cooking again and foremost bored with all the above items.. So here is the new dish that I tried. The recipe is something that I just thought of giving shot and kept on adding ingredients as I felt like. But I am stunned at the outcome. So easy, nutritious and yet good looking dish.


Ingredients
9 Cup Almost cooked Rice
2 Tomatoes
Handful of Corriander Leaves
3 Handsful of Spinach
1 Green Chilli
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoom Garam Masala
Roasted Cashews for garnishing
Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Add salt in the rice, divide into three parts and keep aside.
• In a mixie grind tomatoes to form the puree. Keep aside
• Grind spinach, corriander leaves and green chilli adding minimal water in it. Keep aside
• Boil the Spinach-corriander leaves puree and let it cook till almost dry and thick enough
• Add corriander powder and 1 part of the rice in it and let it cook and dry completely.
• Add couple of spoons of ghee and mix and cook for another minute. Keep aside.
• Boil tomato puree
• When the puree starts to thicken, add red chilli powder, garam masala and 1 part of the rice.
• When the rice is done and dry sprinkle couple of spoon of ghee and keep aside
• Arranage the rice parts in the rice dish and garnish with the cashews

Notes
When grinding spinach i added little water and only 1/3 of spinach at first. When it was pureed I added another part of spinach and pureed it. That saved me with using extra water and while cooking the spinach wasnt over cooked and didnt have to wait too long for it to thicken.
I boiled rice and when it was almost done, just removed the excess water and ran through cold tap water so that each grain separates out from each other.

I wanted to eat something chatpata and hence had prepared Pani Puri. So i had plenty of pudina remaining. So was frozen chicken waiting for being cooked in freezer. Ajoy wanted to eat biryani and I wanted to get over the freeze items... Thats when this recipe was born :) and became super hit for its different taste and fragnance :)


Ingredients
6 Leg Pieces of Chicken
2 Cup Basamati Rice
1/2 Bunch of Pudina
1/2 Bunch of Corriander Leaves
2 Green Chillies
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
4 Cloves
4 Cardamoms
1/2 Cup Ghee
3 Onions
1 Tomato
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
4 Spoon Curd
1 Spoon Red chilli powder
A Pinch of Turmeric Powder
Salt to taste

Method

• Marinate chicken with red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garlic paste and curd and keep aside for couple of hours.
• Warm around 6 cups of water and soak the rice in it and keep aside for half an hour.
• In a mixie grind pudina leaves, corriander leaves, tomato and green chilli to fine paste.
• Keep aside 2 spoon of ghee and heat remaining ghee in a pan.
• Chop one of the onion into thin slices and fry it to light brown colour into the ghee. Keep aside.
• In remaining ghee from frying, add cinnamon, black pepper and remaining onions - grated and cook them till light brown in colour.
• Add this mixture to mixie along with green paste and grind again to smooth paste
• In same pan add this ground paste, 1.5 cup of water and marinated chicken and cook till completely dry with stirring in between. Add salt to taste and keep aside.
• While chicken is cooking, drain the water from the rice, cook it with another 2 cups of water and salt to taste till almost done. Drain the water and keep aside for cooling down.
• Heat 1/2 spoon of ghee and add cloves and cardamom to it. Fry them for a minute on low flame and then add this ghee to the rice and mix well.
• Grease a thick bottom pan or cooker and layer the rice and chicken mixture alternating. Also add fried onions in between while adding chicken.
• Cook on low flame for 15 minutes and serve hot

Notes
I had leg pieces of chicken so used them all but you can substitute it with equal grams plus little more of normal chicken pieces too.
Here the electric stove has variations of 8 degrees so I used 2 for cooking the layered biryani instead of my usual cooker on top of tawa and a layer of potato down the biryani. So if you are using regular stove you would need to follow same procedure so that biryani doesnt burn.

Its been long time since ajoy had been asking me to prepare mutton biryani. But mutton is not my liking and hence I had been conviniently ignoring it. Then it was that fine day that I wished his grant :) and prepared it. It turned out quite well.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
1/2 Kg Mutton Pieces
7 Onions
2 Tomatoes
2 Potatoes
1/2 Cup Curd
1/4 Cup Milk
A Handful of Cashews
5 Almonds
1 Ginger Stick
10-15 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
A Pinch of Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
1 Spoon Poppy Seeds
1.5 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Saunf
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
8 Cloves
5 Cinnamon
2 Bay Leaves
5-6 Cardamom
A Pinch of Saffron
1/2 Cup Ghee
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Grind ginger and garlic to paste and keep aside.
• Wash mutton and add curd, turmeric powder, 1 spoon of red chilli powder, half of garlic ginger paste. Mix well and store it in the fridge for atleast 8 hours
• Next Day, Wash the rice and keep it in warm water for half an hour. Remove the excess water and keep aside
• Boil potatoes side by side, cut them in circular pieces and keep aside.
• Warm the milk and mix safron in it and keep aside.
• Chop around 3 onions into fine pieces and keep aside.
• In a pan heat around a spoon of oil and add the chopped onions. Cook till golden brown and keep aside.
• In same pan, heat another spoon of oil and add Jeera, 3 sticks of cinnamon, 5 cloves, 1 spoon of black pepper, corriander seeds, dry coconut, saunf, poppy seeds and remaining spoon of red chilli powder.
• Once the aroma starts coming out of this mixture, add the chopped golden brown mixture of onions in it.
• Add remaining ginger garlic paste to it and mix well and keep aside.
• Grind almonds, the cashews(8-10) that were kept aside and the above fried masala with little water to form paste. Keep aside
• Cut the 4 onions into thin slices and fry it in the ghee and keep aside.
• Keep aside around 8-10 cashews and fry remaining and keep aside.
• Keep aside around a spoon of ghee and transfer remaining ghee to the pressure cooker
• Add the masala paste that we kept aside to this ghee and fry till ghee separates from the paste.
• Add mutton pieces that were kept for marination in this with the marination leftover as well. Cook till ghee separates.
• Puree the tomato in the mixer and add it to this cooking mutton.
• Add around 1/4 cup of water and salt to taste and then cook the mixture on pressure.
• When complete pressure builds up, turn the flame to minimum flame and cook for another 10 minutes. And then remove the pressure cooker from the flame and keep aside to cool down.
• In the mean time, Boil around 10 cups of water and add salt to taste, rice and cook till rice is almost done.
• Remove the excess water from the rice and spread it in the plate to let it cool down.
• In a small pan heat a spoon of ghee(that was kept aside) and add remaining 3 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 spoon black pepper, bay leaves, cardamom. Fry till aroma comes and mix it with the rice and keep aside.
• Now transfer the cooked mutton from pressure cooker to the pan and cook on high flame till it is dry.
• Transfer the excess ghee from this cooked mixture that is now separated into small cup and keep aside.
• Take a pressure cooker(which has good height), Grease it with ghee and arrange the potato discs onto the bottom to cover the bottom completely
• Spread a layer of 1/3 of rice followed by 1/2 of cooked mutton, 1/3 of fried onions, 1/3 of fried cashews.
• Then add next layer of 1/3 rice, followed by another layer of remaining cooked mutton, 1/3 of fried onions, 1/3 of fried cashews
• Layer remaining rice on the top, followed by remaining onions and cashews.
• With the back side of the cooking spoon make 5-6 wholes in this layer biryani till bottom
• Spread the ghee separated out from cooked mutton stored earlier evenly over here. Also spread the milk-safron mixture evenly.
• Close the cooker with the lid, heat tawa and put this cooker on top of it. Cook on low flame for 15 minutes
• Serve hot :)

Notes
While serving, insert the spoon till bottom and get all layers in each servings to get the best taste for the serving :)

In Chinese I love Soft noodles. But, I havent yet been able to prepare them of the level of nice chinese restaurant. So most of the time I end up preparing fried rice instead. So here is recipy for the veg fried rice.


Ingredients
2 Cup Rice
1 Onion
1 Cup Cabbage Shredded
1/2 Cup Carrot Shredded
1/2 Cup Muttor
A pinch of Black Pepper Powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Cook rice and keep aside
• Heat oil and add chopped onion and shredded carrots. Saute till onions are translucent
• Add and cook till cabbage is done
• Add muttor, black pepper powder and salt and cook for another minute
• Add cooked rice and mix well. Cook for 2-3 minutes

Notes
Adding carrot at start makes sure that carrot is cooked well as it will take longest time to cook.

This was the quick and tasty pulav I cooked for Ajoy on saturday, when we were out of stock for all vegetables


Ingredients
2 Cup Prawns
2 Cup Rice
2 Onions
2 Spoon Cashews
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Cinnamon Powder
1/4 Spoon Cloves Powder
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method

• Marinate the prawns with the red chilli powder and salt to taste. Keep aside for half an hour
• Cook Rice and keep aside
• Heat the Oil and fry the prawns and keep aside
• In Same Oil fry chopped onions and cashews
• Add Garlic Paste and fried prawns in it and cook for a while
• Add turmeric powder, garam masala, corriander powder, cinnamon powder, cloves powder and salt to taste. Cook till prawns are completely done
• Add the cooked rice and salt in this
• Add the ghee from side and mix well. Cook for couple of minutes

Notes
I used around a spoonful of the oil for frying prawns and onions etc. and then around 2 spoons of ghee for the perfect flavour. Oil was exactly sufficient to cook prawns and ghee to mix rice with the prawns.

I have been stocking eggs for a while now. So for a while i was thinking of recipies that i could try and then thought let me cook something which is a meal in itself so that i dont have to cook anything else :) Here is the recipe..


Ingredients6 Eggs
1.5 Cup Rice
1 Onion
2 Spoon Cashews
2 Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Pudina Leaves
1/2 Cup Corriander Leaves
1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste
2-3 Green Chillies
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Cinnamon Powder
2 Pinch of Cardamom Powder
2 Pinch of Cloves Powder
A Pinch of Nutmeg Powder
A Pinch of Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
5-6 Cloves
5-6 Cardamoms
1 Cinnamon Stick
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

• Soak rice in the water and keep aside
• Hard boil 3 eggs and cut them into halves and keep aside
• Heat oil and fry the slices of onions in it and keep aside.
• In same oil, fry the cashew nuts and keep aside
• Again in same oil, fry the halved hard boiled eggs and keep aside
• In same oil, add the remaining 3 eggs
• Keep stirring conitnuously, and cook till the eggs form flakes and oil separates out
• Add turmeric powder, a pinch of cardamom powder, cloves powder, nutmeg powder, half of cinnamon powder, red chilli powder, salt to taste and stir well. Keep aside
• In a pan heat oil and add finely chopped tomatoes and cook them till they are almost done.
• Add pudina leaves and all the corriander leaves except a spoon of them
• Add the garam masala, finely chopped green chillies, jeera powder, corriander powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, a pinch of cardamom powder, a pinch of cloves powder and remaining cinnamon powder
• Stir well and cook till compeltely done and keep aside
• Cook rice in same water till almost done and keep aside
• Heat ghee and add cinnamon stick pieces, cloves, cardamom
• Add this mixture to the rice
• Now grease the cooker or the pot that can go in cooker with ghee
• Add half of rice
• Mix tomato-masala and egg masala and layer it on top of rice
• Layer the remaining rice over this
• Spread onions and cashews on top of this
• Cook it till rice is compeltely done
• While serving mix this rice and fried egg pieces and serve

Notes
I layered the biryani in a pot and cooked it in cooker putting very little water and without a whistle. This helped in non sticky - non burnt biryani
If you are planning to layer the biryani in cooker itself you might want to use the trick of layering boiled potatoes so that biryani doesnt get burnt. More details in Chicken Biryani Recipe

This one is maharashtrian dish, special in any wedding or any other function. The best part of the dish is its simplicity and easy preparation.


Ingredients
1 cup Basamati Rice
1/4 cup Curd
1/2 cup Gherkins
1/2 Potato
1/4 cup Muttor
1/2 cup Corriander leaves
1/2 cup grated Coconut
1/2 spoon Red chilli powder
1/2 spoon Garam Masala
8-9 Cashews
A pinch of Cardamom powder
2 Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 spoon Mustard Seeds
A pinch of Asafoetida
1 spoon Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Wash basamati rice and let the water strain properly
• Add red chilli powder, garam masala, cardamom powder, curd to this rice and keep aside for 10 minutes
• In a cooker, heat the ghee and let the mustards sputter in it
• Add asafoetida, bay leaf, cloves, Cinnamon stick and cashews and fry for a minute or two
• Add the sliced gherkins and cubed potatoes and fry for another couple of minutes
• Add the basamati rice, muttor and salt in it and fry for another couple of minutes
• Add 2 cup of water and put a lid and let it cook with 4 whistles.
• Before serving garnish with coconut, corriander leaves and ghee

Notes
You can use even gobi or bringal instead of potato or gherkins.
Coconut and corriander garnishing gives it really different flavour than the normal pulav

Last time the biryani I made was on the suggestions of our maid. But today I read up in a book and found this recipe.. The biryani tastes awesome and it was quite spicy.


Ingredients
4 Chicken Leg Pieces
2 cup Rice
1 Cup Curd
4 Onions
2 Tomatoes
1/4 cup Milk
1 Potato
Handful of Cashews
5-6 Almonds
3/4 cup Ghee
2 spoon Oil
1 spoon Pudina Leaves
1 spoon Dry Coconut
2 Cardamom
2 Cloves
3 Cinnamon
1 spoon Jeera
1 spoon Corriander Seeds
1 spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/2 spoon Poppy Seeds
1/4 spoon Saunf
1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste
1 spoon Garlic Paste
1 spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
A pinch of Safron
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix curd, turmeric powder, garam masala, 1/2 spoon garlic paste, 1/4 spoon ginger paste and salt to taste
• Marinate the chicken pieces with this mixture and store in fridge for 8 hours or more.
• Soak the rice in warm water for half an hour
• Soak the poppy seeds in 3-4 spoon of water
• Warm the milk and add the safron in it and keep aside.
• Boil the potato, let it cool down, cut it into slices and keep aside
• Cut the onions into thin and long pieces and fry them in oil till they are crispy and keep it aside
• Also fry all cashews except 5-6 and keep them aside.
• Cut remaining onions into small pieces and fry them in oil till it is golden brown. Keep aside
• Fry the 2 Cinnamons, Corriander seeds, Jeera, grated dry coconut, saunf, remaining cashews and almonds
• Add the red chilli powder, black pepper powder, poppy seeds, pudina leaves and golden brown fine pieces of onions fried earlier(not the crisp ones)
• Let the mixture cool down
• Grind it in mixer adding half tomato and little water to form fine paste
• Heat the ghee (keep aside 2 spoons of it) and add the masala paste and fry for a while.
• Mix the remaining garlic paste, ginger paste, remaining finely chopped tomatoes and salt to taste and fry for a while
• Add the marinated chicken and cook till chicken is completely cooked and gravy is dry as much as possible. Keep it aside
• There will be extra ghee separated from the chicken, separate it out and keep that also aside.
• While chicken is cooking, boil 7 cups of water, When water boils add the soaked rice without the water in which it was soaked.
• Cook the rice by putting lid on the vessel.
• When rice is almost done (not completely) strain it and keep it for cooling
• When rice cools down, heat 1/2 spoon of ghee and add remaming cardamoms, cloves, cinnamons to it. Add this to the rice and some salt to taste. Mix well
• Now in cooker apply remaining ghee all over and put a layer of potato slices to fully cover the cooker bottom.
• Add a layer of rice, then spread 1/3 of fried cashews, 1/3 of crisp onions and 1/2 of chicken with its paste.
• Add another layer of rice and then spread another 1/3 of fried cashews, 1/3 of crisp onion and remaining chicken with the masala
• Spread remaining rice. On top of it spread remaining cashews and crisp onion
• With the back side of the cooking spoon make 5-6 wholes in this layer biryani till bottom
• Spread the ghee separated out from chicken stored earlier evenly over here. Also spread the milk-safron mixture evenly.
• Close the cooker with the lid, heat tawa and put this cooker on top of it
• Cook on low flame for 15 minutes
• Serve hot with raita

Notes
This is little lengthy process, but believe me the output is quite tasty :)
Since we have spread the potato slices at the bottom, the rice doesn't get burnt while cooking.
Also since all the ingredients are already cooked before layering, there is no way that biryani will spoil because of uncooked rice or chicken.

When I was small mom use to cook this on all fasting days and I use to be waiting for such days as I just loved this amazing taste of rice with groundnut curry. Today when i heard from so many people that its shivraatri i couldn't resist fasting and eating this.

Samak Rice


Ingredients
1 cup Samak (Varyacha tandul)
2 cup Water
1/2 spoon Jeera
2 spoon Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Heat ghee in a pan
• Add jeera and let it sputter
• Add samak in it and fry till its pinkish
• Mix water, salt and cook on medium flame

Notes
You can add little ground nut powder as well while frying the rice. That will give nice taste and then no need to prepare groundnut curry. But i like groundnut curry so i didn't add it :)

Groundnut Curry


Ingredients
1 cup Groundnut
3 cup Water
2 spoon Jaggery
3-4 Green Chillies
3-4 Kokam
1/2 spoon Jeera
Salt to taste
1 spoon Ghee

Method

• Roast the groundnuts and remove the cover
• Grind the groundnuts by mixing water
• In a pan heat this grinded mixture
• Add jaggery, crushed green chillies, kokam and salt to it and boil
• In another pan heat the ghee, add jeera to it and let it sputter
• Mix this heated ghee and jeera with the boiling curry

Notes
One must grind the groundnuts to very fine paste otherwise water won't mix well with the curry and curry will have the groudnut paste at bottom and watery curry on top which doesn't taste nice at all

I had never prepared chicken biryani before so when i decided to cook it i did search a lot on internet. Also asked our maid for it so that i get to know how they cook it. And then i came up with this one which is outcome of my research.

Chicken Biryani


Ingredients
1/2 kg chicken
4 cups of rice
1 cup milk
1 cup curd
2 onions
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 tea spoon ginger paste
1/2 tea spoon garlic paste
3 spoon turmeric powder
3 spoon garam masala
3 spoon red chilli powder
2 spoon corriander powder
1 spoon cumin powder
1 spoon green cardamom powder
A pinch of Safron
Salt to taste
Oil
Method

• Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped onion to it
• Once onion is reddish add tomato puree to it and cook well
• Add garlic paste, ginger paste, 1 spoon garam masala, 1 spoon turmertic powder, 1 spoon red chilli powder, 1 spoon corriander powder and 1/2 spoon cumin powder to it and stir well.
• Add curd and salt to it and cook for a while
• Add chicken pieces to this mixture and cook till gravy dries completely and oil separates out. Keep aside
• Mix 4 cups of rice, milk and safron and cook it
• In a heat little oil/ghee and add green cardamom powder to it
• Add remaining turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, corriander powder and cumin powder
• Mix cooked rice and salt and stir well
• In a cooker pot add a layer of this above prepared rice then cooked chicken pieaces and then remaining rice
• Let it cook on vapour for a minute or two
• Serve hot with the groundnut gravy and raita

Notes
I had been told to fry uncooked rice on ghee, add other masala items and then cook the rice but I prefered to it otherway that is to add masala after cooking rice as it gives nice aroma and taste to the rice.

Groundnut Gravy


Ingredients
1/2 cup Groundnut powder
2 Tomatoes
1 spoon garam masala
1 spoon turmeric powder
1 spoon red chilli powder
1 spoon corriander powder
1/2 spoon cumin powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped tomato to it
• After tomatoes are cooked well(it becomes paste), add red chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala
• Add groundnut powder and salt to it
• The miture will be like a dry chutney ball, let it cook for a while
• Add water to it and boil it to get the thick gravy

Notes
The above gravy is not too hot as I didn't have enough curd for raita, you can make it hot as per your taste

Nutty Rice was what I had on one of my bday in Taj, Bangalore. It tasted awesome and both myself and ajoy just loved it. When I was eating it I decided that I am surely going to try and make this. And guess what first attempt itself was upto the taste. Its very easy and tempting recipe one can impress guests with.


Ingredients
2 cups of cooked rice
4 spoon cooked corn
2 spoon groundnuts
2 spoon cashews
4 green chillies
1 spoon raisins
1/2 spoon jeera
2 spoon ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Heat ghee in a pan
• Add jeera and let it sputter
• Add cashews, groundnuts and raisins
• Once nuts turn light brown add chillies
• Wait for nuts to turn dark brown and then add cooked rice, corn and salt
• Mix it well and cook for 3-5 minutes

Notes
You can use 4-5 curry leaves as well if you like.
Using long grain rice like basamati gives nice aroma to the dish

When I was in bangalore I started my cooking experiments with ready made masalas (not ready to eats :D). Now I have started using my own masalas (to be precised my mom made :D) for almost everything. But there is this one recipe which I still prefer and love with MTR Pulav masala.. It tastes awesome :) Over a period, I have made some changes compared to what the pack mentions it and here it is.


Ingredients
6 Cups of cooked rice
1 finely chopped onion
2 spoons of MTR Pulav Masala
1 spoon garlic-ginger paste
1/4 cup boiled muttor
4-5 spoons ground nuts
4-5 cashews
4 spoons ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Keep 3 spoons of ghee in a pan for heating
• Add onion and groundnuts
• When groundnuts are half done add in cashews and garlic ginger paste
• When cashews turn brown add in pulav masala and let it cook for 1 min
• Add cooked rice and muttor and mix well
• Put in remaining 1 spoon of ghee on the pulav and place lid on the pan and let it cook on low flame for 2 min.
• Add salt, mix pulav well and again let it cook for 2-3 min

Notes
Add cashews later than groundnuts so that they don't burn as cashews turn brown faster than groundnuts.
Using Basamati rice gives nice aroma and taste to the Pulav