Vegetable biriyani

Its weekend and its biriyani time.Since we were not eating meat this week, my husband opted for vegetable biriyani.This again is my Mom's biriyani. She makes amazing biriyani's.The whole house smelled so wonderful when she cooked biriyani.I am not a patient person when it comes to biriyani, I used to go to the kitchen to steal some hot bites. .I love eating hot hot biriyani as soon as the unveiling of the lid is done. Hmm yummmm... I miss my Mom's biriyani.

This is one of my Mom's version of vegetable biriyani. When I asked for her recipe, she asked me" do you want a spicy biriyani","what color do you want your biriyani to be?" and I was "Mom, give me the recipe.." But that's how much love, she puts into it and that's why, every Mom's biriyani is special !  Here is the recipe to one version of her vegetable biriyani and every time she cooked biriyani, it was accompanied with chili gobi, so i decided to do the same combo for my darling husband. The gobi recipe will follow in the next post because that is my version of chili gobi and this biriyani recipe will be featured under "Amma'vin samayalarai".

Veg Biriyani Serves 4 - 5

Ingredients

Basmati rice - 2 cups

Onion chopped - 2 medium

Tomato chopped - 2 medium

Carrot chopped - 1 cup

Beans chopped - 3/4 cup 

Cauliflower chopped - 1 cup

Green peas - 1/3 cup

Green chilly slit lengthwise -1

Water - 3 1/2 cups

Oil - 4tbspn

Salt - 4 tspn (Use according to taste)

Masala Ingredients

Coconut grated - 1 cup

Cashew - 5 to 6

Garlic chopped - 10 heads

Ginger - 2 inch

Cinnamon - 2 inch

Cloves - 2 

Coriander chopped - 1/2 cup 

Sombu (சோம்பு ) / fennel seeds - 1 tspn

Green chili - 4 or 5 

Method 1 - Cooker method:

Wash the basmathi rice in cold water and soak the rice in cold water for 20 minutes.

Blend all the masala ingredients together to a paste.

Put the cooker over heat, add oil and add onion let the onions cook slowly over medium heat for 5 - 7 minutes. The caramelized onions brings on so much flavor,so do not be hasty and skip this step.

Once the onions are nice golden brown, add the tomato, green chili and cook for two minutes.

Add the blend masala with the tomato,cover with a lid and cook for 7 - 10 minutes until the tomato is mushy and the masala is well cooked. 

Add all the other vegetables.

Drain the rice and add the rice to the masala and mix around, until the rice is coated with the masala.

Add water and 3 tspn salt, mix and taste to check for salt.If less salt add accordingly.

Lock the lid in place and cook for 2 whistles,switch off and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Open the cooker and mix all the contents gently without breaking the rice.

Method 2 - Pan / casserole pan method: Water 4 cups

If you don have a pressure cooker, it does not stop you from enjoying a wonderful biriyani. All the steps are the same except for the last step and the water used a little more than the cooker method.

Instead of the cooker cook the onions, masala and other ingredients in your pan. After you add the water to the pan , let the water come to boil,reduce to simmer,place the lid and let the rice absorb all the water.

Switch of the heat and mix the contents of the pan gently without breaking the rice.

Enjoy your biriyani with some onion raita.

Onion Raita :

For the raita combine chopped onions,chopped tomato and chopped green chili with yogurt and season with salt.

Note:

Do not skip the first step of caramelizing the onions. They give so much flavor to the dish.

If you are comfortable in cooking rice and you know how much water your rice takes,go ahead and add it but what ever the measurement you use for regular rice, plus 1/2 cup extra bcos we have a lot of vegetables to cook along with the rice.

Again I leave the salt to your taste. I have given measurements but you can use according to your taste.