Vegetable Biryani

Biryani is my most-favoritest(sorry for my inability to use a better word) dish. You give it to me anytime and I would be more than ready to eat - whether I am hungry or whether its night or day.

Mom used to make yummy biryani. It was a delicacy back then, a dish made rarely and only during the weekends. She made it in large quantities and I would feast on it the whole day. Each time I thought my tummy had a little space, I would munch in a bowl full. Recently, when my cousin visited, she made delicious briyani for lunch, I ate until my stomach couldn't hold even one extra spoon.

At restaurants too, my first choice would be biryani. A lot of people wonder how I would never get bored of eating the same dish, but I choose to eat it. I used to be in night shifts at work sometimes, when there was one cafeteria that would be open at that time of the day, to cater to the food needs of people working at nights. They would most often serve yummy hot biryani at 12am sharp, and I would be there well ahead. The guy who sells the food tokens would give me an ugly look, but who cares, as long as I get biryani. There was yet another cafeteria that served good egg biryani and my last day at work, I made sure I ate it one last time before I quit. I have even had the biryani they sell in streets. As far as biryani in India is concerned, it has never been bad for me.

US has given me some of the worst biryani experiences. There are only a couple of restaurants where they served average biryani, the best of which was in a restaurant called "Woodlands" in Chatsworth near LA. The house in which I stayed was right opposite to the restaurant, I used to frequent there so much, that the people who served there, no more gave me the menu card, they just confirmed if I was ordering biryani. We were once damn hungry during lunch time, and spotted an Indian restaurant, so ordered biryani. All they did was mix a couple of curries they had for their buffet and called it biryani. A few other restaurants also did the same crap to me. Despite this, I still used to order biryani, hoping that atleast one restaurant would make it eatable, but in vain, and I stopped eating biryani outside.

This is when I was desperate and wanted to make it at home. Tried a few recipes, but I found them complicated and not worth the time spent. I bought "Priya" briyani powder, followed the instructions on it, and ended up with a considerably good one. My cousin mailed me "Parampara" biryani paste from New Jersey(now you know how desperate I was) and she gave me instructions of making it. I tried it and it came out very well. So, with the same steps, I tried doing it with the same "Priya" biryani powder, and I'm glad that I got exactly what I wanted.

Its so easy to make(takes exactly 30mins), really tasty and you don't have to worry about an elaborate side-dish - onion raita, chips, applam is more than enough.

Recipe - I owe it to my cousin :)

Tips:

1. Cook basmati rice in such a way that they don't stick to each other. Use minimum amount of water. An electric rice cooker would be ideal. I don't have one, so I cook it in my pressure cooker. I don't put the weight. Once steam comes out, I reduce the flame to medium, cover it with a cup. 15minutes and rice it done exactly the way I want it.

2. Mint is the most important taste giving ingredient. I have prepared it with and without it - trust me, mint does the magic.

Ingredients:

Vegetables, onions, mint, briyani powder, curd, chilli powder, garam masala, oil, ghee, salt

Method:

I start out by cooking the rice first, so that, by the time the rice is ready, I can chop all the vegetables. Take 3 Tbsp of briyani powder, make a paste by mixing the curd with it and keep it aside. Now chop the vegetables. The vegetables I usually use are potato, cauliflower, beans, carrot,bell pepper, peas, broccoli, etc. and mushrooms. In a pan, take 2tsp of oil and one tsp of ghee and once it is hot, fry the mint and onions and then add the vegetables. Then add the briyani paste, a little chilli powder, garam masala powder, salt for the vegetables, mix well and cook covered. Make sure you don't overcook them. Once cooked, add the cooked rice to it, enough salt for the rice and mix well. Serve hot with onion raita.

This is the easiest and the tastiest dish I have ever made. I prefer to use very less oil, which makes the dish look a little dry, but it doesn't matter to me, as the taste it still good and I anyways have it with the raita and above all, its healthy.

I love to have a lot of vegetables in it, so I use more, but its upto you. And as far as the quantities of the briyani, chili and garam masala powders go, when you make it once, you'll know how it tastes, depending upon which you can use them to suit to your tastes. It doesn't make sense for me to tell the exact right amount here as tastes differ.

Happy eating :)