Biryani has never failed to bring out the joy and festive mood in me…

Are you overwhelmed by the long preparation time that most of the Biryani recipes call for? If so give this recipe a try. As the name suggests it’s made in a hurry, which means it calls for less preparation time yet tastes flavorful and delicious. It’s been a long time since I made biryani. Every time I get into the kitchen with the mind of making biryani, I somehow got deviated and ended up making something simple. In India, Biryani is one such food served during celebrations and during most happy occasions. Whenever I make biryani at home, I unknowingly fall into the celebration mood and I will be seen happy on that day.

Usually, I follow the long preparation steps while making biryani. However, yesterday I made it in the easiest way possible. I was really impressed by the outcome, it tasted flavorful and was aromatic. For more biryani recipes, click here

One tip that I would like to share with you all: Be sure to add chopped mint leaves while layering the chicken and rice, mint leaves enhances the taste and the aroma of the biryani greatly.

Biryani in a hurry Recipe

Ingredients

For marinating chicken:

• Chicken legs or Bone-in chicken pieces- I used 5 chicken legs, you could add more pieces
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
• Kashmiri chilly powder- 1 tsp or more if you want it spicy (or use regular chilly powder)
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Cumin powder- 3/4 tsp
• Ground Fennel- 2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 2 tsp
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Other ingredients:

• Cooked Basmati Rice-  1 1/2 cups, season the water with 1 tsp Garam masala and salt
• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Whole cardamom- 3 no’s
• Whole cloves- 3 no’s
• Whole cinnamon- 3 inch slice
• Bay leaves- 2 no’s
• Onions, chopped- 4, large
• Tomatoes, chopped- 3, large
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Mint leaves, chopped- 1 handful
• Ghee- 1 tbsp
• Saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp water or milk- 2 pinches
• Fried onions (optional)
• Roasted Cashew nuts (optional)
• Salt- to taste

Preparation

1. Marinate the chicken with the above mentioned ingredients to marinate the chicken, keep aside for 15 to 30 minutes.
2. Place a large non-stick cooking pan, add oil, add whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves to it, saute for a few seconds.
3. Add the marinated chicken to it and cook covered till the chicken is half done. If the chicken gets dry, add some water to it and cook.
4. While the chicken is cooking, cook the basmati rice in water seasoned with garam masala and salt.
5. When the chicken is half done, add the onions and tomatoes, cook covered till the tomatoes have mashed up and onions have cooked well.
6. The chicken masala shouldn’t be too dry, there should be little moisture in it.
7. Taste and add more salt if needed, if you want it to be spicy add more chilly powder or ground pepper.
8. Garnish the top of the cooked chicken with chopped cilantro and mint.
9. Evenly spread cooked rice over it.
10. Drizzle the melted ghee over the rice.
11. Soak 2 pinches of saffron in 1 tbsp water or milk for 5 minutes, drizzle saffron water over the rice.
12. If you want you could top the rice with fried onions, roasted cashew nuts, raisins etc. Since, I was in a hurry I didn’t add these.
13. Cover the pan with its lid and place it over low heat for 10 minutes.
14. Uncover and using a spatula gently combine the rice and the chicken.
15. Serve warm with raita, pickle, salad etc.

Tips:

• Be sure to add mint leaves and basmati rice should be seasoned with garam masala.

Quinoa, my new favorite grain…

Ever since I tasted quinoa which happened a few months ago, I have fallen for it so hard. I love the mildly nutty flavor and the crunchiness of the cooked quinoa and the fact that I could combine it with almost anything impressed me a lot. I had already tried a few dishes with it, once I stuffed eggplant with quinoa cooked with veggies, on another occasion I made quinoa cutlets, it turned out very good. Now, I’ve quinoa always stored in my pantry.

Yesterday was a rather boring day for me, not because I didn’t have anything to do. I actually have tons of work to do and way too many things to finish up. For some weird reason, I felt bored and literally couldn’t sit in my office staring at the laptop reading all the journals and writing the reports. Since the day went boring, I looked forward to an exciting night. After reaching home, I went for some quick shopping, came home and charged up myself by watching TV. Slowly, I entered the kitchen hoping to make something delicious. Seeing quinoa in my pantry, I was hit by the idea of making quinoa biryani, felt excited and made it without any second thought.

I first cooked the chicken marinated with all the spices separately and cooked quinoa separately too. Layered the chicken and quinoa, topped it with ghee roasted cashews, raisins and herb, did a final cooking over low flame. I used boneless chicken for faster cooking, you could use bone-in chicken if you prefer. Quinoa byt itself is not flavorful, so I added garam masala and ghee while cooking it.

Quinoa Chicken Biryani

Ingredients:

To grind:

• Ginger, chopped- 3 inch slice
• Garlic, chopped- 5 cloves
• Green chilly- 2 no’s

For combining with chicken:

• Chicken breasts, boneless, cut small- 3 breasts
• Onion, large chopped- 3 no’s
• Ground ginger, garlic and green chilly paste
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Fennel powder- 2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Yogurt, not sour- 4 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
• Salt- to taste
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful

For cooking quinoa:

• Quinoa- 1 1/2 cups
• Water- 3 cups
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Ghee- 2 tbsp
• Salt- little

While layering:

• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Mint leaves, chopped- 2 stalks or 8 leaves
• Cashews, roasted in 1/2 tbsp ghee- 1/4 cup
• Raisins, roasted in 1/2 tbsp  ghee- 3 tbsp
• Saffron strands, soaked in 1 tbsp water- 2 pinches
• Ghee- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. In a blender, grind the ginger, garlic and green chillies to a coarse paste.
2. In a large non-stick cooking pan, combine chicken with all the above mentioned ingredients for combining with the chicken.
3. Don’t add any water while cooking chicken.
4. Cook covered over medium heat, till the chicken has cooked well and there is very less water in the mixture.
5. The chicken mixture shouldn’t be too dry, there should be little moisture in it as we will be doing a final cooking after layering the chicken with quinoa.
6. Have a taste, adjust the salt and spice level accordingly.

Cooking quinoa:

• Soak the quinoa in water for 20 minutes, this will remove any bitter taste of quinoa.
• Drain the water and keep aside.
• In another large pan, add water and let it come to a boil.
• Add the soaked quinoa along with garam masala and ghee.
• Cook till quinoa turns tender and the water has dried off, it takes around 15 minutes.
• Keep aside the cooked quinoa.

1. Roast the cashew nuts and raisins together in 1 tbsp ghee.
2. Soak the saffron strands in water.
3. In the pan used to cook chicken, spread the chicken evenly as the bottom layer.
4. Spread the cooked quinoa evenly over the cooked chicken.
5. Sprinkle the saffron over the quinoa.
6. Top the quinoa layer with roasted cashew nuts, raisins, cilantro and mint.
7. Pour ghee over it.
8. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and close with its lid.
9. Place over low heat and cook (dum) for 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the heat and keep aside for another 15 minutes.
11. Serve quinoa biryani along with pickle, raita, chutney etc.

Here are my top 10 tips to make your Biryani taste better:

1. Use fresh ingredients – onions, ginger, garlic, green chilies, cilantro, mint and curry leaves.
2. Marinate the chicken overnight in the refrigerator so that all the flavors will get into it.
3. Shallow fry the marinated chicken/meat before combining it with the masala.
4. When you cook the rice: add whole cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, cumin seeds along with the rice.
5. If you’re not frying the chicken or meat: cook the meat by adding little more water, drain the water from the cooked meat and cook the rice in that flavorful water. This way the rice will taste absolutely delicious. Recipe
6. Don’t forget to Dum the biryani (final slow cooking after layering the rice and chicken/meat masala). Cover the biryani pot with aluminum foil and close with its lid, place on very low heat and cook for 15 minutes.
7. Use fresh fried onions (fry the onions in oil till it turns golden brown) and absolutely not store bought ones.
8. Sprinkle fresh Mint leaves over the rice layers, the aroma of mint leaves makes the biryani taste a whole lot better (my favorite)
9. To enhance the taste further, sprinkle saffron (2 pinches) soaked in 3 tbsp milk or water over the rice while layering.
10. Using pure Coconut oil while shallow frying the chicken or while cooking the masala part will impart a nice aroma to the biryani.

Try these and everyone will rave about your biryani!!! Let me know your thoughts or your tips in the comments below.

Yeah, I am bragging! I usually find some kind of faults after tasting most of my dishes, even after being approved by the panel of judges. I would always be left with the feeling that I could have done better. But this time after tasting this biryani I was seen bragging non-stop about how delicious and phenomenal this biryani tasted. My taste buds failed terribly in finding even one single fault, everything was so perfect – the whole chicken, the rice and the entire biryani.

Last Saturday, was my husband’s birthday and I was determined enough to surprise him with the best dishes possible. He is one person whom I admire the most in this whole universe and he always astonishes me in all ways possible. For such a person, I definitely wanted to give the best on his special day. I knew already finding such dishes would be little difficult and my search started a few days ahead of his birthday. None of the dishes I came across seemed to steal my heart, I had to think little more harder. I finally came up with my own recipe for making a biryani which I had not tried or tasted before. Also, I made his favorite Tiramisu cake, which turned out to be great as well.

I felt biryani would make a good dish and if it’s made in a totally different way it would be a hit. In biryanis, mostly cut chicken or other cut meat is used and I didn’t want to do it. Instead, I used whole chicken to make this biryani.

I had to first fry the marinated whole chicken till it was fried well throughout, it took about an hour or so. It was totally worth the long frying time. I then made a masala and cooked the fried whole chicken in it further so that it would turn juicy and flavorful. Then I layered the rice and aromatic herbs over the cooked whole chicken along with the masala and did the final slow cooking for 15 minutes. The whole house started to smell so good and when I opened the pan after the final cooking, I stood still seduced by the aroma that came out of the biryani. For the first time, I was doubtless that this biryani was going to to be a winner.

My husband was totally moved and appreciated my effort in making this. At the dining table, I asked him to rate it on a scale of 1-10, there I was talking to a brick wall, he was too busy eating and enjoying the biryani. After a minute, he replied that on a scale of 1-10 this biryani was a 11 and complimented that this was the best biryani hands down. I felt like a winner!

Whole Chicken Biryani

Ingredients:

• Whole Chicken- 3.3 lb or 1.5 Kg
• Oil, for frying- 1/3 cup
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig

For making marinade:

• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tbsp
• Chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Lemon juice- 2 tsp

For making Biryani Masala:

• Oil, used for frying chicken- 6 tbsp (you could also add 2 tbsp coconut oil)
• Red onions, cut thin long- 5-6 no’s
• Tomatoes, chopped- 3 no’s
• Marination used to marinade the chicken- combined with 1/4 cup water
• Yogurt- 3 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

To grind:

• Ginger, chopped- 3 inch slice
• Garlic, chopped- 6 cloves
• Whole cardamom- 4 no’s
• Whole Cloves- 2 no’s
• Cinnamon- 2 inch slice
• Green chillies, chopped- 3 no’s

For cooking rice:

• Basmati rice- 2 1/2 cups (I used Dawat brand)
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Bay leaves- 2 no’s
• Ghee- 2 tbsp
• Salt- to taste
• Water- 2 1/2 cups

For garnishing:

• Fried onions- 1/2 cup  (fry fresh red onions cut thin long 2 no’s in oil)
• Mint leaves, chopped- 1/3 cup or 20 leaves (this is a must to add ingredient)
• Cilantro leaves, chopped- 1/3 cup
• Saffron strands- 2 pinch, soaked in 1 tbsp milk
• Ghee roasted cashew nuts- 1/3 cup (optional)
• Ghee roasted raisins- 3 tbsp (optional)

Preparation:

• Remove any internal organs from the whole chicken and remove the skin from it, rinse under running water.
• You could even pour some lemon juice over the chicken while rinsing it, it will take away any smell from it.
• Pat dry with paper towel and put gashes or lines on the breast and legs, keep aside.
• In a blender grind the above mentioned ingredients to “make the marinade”, with very little water to make a smooth paste.
• Make sure you don’t add too much water, it should be a thick paste.
• Spread the marinade evenly over the whole chicken and inside of it, place it in a large bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate it for an hour or longer.
• You could even marinate the chicken overnight.

Cooking rice:

• I used rice cooker to cook the rice, if you don’t have one you could use a saucepan.
• Soak the rice in water for 15 minutes, drain the water through a strainer.
• Combine the rice along with all  the above mentioned ingredients “for cooking rice” and water in the pot.
• Cook the rice till it has cooked well.
• By using 1:1 ratio of rice and water, the rice would be perfectly cooked and it wouldn’t turn mushy.
• If cooking in a saucepan, after the water dries off, check whether the rice has cooked. If not add little more water and cook accordingly.
• Keep aside the cooked rice.

Frying the whole chicken:

• Place a large deep non-stick pan over medium low heat, add 1/3 cup oil and curry leaves to it.
• Be sure to use non-stick pan.
• I first tied the legs and wings of the chicken and I found that the under side of the legs and wings are not getting fried, so I untied it.
• Don’t tie the legs and wings of the chicken.
• Place the marinated whole chicken breast side down over the oil and let fry for 10  minutes.
• After you take out the marinated whole chicken from the bowl, there will be some marinade left in the bowl.
• Combine 1/4 cup water to that marinade and keep it in a bowl, we will be adding this while cooking the masala.
• After 10 minutes, turn it over and fry it for another 10 minutes.
• Using two spatulas, turn it to sidewise and fry it for 10 minutes, then turn to the other side and fry it for 10 minutes.
• Again, keep flipping it over and let all the sides of the whole chicken turn golden brown.
• This would take about an hour or an hour and 15 minutes.
• Make sure the heat is medium low, at high heat the inside of the chicken wouldn’t be cooked well.
• Using two wide spatulas gently take the fried chicken out of the oil and keep aside on a platter.
• Use the same pan used for frying the chicken, use about 6 tbsp of fried oil and 2 tbsp of coconut oil(optional).
• Keep the heat at medium, add onions to the oil along with salt and saute the onions till translucent.
• In a blender, grind – ginger, garlic, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and green chillies into a coarse paste.
• Add this to the onion and saute till the raw smell goes away and the onions starts to turn caramelized.
• Add tomatoes, cook till gets mashed up.
• Now, add the chicken marinade that is combined with water to the cooked onion mixture.
• Combine well and cook for 2 minutes.
• Taste and if you need more spice add some more chilly powder.
• Add more salt if needed.
• Add yogurt to it, combine well and cook for a minute.
• Place the fried whole chicken breast side down over this masala and cover the pan with its lid.
• Let cook in medium low heat for 10 minutes.
• Open the lid, turn the chicken to the other side, spread some onion masala over the chicken and cook covered for another 10 minutes.
• Next, turn the chicken to one of its sides and again cook covered for 5 minutes.
• Turn to the next side and cook covered for 5 more minutes.
• By this time the chicken would be cooked well inside and out.
• Uncover the pan, if the masala is too watery cook for a few more minutes till it dries off a bit.
• There should be little water left in the masala.

Final cooking:

• In a frying pan with enough oil, fry the onions till golden brown, transfer to a paper towel.
• Roast cashew nuts and raisins in 2 tbsp of ghee, keep aside.
• Spread the masala evenly as the bottom layer and keep the whole chicken at the center of the pan.
• Layer half of the cooked rice as the first layer around the whole chicken.
• Sprinkle half of the saffron over the rice.
• Garnish with half of the fried onions, half of the chopped cilantro, half of the mint, half of the roasted cashews and raisins over the rice.
• Layer the rest of the cooked rice around the whole chicken.
• Garnish with rest of the saffron, fried onions, cilantro, mint, cashews and raisins.
• Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and close it with its lid.
• Place the pan over low heat and cook for 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes, remove from the heat and keep covered for another 15 minutes.
• While serving: gently take the whole chicken from the pan and place it at the center of a platter.
• Combine the rice along with the onion masala and spread it around the chicken.
• For a nice presentation, you could place cut tomatoes and lemon on the corners of the platter.
• Before having this biryani, you could carve the chicken using a carving knife or a sharp knife.
• Place the chicken pieces on a plate and serve rice combined with masala along with it.
• Serve along with Raita, Dates Pickle etc.

Banging my head for not making this biryani all these years, at the same time dancing to glory after enjoying a whole plate of this biryani. Chicken and mutton biryani are the most famous biryani’s in India, but for me I have a soft corner towards shrimp and king fish biryani. Now, one more favorite I can add: mussel biryani.

Don’t ask me how my weekend was. The laziest weekend ever, blaming on the rainy weather. Just wondering, why does it have to rain most of the time during spring??? Hmm, the good thing was I just lazed at home watching TV, browsing etc. I guess unproductive weekends should be welcomed once in a while. Woke up real late today as the sun kept hiding among the dark clouds and the day felt like night. Even a cup of strong coffee couldn’t activate my foggy brain. When my starving hubby pleaded for a good heavy lunch, I couldn’t resist entering into the kitchen after a few rounds of whining, obviously. Seeing the mussels in the freezer, the idea of making mussel biryani triggered my foggy brain. And it turned out to be the best Sunday lunch.

Mussel Biryani:

Ingredients

For Marinating mussel:

• Mussels, cleaned- 2 pounds or 1 bag
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

For frying

• Oil- enough to shallow fry mussels

For making the masala:

To grind:

• Garlic, cloves- 5 no’s
• Ginger- 2 inch slice
• Green chillies- 3 no’s
• Cardamom whole- 3 no’s
• Cloves- 2 no’s
• Cinnamon- 2 inch slice

Sauteing:

• Onion, cut thin lengthwise- 4 no’s
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Tomatoes, chopped-2
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Yogurt- 3 tbsp
• Salt- to taste
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handfuls

For making Rice

• Basmati Rice- 1 1/2 cups
• Water- 2 1/2 cups
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Clean the mussels under running water.
• Combine the mussels with the above mentioned “for marinating mussel” ingredients.
• Shallow fry the mussels in oil till golden in color, keep aside on a paper towel.
• Don’t over fry the mussels as it will turn crispy.
  
• Rinse the basmati rice under running water.
• In a rice cooker: combine rice, water, garam masala and salt, cook till the rice is well done, keep aside.
• In a large wide pan, add 4-5 tbsp of oil used for frying mussels.
• Add onions, curry leaves and little salt, saute till onions turn tender.
• Grind garlic, ginger, green chillies and whole garam masala into a coarse paste.
• Add the ground mixture to the onions, saute for sometime and let onions turn light brown in color.
• Add tomatoes, cook till it gets mashed.
• Add the fried mussels along with chilly powder, fennel powder and yogurt to it.
• Combine everything well.
• Let the masala with mussels cook for sometime, the masala shouldn’t be too watery.
• Now, add the cooked rice combining well after each addition.
• Sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
• Remove from the heat and keep it covered for 10 minutes.
• Serve warm along with raita, pickle or papad.

Tips:

• Adjust the spice level according to your needs.

First, let’s talk a bit about King fish as it is quite unheard of in North America. King fish is a sea fish that is found in the Indian ocean and is very popular in Southern India. I personally think that it is the most tastiest fish. It is an expensive fish and is often served in many fine dining restaurants in India. So where do you buy this fish? You can find king fish in some of the Indian stores (call ahead to check – sometimes they can get it for you even if they don’t carry) and in Asian supermarkets. I prefer buying king fish from the Asian supermarkets as they have it fresh.

I grew up eating biryani, chicken/mutton biryani being often made by my mom. Once in a while, when she gets hold of fresh king fish, she would surprise us with king fish biryani. I prefer it as it’s light, healthy and I can go for a few rounds without getting the dizzy feeling.

I love fish fry and so while starting to make any fish dish my first thought would be to “fry it”. I always wish if I could find a way to fry the fish without using oil and still get the same taste. Grilling does help to some extent, but it just cannot replace frying. Good thing about this biryani is that I fried the fish first and then made the fish masala with it. So, I get to taste the fried fish along with the biryani.

If you haven’t yet tasted fish biryani, it’s big time you make this biryani and you’ll be surprised on how your taste buds go crazy.

King fish Biryani

For marinating the fish:

Ingredients:

• King fish, steak- 2 pounds
• Chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Salt- to taste

For frying fish:

• Oil- enough for frying

For making King fish masala:

• Oil used for frying fish- 3 tbsp
• Onion, large cut thin long- 4 no’s
• Salt- little
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Tomato, chopped- 1 large
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Yogurt (not sour)- 4 tbsp

To grind:

• Garlic, chopped- 5 cloves
• Ginger, chopped- 2 inch slice
• Small onions- 7 no’s
• Green chillies- 4 no’s
• Cardamom- 3 no’s
• Cloves- 2 no’s
• Cinnamon- 1 inch slice

For making rice:

• Basmati rice- 2 cups
• Ground Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Ghee- 2 tbsp
• Water- 3 1/2 cups
• Salt- as needed

Other ingredients for garnishing:

• Fried onions- 1 Onion, cut thin and long and fried in oil till golden brown.
• Cilantro, chopped

Preparation:

• Wash the king fish steaks under running water, if you want you could cut the steak into medium sized pieces.
• Marinate the king fish with the above mentioned ingredients for marination, keep aside for 15 minutes.
• Shallow fry the fish in enough oil till it starts to turn golden in color. Avoid over frying the fish, Keep aside on a paper towel.
• Place a large pan over medium heat, add 3 tbsp of oil used for frying fish.
• Add onions along with curry leaves and little salt, cook covered till it turns tender.
• Grind garlic, ginger, small onions, green chillies, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon together into a coarse paste.
• When the onions turn tender, add the above ground paste, saute for a few minutes.
• Onion should turn really tender and well cooked.
• Add chopped tomato and cook till it gets mashed.
• Add chilly powder and fennel powder to it, combine well.
• Add the fried fish to it and gently combine everything.
• Now, add yogurt, combine well and cook covered for 5 minutes.
• Remove the lid and let all the water in the masala dries up.
• Remove from the heat and keep aside covered.

Making Rice:

• Wash the rice taken in a large sieve under running water.
• Combine rice, garam masala, ghee, salt and water.
• Cook in a rice cooker till the rice is well done.

How to layer the rice and fish masala:

• In a large pan, spread half of the fish masala as the first layer.
• Top it with half of the rice as the second layer.
• Sprinkle chopped cilantro and fried onions.
• Again repeat layering with fish masala, rice, finally top it with cilantro and fried onions.
• Close the pan tightly with aluminum foil and then with its lid.
• Place the pan on low flame and cook for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and keep aside covered.
• While serving, combine the rice and fish masala together, serve on a plate along with raita and pickle.

Tips:

• Adjust the spice level according to your needs, if you like it spicy increase the amount of chilly powder or green chillies accordingly.
• This biryani, in fact all biryanis taste better when it sits for sometime, it would taste even more better the next day.

Eid is just around the corner and I wanted to share this special biryani of Kashmir…

Eid celebration is literally incomplete without biryani. Biryani has always been the main attraction of Eid in my family. When I was with my mom, on almost all Eid I used to wake up to the aroma of Biryani. Now, this is the one thing that I miss terribly: waking up to the pleasant seducing aroma of biryani.

On Eid I usually end up making my mom’s special biryani. However, for this Eid I decided to try something different and my search finally ended when I got the biryani recipe all the way from Kashmir. Kashmir, one of the beautiful states in India which has earned the sobriquet of being the “paradise on earth”.

I came across this recipe on a cooking channel, I noted down the recipe and tweaked quite a bit. This recipe was in deed a different one compared to my usual biryani recipe. In Kashmiri biryani, they add fruits, nuts and milk to make it rich and divine. I was truly blown away by the taste of this biryani, it had a very mild flavor yet scrumptious.

Happy Eid to all my readers!

Kashmiri Biryani

Ingredients

Cooking Chicken:

• Chicken, bone in or use legs- 12 pieces
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Other Ingredients:

• Oil- 1/4 cup
• Onion, thinly sliced- 4
• Whole Cloves- 3
• Cardamom- 3
• Cinnamon stick- 2 inch
• Whole black pepper- 8 no’s
• Ginger- Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
• Fennel seeds- 2 tbsp
• Coriander seeds- 3 tbsp
• Yogurt, not sour- 3/4 cup
• Milk- 1/4 cup
• Apple, red delicious chopped- 1/2 cup 0r 1/2 apple
• Raisins- 2 tbsp
• Water- 1 1/2 cups ( we’ve already added 1 cup yogurt+milk combined)
• Basmati Rice, washed- 1 3/4 cups
• Salt- to taste

For final cooking:

• Yogurt, not sour- 1/4 cup
• Milk-5 tbsp
• Saffron- few strands

Garnishing:

• Fried onions in oil- 1/2 cup
• Roasted almonds in ghee- 1o no’s
• Roasted cashew nuts in ghee- 10 no’s
• Roasted raisins in ghee- 7 no’s

Preparation:

• Wash the chicken thoroughly and add chilly powder, turmeric powder, fennel powder and salt to it.

There was no special occasion nor any particular reason for me to make biryani, yet I made biryani and made an ordinary day very special. When I was with my mom I got to eat biryani almost every week, each time she made it in a totally different way – lamb biryani, hyderabadi biryani, kashmiri biryani, vegetable biryani, fried chicken biryani, dum biryani, king fish biryani, mussel biryani, prawn biryani, malabar biryani, chettinad biryani, beef biryani and the list is just endless. How I miss those days

One of her biryani preparation methods captured my interest. Despite the easy preparation method that biryani tasted real delish. Also, when I had visited my hubby’s aunt while in India, she had made biryani in which the method she used to cook the rice sounded pretty interesting. So this time when I made biryani, I combined my mom’s simple method of making the chicken and my hubby’s aunt’s method of making the rice.

Usually, when I make the rice for biryani, I make the rice separately in a rice cooker after flavoring the water with spices. While making this biryani, I first cooked the chicken in a pressure cooker after adding lil more water than usual, then drained the excess water from the cooked chicken. Believe me, this water is full of flavor and aroma. So for cooking the rice, I cooked the rice in this water. The cooked rice tasted unbelievably yummy and that’s what made this biryani much tastier than the other biryani’s I had made.

After tasting the cooked rice, I felt like I don’t need to mix the chicken with the rice as the rice itself tasted phenomenal. Also, this time I didn’t layer the rice and chicken separately. I combined both the rice and the chicken in a wide pot and garnished with cilantro. I even skipped garnishing this biryani with roasted cashew nuts, fried onions and roasted raisins, even without these this biryani tasted so divine. However, you could go ahead and add all the extra garnishing to make this even more delightful.

The aroma that emanated while cooking this biryani had made both my husband and I go wild. When the biryani was all ready on the dining table we didn’t talk nor looked at each other, we were seen greedily gobbling it. And the first word that came out of both of ours mouth was “WoW”.

South Indian Style Chicken Biryani Recipe

Cooking the Chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken, bone-in- 10 pieces
• Onion, cut thin lengthwise- 3 no’s
• Garlic- 7 cloves
• Ginger- 3 inch slice
• Green chillies- 8 no’s
• Cinnamon- 1 inch slice
• Cardamom- 3 no’s
• Cloves- 2 no’s
• Garam masala- 1 tbsp
• Tomatoes, chopped- 2 small
• Fennel powder- 2tbsp
• Yogurt- 2 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Water- 1/4 cup
• Ghee- 2 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Grind the garlic, ginger and green chillies together into a coarse paste and keep aside.

• Place a pressure cooker over medium heat.
• Add the ghee, add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and saute for a second.
• Add the onions and salt, saute for few minutes.

• Add the garlic, ginger, green chilly coarse paste to the onions and saute till the raw smell goes off.

• Add the garam masala and combine everything.
• Add the tomatoes and cook for couple of minutes.
• Add the chicken and combine well.
• Now, add the fennel powder and give it a stir.
• To the chicken, add the yogurt, lemon juice and chopped cilantro.

• Add enough salt according to your needs.
• Also add 1/4 cup of water to the chicken.
• Close the cooker with its lid and cook until 2 whistles.
• After the pressure subsides, open the lid and drain the water from the chicken through a mesh strainer and keep aside the water and the chicken separately.

Cooking the Rice:

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice, I used Daawat brand- 2 cups
• Water drained from the cooked chicken- 3 cups ( if the water from the cooked chicken measures less than 3 cups, add extra tap water to make it to 3 cups)
• Whole Cinnamon- 1 inch slice
• Cardamom- 2 no’s
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Ghee- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• I cooked the rice in the same pressure cooker used for cooking the chicken, you could use rice cooker or a non-stick pan instead.
• Wash the rice placed in a mesh strainer under running water.
• Heat the cooker under low-medium heat.
• Add the ghee and add cinnamon, cardamom to it.
• Add the garam masala and give it a quick stir (don’t burn it)
• Immediately add the rice and combine well.

• Add the water from the cooked chicken and combine everything.
• Close the cooker and place the whistle on it.
• Keep the heat to low-medium and cook the rice for  7-8 minutes.
• Don’t over cook the rice.
• After 7-8 minutes, remove the cooker from the stove and let the pressure subside.

• This was the first time I cooked the rice in a pressure cooker, I’ve always found cooking rice in a rice cooker better as the rice will cook perfectly in a rice cooker without turning mushy.

Mixing the Chicken and Rice:

• Heat a wide pan and transfer the chicken into it and let any extra water in the chicken masala dry out.

• Lower the heat and add the rice to the chicken, combine well.
• Garnish with chopped cilantro.

• If you want you could also garnish with fried onions, roasted cashew nuts and roasted raisins.
• You could also add a pinch of saffron soaked in 1 tbsp of milk to the biryani.
• This time I skipped all these garnishing, yet the biryani tasted phenomenal.
• Serve hot with Raita, Chicken fry, Pickle, Pappadam etc.

Tips:

• If you want to make your chicken more spicy, add more of the green chillies.

Biryani and special occasions are inseparable, at least in my home. If there is any special occasion, you are guaranteed to get a plate of biryani from my kitchen. The aroma of the biryani spreads in such a way that forces anyone going through that way to pause and take a deep breath in. However, I don’t always need a special occasion to make biryani. By making biryani on an ordinary day, it will turn that day into a special one.

Last weekend, my husband and I made an impromptu trip to my favorite city Chicago. On the way we had visited my cousin in Madison. My cousin who is an awesome cook had made fried chicken biryani along with many other delicious dishes for us. I must say the best homemade biryani I had in a while. After spending a night at my cousin’s, we drove to Chicago. We went straight to the Chicago Auto Show. My husband has been going to the Auto show for 10 years in a row now and it’s my fifth auto show in a row. After that we visited our best friend and surprised her on her birthday. Hence we had an amazing and fun-filled weekend with our dear and near ones.

Those of you who couldn’t be a part of the Chicago Auto Show this year, here is a collage of pictures I had clicked:

Chicago Auto Show 2010

After coming home, my mind was still on the biryani hangover. I couldn’t resist and hence called my cousin right away and took notes about the recipe. In this biryani I fried the chicken marinated with spices and combined it with the biryani masala. You get to enjoy the biryani and also the fried chicken on the same plate.

Fried Chicken Biryani, inspired by my Cousin-Ayesha

Step 1 Making Rice

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice- 2 cups
• Ginger, minced- 1 tsp
• Garlic, minced- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Garam Masala ( ground cardamom, cloves and cinnamon)- 1tsp
• Ghee- 1 tbsp
• Water- 3 cups
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Place basmati rice on a sieve , wash under running water and drain the water.
• Fill the rice cooker with water and add turmeric powder, ginger, garlic, garam masala salt, ghee and rice.

• Switch on the rice cooker and cook until the rice is done.
• Remove the rice pot from the cooker and keep aside with the lid on.

Step 2: Marinating chicken:

• Chicken, bone in- 12 pieces
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 2 tsp
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp
• Lemon juice- 2 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Remove any excess fat from the chicken and thoroughly wash it.

• Drain the water and place in a large bowl.
• Put all the above marinating ingredients over the chicken and combine well.

• Cover the chicken and keep in the refrigerator for at least half an hour or more.
• You could even marinate the chicken overnight.

Step 3: Shallow frying the Chicken:

Ingredients:

• Marinated chicken
• Vegetable oil- enough for frying
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Preparation:

• In a frying pan, heat the oil, add the curry leaves and shallow fry the chicken until it turns light golden on both sides.

• Transfer the fried chicken on a paper towel and keep aside.

• Save the oil for frying onions which is used for garnishing the biryani.

Step 4: Making the Masala:

Ingredients:

• Onion, cut lengthwise- 4 large onions
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp (if possible use freshly ground ginger-garlic paste)
• Green chilly, cut half- 3, or depending upon your spice level
• Tomatoes, chopped- 2
• Curry leaves- 6 no’s (optional)
• Fried Chicken- 12 pieces
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Yogurt- 3 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Coconut oil- 2 tbsp
• Ghee- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Heat a wide non-stick pan over medium heat, add coconut oil and ghee.
• Add onions along with salt and green chillies and saute until it turns transparent.

• When the onion turns tender, add ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute.
• Add tomatoes, curry leaves and saute until tomatoes get mashed.

• When the onion and tomatoes have turned tender, add the garam masala and fennel powder.
• Combine well and add the fried chicken to this.

• Give it a stir, add yogurt, lemon juice and combine well.

• Cover the pan with its lid and cook the chicken along with the onion masala for 15 minutes.
• Keep an eye on the masala, if the masala dries up add little water and continue cooking.
• Combine everything well and remove from the heat.

Step 5: Layering Rice and Chicken

Ingredients:

• Fried onions- 1 onion cut lengthwise and fried in the oil used for frying chicken
• Raisins, roasted in ghee- 2 tbsp
• Cashew nuts, roasted in ghee- 1/2 cup
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Mint leaves, chopped- 10 leaves (use fresh mint leaves)

How to Layer:

• In a flat baking bowl, first add half of the prepared chicken masala and make a layer.

• Add half of the cooked rice and make a layer on top of the chicken masala.

• Add half of the fried onions and half of the chopped cilantro, half of the chopped mint leaves on top of the rice and layer it.

• Repeat this one more time and on top garnish with fried onions, cilantro, mint, roasted cashews and roasted raisins.

Step 6: Baking

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Cover the bowl layered with rice and chicken masala with aluminum foil and bake for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let stand covered for half an hour.

Stove top cooking:

• Layer the chicken masala and rice as mentioned above in a large non-stick cooking pot.
• Cover the pot with aluminum foil and close it with its lid.
• Place the pot on stove top,turn on the heat to very low.
• Slow cook it for 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat after 15 minutes and let stand for half an hour covered.

Step 7: Serving

• While serving combine the rice and the chicken masala and serve with your choice side dish or with Raita, Pickle, Pappadum etc.

Tips:

• Use coconut oil for sautéing the onion, this gives a nice aroma to the biryani.
• Use fresh ingredients: ginger, garlic, green chilly, mint and cilantro.
• Fry the onion in the oil used for frying the chicken. Avoid using store bought fried onions.
• Sprinkle fresh mint leaves over the rice layer, the aroma of mint makes the biryani taste a whole lot better.
• For making homemade Fennel powder: Roast the fennel seeds or use roasted fennel seeds and ground it to fine powder. Sieve the powder and store it in an air-tight container.

My first love in the food world: Shrimp (Prawns) and it was love at first sight…

Whether it’s fried, sautéed, grilled or buried in a bowl of rice, I die for them and my love for shrimp never seems to subside even after meeting with other handsome guys in the food world: P

When the incredible food blogger Anamaris at Chef it yourself approached me with her idea of starting a Top chef challenge in her blog, I couldn’t just ignore it as I love challenges and it’s always fun participating in these contests. As this is the first challenge, she made it easy by asking the contestants to blog about a dish that represents them. When I read about this, I suddenly screamed voila, it’s darn easy and I can do this. Believe me that turned out to be a wrong scream. When I started to think about a dish, which is totally me, many dishes lined up in front of me and there was a huge conflict between the dishes. When I almost got settled on one dish, another one came to me and asked me: ‘don’t you think I am your type’ and then the next one popped out and the war continued for a while. Soon, I was seen compromising with each one of the dishes, as I don’t want to unfriend them or break their hearts. I love all the dishes unconditionally…

Growing up in Kerala, I had enjoyed seafood a lot. Seafood was served on almost everyday in my house, for lunch and dinner. In my hometown, we get fresh, catch of the day fishes, which is brought to the house by fish vendors. Among them, shellfish has been my favorite, especially Shrimp. Even now I remember how I used to butter up the fish vendors in advance to bring the fresh shrimp for me. And it always worked, they never failed to bring the fresh ones.

My favorite way of devouring shrimp is by deep-frying it after seasoning it with homemade spices. However, for this contest I am going to submit the recipe for ‘Shrimp Biryani’. Biryani is yet another famous dish in India, I doubt, if there would be any special occasions without biryani. Biryani could be referred as the dish, which is served during the time of happiness and special occasions. If you stop by my house during special occasions or festival season, you are guaranteed to be treated with homemade biryani made by my mom.

Shrimp and Biryani totally represent me, shrimp being my favorite and since I am a person who loves celebration and special occasions, biryani is my type of dish. When other dishes confronted with me, shrimp biryani won over my taste buds hands down.

This recipe was inspired from Vahchef.

Shrimp Biryani:

For making homemade Biryani Masala:

• Cloves- 10
• Black Cardamom- 4
• Maze- 3
• Bay leaf-2
• Green cardamom-10
• Cinnamon-3 sticks
• Pepper corn- 10
• Black cumin- 1/2 tsp
• Fried onion- 2 tbsp
• Chilly powder-1 tbsp
• Coriander powder- 2 tbsp
• Cumin powder-1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• Fennel powder- 2 tsp

Preparation:

• Grind the above ingredients into a fine powder and store it in an air-tight container.
• This biryani masala can be stored for few months.
• This can be used for making all kinds of biryani: Chicken, lamb, Fish, Vegetable etc

For Making Rice:

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice- 1 1/2 cups
• Cardamom- 3
• Cinnamon- 2 inch piece
• Cloves-3
• Bay leaves- 2
• Fennel seeds- 1 tsp
• Water- 2 1/2 cups
• Salt- to taste

Preparation of Rice:

• Soak the basmati rice in water for 30 minutes.
• In a large pot, add the water and the spices to it, let it come to a rolling boil.

• Season the water with required salt.
• Add the strained, soaked rice to the boiling water and cook in medium heat by covering the pot.

• Cook the rice to only 85-90%, remaining cooking has to be done along with the shrimp masala.
• If there is any water in the rice, strain it and keep aside.

Frying the Shrimp:

• Shrimp, deveined and de-shelled- 1 lb

• Ginger-garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- just enough for shallow frying the shrimp

Preparation:

• Devein, de-shell and clean the shrimp under running water.
• Add ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and salt to the shrimp and marinate it for 15 minutes.

• In a non-stick pan, add the oil, when it is heated through, add the shrimp and shallow fry it in batches, for 4 minutes.

• Don’t over fry it.
• Remove the shrimp from the oil and keep aside.

Making the Shrimp Masala and adding the rice

Ingredients:

• Oil- used for shallow frying the shrimp
• Yogurt- 1 1/2 cups
• Green chillies, chopped- 1 tbsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Mint, chopped- 1 handful( optional)
• Biryani Masala- 2 tbsp
• Salt- little
• Fried shrimp- 1 lb
• Cooked Rice- 1 1/2 cups

For Granish:

• Fried Onion, homemade or store bought- 1/2 cup
• Cilantro, chopped-1/4 cup
• Saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp milk- 2 pinches

Preparation:

• Heat a wide non-stick pot over medium heat, add the oil used for frying the shrimp.
• Add the yogurt to the oil, saute it.
• Add green chillies, cilantro, mint, salt, biryani masala and combine everything.
• Now, add the fried shrimp and mix it.

• Evenly spread the shrimp masala.
• Add the cooked rice on top of the shrimp masala and spread it as a layer.
• Garnish with fried onions, cilantro, and saffron.

• Cover the pot with it a tight lid and cook for 10 minutes over low-medium flame.
• While serving, combine the rice and shrimp masala together and serve with Raita.

Carrot Raita:

Ingredients

• Yogurt- 1 cup
• Red Onion, minced- 1/2 small onion
• Carrot, grated- 1
• Green chillies, chopped- 1 tsp
• Cilantro chopped- 1 handful
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Combine all the above ingredients in a medium bowl.
• Serve with Shrimp Biryani.

Tips:

• This recipe might look like a lengthy one, believe me it’s not that hard as it seems.
• Prepare the homemade Biryani masala the previous day and this can be stored for several months and can be used for making any kinds of biryani.
• On the day of making this, you just have to make the rice and the shrimp masala.
• You could simultaneously cook the rice and fry the shrimp.
• After frying the shrimp, start making the shrimp masala.
• By then rice must have cooked, spread the rice on the shrimp masala and cook for another 10 minutes.
• Wait and watch the magic: anyone who tastes this biryani will rave about your culinary skills and thus the  proud moment.