A plate full of hot, fragrant rice and mushroom cooked with crispy onions and spiced yoghurt sauce.
I have already 5 Biryani recipes 🙂 which means you would have known by now that I love cooking Biryani. Many find it difficult but it is not and it is worth the time it takes. I am not saying this 😉 Just like that! Trust me! I remember when I first tried to cook biryani before 3 years I would always make the rice mushy so I never liked to do Biryani after it. I will motivate again myself to do it and tried. I somehow found the tricks after a first few times 🙂 Now I am sure a pro 😀 proudly would say that! Never failed 🙂 And I still love to get comments even I know that it is good 😀 Like today when I received a comment for my sambar 😉 I went all blushing! 😀 May be I got the comment to see me blush 😉 whatever..:)
It is always that comments and love which makes me cook next time!
To be honest, it does take time to cook biryani than many easy 10 minutes food. I even don’t like to post time consuming recipes but it is so tasty that I could not resist myself not posting it. The best thing about biryani is that it tastes great even the next day and the day after. It will save you from cooking for next three days and it will never be like you are tasting leftover food! Awesome right?
Biryani is one of the most favorite dishes. My mom has never cooked mushroom when I was a kid, so I used to be hesitant to eat or cook them. Then had it when I went out with friends and I found it tasty and no harm cooking them 🙂 . May be I will cook this for her sometime 🙂 and also I realized that I don’t have a lot of mushroom recipes somehow. I always add them to noodles and pastas but I don’t tend to make them on weekends 🙂 somehow and here is the mushroom Recipes that I have – Mushroom Pepper Mini Quesadilla, Malai Pepper Mushroom with some colourful mushrooms.
I have some good biryani collection recipes. 🙂 If you would like to view it – Restaurant style vegetable Biryani, Paneer Biryani, Hyderabadi Egg Biryani, Restaurant style Lamb Biryani, Prawn Biryani.
To make it vegan, skin the yogurt or replace with vegan yogurt. And also replace ghee with oil.
- • Oil – 1tbsp
- • Bay leaf – ½
- • Cinnamon – 1 thin piece
- • Cloves – 3
- • Cardamom pods -2
- • Yogurt – 2 tbsp
- • Basmati Rice – 3 cups
- • Biryani Masala – 1 tbsp
- • Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
- • Garlic – 4, chopped
- • Green chilli – 2, slit into two
for garnish: - • Saffron – ½ tsp dissolved in ½ cup warm milk
- • Ghee – 2 tbsp (or oil)
- • Mint – 2 tbsp finely chopped (to garnish)
For fried onions: - • Onions – 2 small onions, ½ cup, sliced thinly
- • Oil – to fry (3 - 4 tbsp)
For rice masala: - • Cashew nuts – 6
- • Khus khus (white poppy seeds) – ½ tbsp.
- • Cumin seeds/ jeera – ½ tbsp
- • Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp.
- • Garlic – 4 pods
- • Ginger – 1 inch
- • Green chilli – 6
- • Tomato – ½, medium sized, chopped
- • Mint – ½ cup, chopped finely
- • Coriander leaves – ½ cup, chopped finely.
- Wash and soak rice for atleast 30 -40 minutes.
For Fried onions: - Heat a pan with oil, add the sliced onions and cook in medium heat till turn golden brown. Stir in the middle so that it does not stick to the bottom. Set aside.
For masala: - Grind the garlic, ginger, mint, coriander, cashews, poppy seeds, fennel seeds, tomatoes, cumin seeds, chillis with two tbsp. of water into a smooth paste.
- Now take a big pan, add oil or ghee in medium heat, add the spices (cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves), and add garlic and chillies and sauté for a minute. Now add the grinded paste and sauté them till the raw smell leaves and little oil oozes out.
- Now add the mushroom, yogurt, chilli powder, biryani powder and mix well. I always move the skillet away from the heat when adding yogurt which prevents it from curdling.
- Now after returning the skillet back to the stove, add the rice and salt and water. ( Quantity of water to be added is for one cup of rice , it is 1.5 cups of water). Mix well and close the lid tight and keep it in medium heat for 10 minutes. Now add the marinated fried onions and chopped mint for garnish and keep it in low for 5 minutes.
- Drizzle the saffron milk over the rice and Switch off, and keep it closed for another 5 minutes. They will help the rice to get the saffron flavors and vice versa.
It taste great with a raita (Garlic Raita / Cucumber carrot Raita), or Mirchi ka salan or even plain biryani will taste delicious 🙂
