THE BIRYANI GETS A TWIST

THE BIRYANI GETS A TWIST





If you haven't prepared biryani at Eid, try different ways to make it now...

Very little compares with the aroma that wafts through the kitchen when a biryani is cooking.
Derived from the Persian word `biriyan' (meaning fried before cooking), the elaborately prepared layered meat and rice dish goes back as far as 2,000 years! Today, you will find delightful variations through India -from Hyderabad's Kacche Gosht style, to the nawabi `Dumpukht style' in Lucknow and Hyderabad, the Arab-influenced Moplah biryani with the fish or prawns, a Kashmiri version with asafoetida and the spicier Kolkata version with its generous use of potatoes.

Here are a few recipes to try out...The Kacche Gosht ki Biryani at The Sahib Room, the new signature Indian restaurant at Palladium Hotel, is a classic preparation. For it, soak the leg of lamb in milk overnight and cook it with raw, longgrain basmati rice and whole earth spices. It is made in the dum style where the pot is covered with a thick layer of dough that ensures that the flavours from the spices seep into the rice and meat.
-Chef Paul Kinny

ACCOMPANIMENT: MIRCHI KA SALAN
This is a must-have side dish with Hyderabadi biryani. Food blogger Priya Ranjit shares a recipe... METHOD No Heat oil in a skillet and fry 15 jalapenos for 3-4 minutes. Drain. In the same skillet, fry the 12 cup peanuts and 3 tbsp dried coconut desiccated coconut. Add 2 tbsp sesame seeds and dry roast it. Transfer to a plate.

In the same skillet add cumin, fennel, fenu greek (all 12 tsp), red chilli, hing and mus tard seeds (14 tsp). Add some curry leaves and a chopped onion. Let the onions turn golden. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook. Grind the roasted and cooled ingredients along with a few green chillies, to a smooth paste. Add all the dry masalas and the smooth thick paste to the onions and some salt. Let the oil separate from the paste.
Add a cup water and bring to boil. Add the jalapenos and 2 tbsp tamarind paste and let it cook for four minutes until all the flavours combine.
Serve it with Hyderabadi biryani.

Remember...
Sesame tends to burn soon, so do not dry roast it along with peanuts.
Slit the jalapenos before frying or else they will burst during the process.

SAFED BIRYANI
SAFED BIRYANI INGREDIENTS Lamb curry cut 500g Onion 4 to 5 Ginger-garlic paste 4tsp Whole ginger and garlic pod 2 g Fennel seeds 1 tsp Whole garam masala 2 tsp Small muslin cloth Rice 1 kg (soaked for 1 hour) Salt to taste Chaat masala 1 tsp Turmeric powder ½ tsp Green chilly paste about 8 small Coriander powder 2 tsp Jeera powder 2 tsp Garam masala powder 2tsp Black cardamom 2pc Oil 200ml METHOD Make a potli in muslin cloth of whole garlic, and ginger, sliced onion, whole garam masala, car damom, saunf, black cardamom and salt.

Take mutton. Add enough water to a pressure cooker. Add the potli and cook for 40 minutes.

Remove the meat with the potli in a clean vessel and squeeze it's juice over the mutton.
Keep aside.

Heat oil and sauté onions until golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste. Add mutton from stock and sauté well add garam masala, green chilly paste, coriander and jeera powders until the masala is well cooked. Add the balance stock to the mutton and boil. Add soaked rice (soaked for half an hour).
Let all water evaporate. Stir once and leave it on dum (put a tava under the vessel).
The rice cooks after about 40 minutes.
-Chef Navidakhtar Sayyad

MASTANVI JHEENGA BIRYANI
INGREDIENTS Prawns 2kg (jumbo size, in salt and garlic) Long grain Basmati rice 1kg (pre-soaked 30 mins in water) Ghee 250g Onion, sliced 2pc Ginger-garlic paste 2tsp Yellow chilli powder ½ tsp Cardamom powder 1tsp Clove 5pc Cardamom 5pc Mace powder ¼ tsp Salt 1tsp Star anise 6pc Yoghurt 150g Cashew paste 1tsp Sweetened tin milk 2tsp Mint a bunch Dissolved saffron 1g PRAWN KORMA: Heat ghee and sautee onions. Add ginger garlic paste. Add the prawns and salt, half the quantity of cloves, half the cardamom, some star anise and simmer for 20 minutes (add water so it does not stick). Now, add mace and car damom powders, yoghurt, yellow chill powder, cashew nut paste and thick cream and cook for five minutes.

FOR THE RICE: Add 1.5 litres water to the soaked rice, plus salt, remaining cloves, star anise and cardamom. Boil the rice till half done. Drain the water.

FOR THE DUM BIRYANI: In a copper handi arrange the prawn with the curry at the bottom and cover with boiled rice. Put saffron water, chopped mint and apply some amount of ghee on rice. Seal with a lid or wrap with silver foil and cook over very slow heat for 15 minutes on dum. Serve hot, with a rich raita.
-Chef Mujeebur Rehman