Prawns Biryani

There are different kinds of biryanis that I make. And thankfully S loves all of them. This Prawns Biryani is my mom's recipe. I dont remember eating it much as a kid. But my mom is a great magician, one day she just came up with this delicious dish and has been my favorite since. She had made it the first time my husband and in-laws had visited us after the engagement. Not as heavy as mutton or chicken biryani, very easy to make and served with just a tomato-onion raita or fried fish, this is one of my best recipes:) To tell you the truth I think my husband likes it better than my prawns curry. If done at a stretch, then this biryani can be done in under 1 hour. My duckie isnt a big fan of biryanis yet, but I am hoping that he grows up to like this biryani. I usually have prawns in my freezer, so whenever I am in a crunch as to what to cook and all I have is rice, onions, masalas and the occasional potato, guess whats right on the top of my list??

Recipe:
For the Rice:
4 cups of uncooked basmati rice
5 peppercorns
5 cloves
4 cardmoms
1" cinnamon stick
4-5 bay leaves
4 tsps clarified butter (oil will do but the flavor differs)
8 cups of hot water
salt to taste

For the Prawns:
1 lb cleaned, deveined prawns
2 large onions, diced
handful of cilantro for garnishing
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 TBS green masala( handful cilantro 2-3 green chillies. 2" ginger and 1 cup peeled garlic cloves pureed together. If you dont have this masala, use ginger garlic paste.)
salt to taste
oil for cooking
2-3 bay leaves

For Garnishing:
2 onions
1 large potato
2 hard boiled eggs

Preparation:

Garnishing: Slice the onions thinly. Microwave them for 5-6 mins till they turn soft, this way they fry quickly. Save your time, energy and gas. (thanks, MIL for the tip) Heat a large pot and add enough oil to it for frying. Once hot add the onions to it and fry till golden brown and crunchy. Take care they donot burn. Transfer to a plate and season with salt. Slice the potato french-fries style and fry till golden brown and crisp. Peel and slice the eggs. Keep this aside for garnishing.
Wash the rice in water and set aside. Marinate the prawns with salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, green masala. Set aside for 15 mins. Heat oil in a pan. When hot add bay leaves and then onion. Cook till light brown and soft. Add the prawns and cook well. Add garam masala and turn off the flame.
Heat a large pot and add clrified butter to it. Add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorn, cardmoms in quick succession taking care that it doesnot burn. Then add rice. Saute the rice till light pink. Do this on medium flame. Then turn on high flame and add 8 cups of water to it. Let it come to a rolling boil. Add salt to the water. Let the water boil for few seconds, then turn the flame on medium low and cover the pot. Once the water disappers, turn the flame on low and cook for few mins. Turn off the flame and remove from the stove when the rice is completely cooked. The rice shouldn't remain aldente. It takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, its really easy. Keep the rice pot covered.
Layering: This is the most important part of biryani. Take the same pot in which you have cooked rice. Empty the pot, put the rice in other bowl. Apply a think layer of clarified butter or oil at the bottoom. collect all the bayleaves used for cooking prawns and rice and arrange them in a circle at teh bottom. Divide the rice into 3 portions. Divide the prawns into 2 portions. Divide the onions into 2 portions. Layer one portion of rice at the bottom, then a layer of prawns. Then layer again with rice and then one portion of fried onions. Layer the onions with layer of prawns and then the last layer of rice. Layer the top most layer of rice with onions and french fries. Arrange the egg slices in a circle on the very top. Drizzle little warm clrified butter on the top. Cover the pot and let it cook on medium-low flame till it steams. Turn off the flame once it steams, let the stem settle for 10 mins and then serve hot with raita.
I know this might be a lengthy process for some, but it is definetly worth it. The delicious aroma of cooked basmati rice, masalas and prawns always get me salivating. My stomach starts growling as I cook and layer it. I love this biryani, and I am sure so will you:)
Dipti

Chicken Biryani

India should be called as the land of biryani instead of the land of curry. There are so many different kinds of biryanis, I havent been able to try all of them out...yet. THe biryani shown above is very easy to make, doesnt take a lot of time and everyone likes it. This particular kind of chicken biryani is not my own recipe but given to me by S's friend and borrowed from SHAAN masala packet. There's a little story as to how I got this recipe. I have a great mutton biryani recipe, awesome prawns biryani and amazing vegetable biryani. I was in search for a good chicken biryani. S always used to reminisce about the great chicken biryani his friend used to get for lunch. So when we went to visit her, we asked her to make the biryani. And it was great. I hadn't eaten such good biryani in a long time. So many helpings and spoonfuls later I asked her to email me the recipe and she is such a sweet person, she sent me the recipe. This recipes has been tweaked a little to suit my taste. S loves this recipe. My parents loves this biryani, his parents love this biryani, everything is good.:)
Recipe:

FOR CHICKEN
1 whole chicken cut into medium pieces and washed.
2 large tomatoes
2 large onions
1 laarge potato
1 packet shaan bombay biryani masala
oil for cooking
1 cup yogurt
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2-3 bay leaves
2-3 peppercorns
2-3 cloves
1-2 cardamom pods


FOR RICE
5 cups basmati rice
6 cloves
6peppercorns
1" cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
4-5 bay leaves
3-4 tsp ghee
few strands saffron-soaked in water/milk for 30mins.

Wash, clean and cut the chicken into medium pieces. dice tomatoes into small pieces. Slice the onion thinly and fry them in kadai till golden brown. Take care that they do not burn or will taste bitter. ONce the onions are removed from the kadai, season them immediately with salt. Divide the fried onions into 2 portions.
Cut the potato french - fries style and fry till golden brown and keep aside. Wash and chop the cilantro.
Marinate the chicken with the following: ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, entire packet of shaan masala, half the portion of fried onions, tomatoes, entire chopped cilantro 5-6 tsps oil from the fried onions kadai and yogurt. Set this aside for atleast 45 mins.
Meanwhile cook rice in a thick-bottom pot. First wash the rice and keep aside for 10 mins. Heat the pot and add ghee to it. Then add bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick and peppercorns. Saute for 10 secs. Already the ghee will start smelling of the wonderful spices. Then add rice and saute for 2 mins till slightly pink-brown. Then add twice the amount of water. So since I used 5 cups rice, I used 10 cups of warm water. When the water comes to a rolling boil season with salt. Remember that the chicken already has salt in it and the onions/fries are also salted. So add salt accordingly. The rice for this biryani is cooked less than aldente, so when it feels raw. turn off the flame and drain of the water from the rice. Divide into 2 portions and keep aside.
Take a large thick-bottom pot for layering of biryani. OIl the bottom of the pot with 2 tsp of oil. Then put the entire chicken mixture on it. Then add one portion of rice and level with chicken. Sprinkle water-saffron mixture on the rice evenly. Saffron gives a lovely yellow-orange color to the rice while the water helps in cooking the rice over steam. then layer with half portion of onions. Then again layer with rice and saffron-water mixture and top with onions and fries. The seal the pot with aluminum paper and cook it over medium flame. when the chicken and rice are done -usually around 30-40 mins then you will be able to smell and see the steam rising from the pot. This biryani cooks mainly over steam and needs very little oil.
Serve hot with extra crunchy fried onions garnished on the top and side of tomato-onion raita(salad) .

Egg Fried Rice

When I was in India, I used to eat loads of indo-chinese food. I still do that. Manchurian was my perennial favorite which we used to have with either fried rice or hakka noodles. The first chinese dish I learnt to cook was fried rice and is the most easiest one for me. The only thing is, chopping for veggies take a lot of time so I start the chopping 2 days in advance. I add loads of veggies - cabbage, carrot, french beans, spring onions, white onions, green bell pepper etc. And i like to slice them very thinly.

I did not use any special rice for this dish justy the usual basmati rice that you get here. But I did add chicken stock while cooking. It just tastes better with it. Ofcourse, its optional. A little soy sauce, a little chilli sauce, a pinch of salt, a dash of black pepper and this rice was ready:) My little duckie loved this rice so much that he wouldnt eat anything else the entire day. And I added some scrambled eggs( i dont add milk while preparing these just plain salt and pepper).

Recipe:

2 Cups basmati rice

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup sliced green (french) beans

1/2 cup green/red/yellow bell pepper

1/2 cup spring onions cut into small rounds, white and greens separate

1/2 cup thinly sliced white onion

salt to taste

pepper to taste

3 tsp soy sauce ( i use chings)

1 1/2 tsp red chilli sauce (i use chings)

2 eggs scrambled with salt and pepper.

Oil for cooking

Preparation:

Cook the white rice separatley in a heavy bottom pan instead of a pressure cooker. This helps the rice grains to cook properly and they separate out into individual grains. For cooking 2 cups rice use 4 cups of water. I sometimes use chicken stock for cooking rice, this increases the flavor. Heat a wok/ kadai on high flame. Add oil and let it get hot. Add white sliced onions and stirfry it for a minute. Add carrot and stir fry it for a minute. Add french beans and stir fry it for a minute. Similarly add bell pepper and thinly shredded cabbage stirfrying it for a minute. The key is to add veggies which take a while to cook, eg. carrot and french beans first and then add rest of the stuff. After the veggies are done add soy sauce, salt, pepper, chilli sauce in quick successions and saute for a minute. Then add the cooked rice and mix well. top it with scrambled eggs and serve as EGG FRIED RICE. This rice tastes good as it is or with any indo-chinese dish like manchurian or chilli chicken.

S loves this dish and my little duckie loves it too. This quick to make and great to eat rice dish is definately a keeper:)