Baked Biriyani - Quick and Simple

For those of you wondering how you could make a Baked biriyani without an oven, I still have the way out...you could "dum cook" it on your non stick pan over stove top too....So, here is the recipe...inspired from Tarla Dalal's vegetarian cooking book....oh...how i love to try her recipe's...! Was bored to cook the routine curry and kootu last night and was flipping through the book and tried this Biriyani....it tasted awesome....

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 45 mins Recipe for : 2 pax

Ingredients:

2 cups of mixed veggies ( cut into small pieces, carrots, potato, cauliflower, beans, green peas, bell pepper...)

1 cup basmati rice washed and soaked

1 onion finely sliced

2 tbsp thick curd

2 tsp milk

1/4 tsp saffron

1/2 tsp sugar

4 tbsp ghee

Salt to taste

To be ground into a paste:

6-7 small onions for grinding. If not available use half of a medium sized onion

2 cloves garlic

1 inch of fresh ginger

1/2 tsp Khus-Khus

1/2 tsp aniseed (saunf)

1 medium red chilly

1 medium green chilly

4 curry leaves

2 cloves

1 small stick cinnamon

2 peppercorns

1 tbsp grated coconut

1/2 tsp coriander seeds (dhania)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds ( jeera)

For those who need the dish extra hot, you could use 1 more red chilly or green chilly....this is best left to your judgement and taste pallet..:-)

Cooking:

- Boil the rice. Each grain of the cooked rice should be separate. Add some salt while cooking.

- Boil / steam the mixed veggies with some salt and set them aside. Do not over boil.

- In a pan heat 2 tbsp of ghee and fry the thinly sliced onion to a deep golden brown colour

- Dissolve the saffron in 2 tsp of warm milk and pour over the cooked rice in some pattern. This colors the rice very beautifully. Some white and some light orange...

- Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a vessel and fry the paste for at least 3 to 4 mins

- Cool, add the curd, sugar and salt to taste

Baking:

- In a baking dish, coat the bottom with a tbsp of ghee and sprinkle a few of the fried onions at the bottom

- Spread half the rice over the onions.

- Spread the paste over the rice.

- Sprinkle the boiled veggies over the paste.

- Cover the Veggies with the remaining rice and onions.

- Cover the dish and bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 deg F for 25 mins.

Non- Oven baking:

- Do the same steps as in the "Baking" above, except , use a non-stick cooking pan instead of a baking dish.

- Leave the pan covered on low-medium on stove top for 25 mins

Once done, turn upside down on a big serving plate just before serving or laddle the rice the whole depth from the cooking pan or baking dish on to the serving plate.

Serve with onion raitha and chips! Easy and quick to make and tastes amazing when eaten hot, straight from the oven....

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