Beef Biryani

Masala Beef:

2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 kilo boneless chuck or blade steak, cut into chunks
1 large onion, chopped roughly
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 green chili, chopped
¼ cup of cilantro stalks, chopped
¼ cup mint leaves, chopped
4 – 5 tablespoons biriyani spice mix*
2 large tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup beef or chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Biriyani Rice:

I tablespoon oil
½ tablespoon unsalted butter
1 inch piece of cassia bark
4 – 5 whole cloves
4 – 5 whole green cardamom pods
1 star anise
1 bay leaf
3 cups basmati rice
4 ½ cups boiling water
¼ teaspoon salt
A generous pinch of saffron

Garnishes:

2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
¼ cup unsalted cashew nuts
¼ unsalted raisins
Splash of rosewater
Small handful finely chopped cilantro
Small handful finely chopped mint
4 boiled eggs (optional) 

Raita:

1 cucumber, seeds removed, and finely diced
¼ cup plain Greek style yogurt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Salt to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 300 F.

In a heavy, oven safe pot, drizzle in some oil, then sear the beef chunks on all sides, until caramelized and sealed. Do this in batches to avoid crowding the pan, and add more oil, as required. Remove the beef pieces to a plate.

Add the onion to the same pan, and fry, scraping up any caramelized bits of meat. Fry for a few minutes, until the onion starts to go brown around the edges, then add the garlic, ginger and green chili. Fry for 30 seconds, then add the cilantro and mint. When the herbs wilt, add the biriyani spice mix, and fry for an additional minute. Take off the heat, and scrape into a food processor or blender. Blend this onion mixture into a fine paste.

Add an extra splash of oil into the same pot, and return the onion masala to the pot. Add the tomatoes, beef and stock and bring to a gentle simmer.  Season with a little salt. Place a cartouche made of parchment paper on top of the sauce, then cover with a lid, and transfer to the oven. Let the meat slow cook in the oven for at least 2  - 3 hours, checking on the liquid level, every hour or so. Top up with extra stock, if it looks like it is drying out.
Meanwhile make the rice and garnishes.

Place the oil and the butter for the rice in a heavy based pan. When hot, add the cloves, cardamom, cassia, star anise and bay leaf. Fry for a minute until the spices are fragrant, then add the rice. Fry the rice for an additional minute.

Add the saffron, salt and boiling water to the rice. Use aluminium foil or a tight fitting lid, cover and cook the rice over a low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let the rice steam for an additional 5 – 10 minutes. Carefully open the lid and fluff the rice up with a fork.
For the garnishes, place the oil in a small pan, and add the onions. Caramelize the onions on a low heat for 20 – 30 minutes, until sweet and brown. Add a pinch of sugar to speed up the process, if you wish. To the same pan, add the cashews and raisins, and toast for a minute. Remove to a bowl and keep aside. When the beef is cooked, add a tablespoon of almond paste to the sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Start layering the biriyani. In a large, oven safe pot, or serving dish, place a layer of rice. Then add about a third of the beef masala on top. Sprinkle over a few caramelized onions, raisins and cashews, then a sprinkle of rosewater, cilantro and mint. Add a second layer of rice, then a second layer of beef , caramelized onions, raisins, cashews, rosewater, cilantro and mint.

Finish with a layer of rice. Sprinkle over the remaining onions, raisins, cashews, cilantro and mint and another splash of rosewater. Tuck halved eggs on top of the rice (if using) then cover with foil or a tight fitting lid and transfer back to a 200 F oven until ready to serve.

To make the raita, mix together the cucumber, yogurt and cumin. Season to taste with salt.

Serve the biriyani with the raita on the side.


*

3 inch stick of cinnamon or cassia bark

10 cloves

10 cardamom pods, lightly crushed (if using black cardamom, reduce to 5 pods)

4 bay leaves, dried

4 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp whole cumin

1 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg (freshly grated is better)

3 or 4 pods of black cardamom, opened and lightly crushed (optional)

2 long mild red chillies

In a hot, heavy pan, add all the spices, except the nutmeg, and toss them around, constantly stirring, for around 1 - 3 minutes until they are lightly toasted and the kitchen smells heavenly! Do not allow the spices to burn, keep a sharp eye out. 

In a powerful spice blender, grind the spices till they are a fine powder. Add the grated nutmeg to the mix, stir and it is ready to use. If making a big batch, store in an airtight container.

Easy Lamb Biryani

For the Marinade

• 450g lamb* – diced into bite sized pieces
• 2cm ginger – peeled and grated
• 3 cloves garlic – crushed
• 1tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp turmeric
• 3tsp garam masala
• 2tsp ground coriander
• 2tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp black peppercorns crushed
• 1 stick cinnamon broken in half
• 125ml natural yogurt

• 2tbsp sunflower oil
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 2 onions sliced
• 3 tomatoes remove seeds and dice
• 3 bay leaves
• 300g Basmati rice
• 500ml vegetable stock
• latge handful spinach + sprinkle fresh corriander
• slivered almonds (optional)

1. Place all ingredients for marinade in a glass bowl, mix well and chill for at least 2 hours (ideally over night and remove from fridge 1hour before cooking).
2. Prepare rice by soaking for at least 30mins and rinsing well in a sieve until the water runs clear.
3. Add the oil to a large hot pan and fry the cumin seeds until they sizzle, when this happens add the onion and fry until soft and brown.
4. Pour in the lamb mix, add the tomatoes and continue to cook on a high heat for 5 minutes continually stirring, to make sure the spices are cooked through.
5. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer for 25mins to ensure the lamb becomes tender.
6. Add the bay leaf, rice and vegetable stock, stir and cover again, leave on a low heat for a further 20 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat, remove lid, add spinach and stir once, replace the lid.
8. Let this stand for 10mins to ensure the rice is light and fluffy.

From Tilda website.

* 6 large chicken thighs if using chicken

Prashad Vegetable biryani

The fried vegetables, rice and dhal for this dish are cooked separately then layered together to form a dish of contrasting flavours and textures. Whole masoor dhal, used in this dish, has a speckled greenish-brown skin and a reddish-orange centre. The whole lentils have a chewier texture and a stronger flavour than when in red split lentil form, and also take longer to cook, so I precook them separately from the rice.

Serves 6–8

½ teaspoon garam masala
¾ teaspoon salt
10 dried Indian bay leaves
70g unsalted butter

For the dhal:
 
200g whole masoor dhal (whole red lentils)
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
For the fried vegetables:
sunflower oil, for frying
2 medium red-skinned (or other waxy) potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
2 medium carrots, cut into 2cm cubes
1 small red pepper, deseeded and cut into 3cm cubes
1 small green pepper, deseeded and cut into 3cm cubes
1 small yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into 3cm cubes
2 medium onions, cut into 1cm strips

For the masala:
 
4–6 fresh green chillies, seeds left in
2–4 cloves of garlic
5cm root ginger, peeled and roughly
chopped
pinch of salt

For the rice:
 
200g basmati rice
100ml sunflower oil
¾ teaspoon salt

Rinse the masoor dhal at least 3 times in warm water, then drain and place in a large pan with 650ml of boiling water. Bring to the boil, then simmer over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until it starts to foam. Skim the froth from the surface, add the teaspoon of oil and simmer three-quarters covered for 18–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the dhal is soft and cooked through. Remove from the heat, drain and set aside.
Heat the frying oil – about 20cm deep – in a large pan. Test the temperature by dropping a potato cube into the oil – when it is hot enough, the potato will immediately start to sizzle and bubble. Reduce to the heat to medium.
Carefully lower the potatoes into the oil and use a wooden spoon to move them around so that they cook evenly all over. Fry for 4–5 minutes, or until golden brown and just becoming crisp. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and leave to rest on kitchen paper while you fry the other vegetables.
Fry the carrots for 2 minutes, moving them around so that they cook evenly, then remove and leave to rest on kitchen paper. Next fry the pepper pieces for 2–3 minutes, then remove and leave to rest with the potatoes and carrots. Finally, fry the onions for 7–8 minutes and add to the other fried vegetables.
Crush the chillies, garlic and ginger together with a pinch of salt using a pestle and mortar (or a blender), to make a fine masala paste.
Rinse the rice twice in warm water, then drain. Heat the 100ml of oil for the rice in a large pan over a high heat for 30 seconds. Add the rice, salt and masala paste and stir gently. Fry together for a minute, then pour in 650ml of boiling water.
Boil the rice uncovered over a high heat for 10–11 minutes, until almost all the water has evaporated and it starts to look dry. Put a large square of foil on top,
tucking it round the sides, then put a lid on the pan, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and leave to cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Tip the dhal into a large bowl. Add the garam masala, salt and bay leaves and mix gently. Add the rice and butter and gently mix again to combine.
Spoon about a third of the rice / dhal mixture back into the rice cooking pan to form a layer roughly 2cm thick, followed by half the fried vegetables. Add another layer of rice / dhal mixture (about half of what's left), followed by the rest of the fried vegetables. Use the remaining rice / dhal to create a final layer.
Put a large square of foil on top, tucking it round the sides, then put a lid on the pan and place it over a high heat for 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and leave to cook for 18–20 minutes or so, then remove from the heat and set aside to rest, covered, for at least 10 minutes.
Serve piping hot, spooning up from the bottom of the pan to make sure each serving contains all the different layers (removing the bay leaves as you come across them).

Chicken Biryani by Madhur Jaffrey

Chicken Biryani

serves 6-8

Biryani is perhaps one of our most elaborate rice dishes. Of Moghul origin, it is cooked with lam or chicken, streaked with saffron, and garnished with raisins and nuts. The chicken is first marinated for at least 2 hours in a delicious paste of ginger, garlic, onions, yogurt, lemon juice, and spices. It is then cooked briefly. Partially cooked rice is placed over it, and the chicken and rice are allowed to steam for about an hour.

6 onions, medium sized
4 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 piece ginger, 2 inches long, peeled and chopped
10 cloves, whole
20 peppercorns, black, whole
seeds from 8 whole cardamom pods
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp coriander, ground (heaped)
1 tsp cumin ground       (heaped)
1 tsp poppy seeds, whole (optional)
1/4 tsp mace, ground
1 tsp red chilli powder (optional)
4 1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lemon juice
250 ml (8oz) plain yogurt
8 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
4 black cardamoms
900g chicken legs and breasts
1 tsp saffron, roasted and crumbled
2 Tbsp milk
2 cup long-grain rice

2 Tbsp golden raisins, fried
2 Tbsp blanched almonds
2 eggs, hard-boiled, sliced or quartered

First you have to make the marinade for the chicken.

Peel and coarsely chop 3 of the onions. Place chopped onion, garlic, and ginger in an electric blender, along with the cloves, peppercorns, the seeds only from the 8 cardamoms, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, poppy seeds, mace,chilli powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the lemon juice.
Blend all of these at high speed until you have a smooth paste. Place this paste in a large bowl. Add the yogurt and mix well.

Now peel the 3 remaining onions. Slice them into very fine rings, and halve all the rings.
In a 10-inch heavy-bottomed skillet, heat the oil over medium flame.
When hot, add 2 bay leaves and 4 black cardamoms. Fry for about 10 to 15 seconds. Now put in the onions and fry them, stirring, for about 10 minutes or until they get brown and crisp (but not burned). Remove them carefully with a slotted spoon, squeezing out as much of the oil as possible. Reserve all the onion-flavored
oil, the black cardamoms, and the bay leaves. You will need them later. Mix in two-thirds of the fried onions with the marinade paste. Place the rest on a paper towel to drain. Set aside for
garnishing.
Remove skin from the chicken legs and breasts. Cut
the legs into two pieces each (drumstick and thigh), and quarter all the breasts. Pierce the chicken pieces with a fork and place
in the bowl with the marinade paste. Mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Turn occasionally.

After 2 hours (or more), remove the bowl from the refrigerator and place all its contents in a 3-4-quart heavy-bottomed pot. Bring slowly to a boil, cover, lower heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove only the chicken pieces, place them in a 5-quart casserole dish, and cover. Set aside. On a medium flame, boil down the marinade paste, stirring, until you have about 9 to 10 tablespoons
left. Spoon the paste over the chicken. Cover again.

Preheat oven to 150 C.

Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons hot (not boiling) milk. Bring
about 13 cups water with 3 teaspoons of salt to a boil in a 4-quart pot, then add the rice. After it has come to a boil again, cook 5 minutes, timing very carefully (the rice must not cook through). Drain the rice in a colander, then place it on top of the chicken in the casserole. Pour the saffron milk over the rice, streaking
it with orange lines. Spoon out the onion-flavored oil from the pan, reserving a level tablespoon to fry the raisins if you like.
Sprinkle the oil, cardamom, and bay leaves over the rice. Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil, cut 2 inches wider than the rim of the dish. Now put the lid on and use the protuding foil edges to seal the dish as best you can by crinkling it and pushing it against the sides. Bake 1 hour.

Pile the rice over the partially cooked chicken in a slight “mountain”, higher in the center, and, using the handle of a wooden spoon, I created a hole in the centre of the rice “mountain” before spilling the saffron milk and onion-flavoured oil over it.

Garnishes: There are several garnishes that can be used for biryani; you can use them all, or only what you like, but the fried onions are a must. If you wish to use raisins, you can fry them in a tablespoon of the onion-flavored oil just after you have fried the onions.

To serve: As you lift the cover off your casserole dish, you will see beautiful saffron streaks on the white rice. Spoon the rice and chicken out onto a large platter. Sprinkle fried onions and other garnishes of your choice over, and serve hot. With Biryani, serve Koftas and some yogurt dish-Yogurt with tiny dumplings, or Yogurt with Potatoes. If you wish to serve a vegetable, Cauliflower with Ginger and Chinese Parsley would be very good.

Biryani is quite definitely not an every day dish. It is served at weddings and important dinners. Try serving it at a late summer party. It was, and is, a dish worthy of a king.

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Chicken Biryani

Ingredients for marinating the chicken
* 1 Kilo Chicken on the bone cut into 12-16 pieces
* 1 cup of curd
* 1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
* 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
* 1 Teaspoon of coriander powder
* a little salt
Mix all of the above ingredients and let the chicken marinate for 6-12 hours, more the better.

Herbs, spices and condiments used are as follows
* 8 cloves
* 1 Cinnamon stick
* 6 green Cardamoms
* 2 Bay leaves
* 1/2 Teaspoon shahi jeera (caraway seeds)
* a few pinches grated nutmeg and mace each
* 1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
* 1 Teaspoon red Chili powder (to taste)
* 5-6 Tablespoon of chopped fresh mint
* 2-3 chopped green Chilies
* 4-5 chopped Tomatoes
* a whole bunch of fresh coriander leaves

For fried onions
About 8-9 medium size onions

Other Ingredients
* 500 g good basmati rice
* Oil for deep frying and 3-4 tablespoon for cooking
* 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
* 1/2 cup of milk
* a few strands of Saffron (kesar)
* Desi ghee (clarified butter) about 6-7 Tablespoons
* Cashew nuts ( a few or as many as you want)
* Raisins and almonds are optional
* Salt to taste

Deep fry the onions
While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions very thin. You can use a food processor for this or a slicer. Now heat oil and fry these sliced onions in batches. The heat should be medium. Definitely not high, otherwise the onions will get burned.
Stir the onions continuously for uniform browning. When they become light brown, drain them on kitchen paper. Keep them aside. They will get nice crispy as they cool down.

Cook the Chicken

Take a deep, wide mouth vessel and heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in it. In this add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms, little bit of shahi jeera and allow to crackle. Now add a tablespoon of ginger garlic paste and stir a little. Now tip out all the marinated chicken and the marinade. Cook on a high flame so that the water gets evaporated quickly. Add the chopped tomatoes, mint, green chilies, all dry powders(coriander, chili), and salt. Cook till the chicken is cooked and the gravy (masala) is not watery. Add one third of the fried onions. Mix well. Keep aside.
Parboil the rice

Boiling rice is one of the most important part of cooking a biryani. The rice needs to be parboiled. Meaning, it should be three fourth cooked. The rest of it gets cooked on dum (when we layer the chicken and rice, seal it and put on a very slow fire).
To boil the rice take a big deep wide mouth vessel, add lots of water (at least 10 times more than rice). Add ample salt (this is very important because the rice needs to be salty when cooked). Also add a cinnamon stick, a couple of green cardamoms, a few cloves and the rest of caraway seeds (shahi jeera), for flavoring the rice.
Now boil all this for a few minutes on a high flame (7 minutes or so). This is how to check if the rice is done. Without burning your fingers, take a few grains of rice (use a clean spoon to take some out of the boiling water), break a grain, if it breaks into 3 parts easily, your rice is done.
Strain the rice and spread it on a clean surface ( a tray or something), so that it cools faster. If you want to pick out the whole spices which you added, you can do that now. Or else just let them be.
Keep all these ready
Now that the rice and chicken are cooked. Fried onions are ready. You just need to get a few more things organized, so that the layering can be done.
* Chop the coriander leaves
* Boil the milk and add crushed saffron in it. Give it a stir.
* In desi ghee, fry the cashew nuts till golden brown. Also the almonds and raisins, if using. Keep aside.
* Keep some melted desi ghee aside.

Layering the biryani

Take a heavy bottom pan with a lid (non stick is best).
Take some melted ghee and grease the bottom of the pan with it. Then
* Put a layer of rice,
* Then a layer of chicken
* followed by a layer of fried onions
* then a layer of chopped coriander.
Repeat and finish off with the rice layer. Lastly, sprinkle the leftover fried onions (if any), cashews and other nuts. Pour the saffron milk on top. Also pour some desi ghee down the sides of the pan and some on top of the rice. It will trickle down with the heat.
Yep, you are done. Seal the lid by sticking it with some chapati dough or simply fix a big foil before placing the lid. The idea is to restrict the steam from escaping. Place this pot on a very slow flame. Ideally place this vessel on top of another flat pan or tawa, so that the bottom of the pan doesn't come in direct contact with the heat source.
Leave for one hour. When you open it, what you get is the magical, flavorsome and aromatic chicken biryani. Please dig in. Don't forget to prepare a riata while your biryani is cooking. Enjoy hot biryani with a cold raita.

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Black Chickpea Biryani

Ingedients for the rice

- 1 and half cups (380ml) rice
- 1 cup milk
- 5 cardamoms
- 1 black cardamom
- 5 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 2.5cm cinamon
- mace (pinch)
- 2tsp salt

Ingedients for chickpeas

300ml dried black chickepas (soaked overnight,washed and cooked) or
2 cans of black chickpeas (washed)

5 cloves garlic (grated)
1 tablespoon ginger (grated)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric pwd
100ml ghee
180ml yoghurt
3 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)
1 and half tamatoes (cubed)
1-3 green chilli (choped finely)

Ingredients for Garnish for Layering Biryani

- 1/2 cup chopped corrinader
- mint (handful)
- 2 thin slices of ginger (cut into thin julienes)
- 2-4 green chillies slit into center
- 1 tomato (cubed)
- 3  medium red onions (thinly sliced)
- 100ml yoghurt
- cardamom powder from 3 seeds of 3 pods
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tsp saffron
- 60ml milk



-Dry on kitchen towel and saute the onion in 3 tablespoons oil until crsipy and golden, keep aside
-Wash and soak the rice in water for 30 minutes
-Whisk 100 ml yoghurt with garam masala powder and cardamom powder, keep aside.
-Dissolve 1tsp saffron in 60ml warm milk, keep aside

To prepare rice,boil 700ml water with milk, add spices,salt and rice and cook for about 10mins until almost done.Drain.

Mix ginger, garlic, 1/2 tsp chilli powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric pwd together with 3 tablespons water.
Heat ghee in a pan and add above mixture and saute on medium heat for 2 minutes.
Stir in 1 and half tomatoes.Whisk 180ml youghurt and add into the pot.Add potatoes and green chillies.
Stir constantly until the gravy becomes thick and fat leaves the mixture.
Then add chickpeas and simmer until the gravy coats the chickpeas and potatoes.Adjust salt.
Remove pot from the heat.Sprinkle the mixture with garnishing ingredients and pour the spiced up yoghurt on top.Spread rice evenly over the garnished chickpeas.Sprinkle the saffron milk.
Place a moist cloth or moist paper on top, cover with lid and seal with flour dough.
Cook in preheated oven (180C) for 20 minutes.
Open and slowly dig in the rice to reach the chickpeas at bottom and slowly mix with the rice.

Serve with raita and sliced onions or Mirchi ka salan.