It was raining heavily outside; raining since early morning; a well planned weekend was destroyed by this never ending rain. We waited till noon, but the Rain God showed no intention of slowing down. What a sorry day it was; only thing that could have saved the day was good food. Hence, we decided to order Biriyani from a nearby restaurant. I called up a nearby restaurant to order Biriyani only to know that they could not open because of water-logging throughout the city. But I was so desperate that I decided to cook my own Biriyani. It was an experiment which turned out to be an immense success. I am, going to share my recipe with you.
Traditionally, cooking Biriyani involves an elaborate process and takes a lot of time. Generally it is cooked with chicken, lamb or beef. On that rainy day, I did not have any meat at home but, I had eggs and Biriyani Masala handy; and I was desperate. I cooked my Biriyani in a pressure cooker. It’s definitely not the best way to cook Biriyani, but definitely the quickest and the end result is really good. The whole thing takes around 35-40 minutes to complete.
Ingredients:
1. Eggs (4, Hard Boiled)
2. Potato (1, Boiled and halved into two pieces)
3. Onions (2½ medium size chopped and ½ medium size sliced)
4. Bay leaf (1, small)
5. Clove (2-3)
6. Cardamom (2-3)
7. Cinnamon Stick (1-2)
8. Red Chili powder (1 teaspoons)
9. Turmeric Powder (½ teaspoon)
10. Salt to taste
11. Ginger garlic paste (2 teaspoons)
12. Basmati Rice (1½ cups)
13. Mustard Oil (2 teaspoons)
14. Biriyani Spice Mix* (1 teaspoon).
15. Tomato (1 small chopped)
16. Curry leaves (7-8 leaves)
17. Cilantro
18. Curd/Yogurt (2 tablespoons)
*Biriyani Spice mix can be easily found at your nearest Indian grocery shops
Steps:
Wash the Basmati rice and keep it aside. Shallow fry the boiled eggs and sliced onions with a bit of turmeric and keep them aside.
Heat the mustard oil in the press cooker without the lid. Temper the oil with bay leaf, cloves cardamom and cinnamon sticks. When the oil heats up and you can smell the aroma of the added spices, add the chopped onions. Sprinkle a bit of salt to make the onions cook faster. Fry the onions till they become translucent. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry the mix for 2-3 minutes. Then, Add the curry leaves to the mix and saute for another 2 minutes in low flame. Make sure you don’t burn the spice. You can sprinkle water when required.
Add the tomatoes and fry the mix while stirring constantly. When the tomatoes will become soft, add turmeric, red chili powder and the Biriyani mix. Soon the mix will start leaving oil. Add the yogurt/curd to this and mix well. Add the fried eggs (only eggs not the fried onions). Add half a cup of cilantro leaves. Gently mix all the things together; make sure you don’t break the eggs.
Add the rice and 1½ cups of water to the spice. Since we are adding water, we also need to add a bit of salt too. Adjust the salt to your preference. Give it a gentle mix and close the lid of the pressure cooker. Pressure cook it for 2 whistles. Your Egg Biriyani is ready. Garnish with the fried onions.
You can pair this up with a little bowl of curd or Raita. I like it raw, unadulterated.
Enjoy.
Mo
theorangebowls 