Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Trying my hand at Biryani!

I confess.... I had never heard of Biryani until I came to India despite the fact that I LOVE Indian food and have eaten out in many Indian restaurants. But Biryani is literally all over the place at least in Bangalore. Almost every restaurant has Biryani on the menu. So, I asked our super housekeeper Mary to teach me how to make Biryani. The whole process took about an hour, but here is how you make it.

Veggie Preparation 
- wash rice (we made 3 cups) and soak it in water (let it soak for a while)
- chop onion
- chop tomato
- chop mint
- chop cilantro (a.k.a. coriander leaves)

Spices
- some ginger garlic paste (you can get it at any store)
- star anise (2 to 3 pieces)
- cinnamon stick (just 1, break it into big pieces)
- cardamon (2 or 3 pieces)
- cloves (3 or 4 pieces)

Chicken
- cube the chicken (we used about 400g of chicken)
- massage with salt
- then marinate it in the mixture of curd (yogurt) and turmeric

Cooking
1) heat the pot and put in some olive oil (enough oil to cover the bottom of your pan). While the oil is getting hot, rinse rice and drain it (let it dry).
2) add all the spices until aroma comes out
3) then add chopped onion, constantly stir until it gets slightly brown (it took me about 5 mins)

4) then add ginger garlic paste, cilantro, and tomato, constantly stir until it gets stew-like (it took me another 5 mins)

5) add marinated chicken into the pot, mix well.

6) add 1 cup of water to the pot, cover, and cook for 10-15 mins. In another pot, boil 6 cups of water  (we used 6 cups as we used 3 cups of rice).
6) measure (or guess) how many cups of juice remain in the pan with chicken after 10-15 mins, add enough boiling water into the pot to make the total water of 6 cups
7) add perfectly drained rice into the pot, add chopped mint, some salt, cover, and cook until the water is gone (for about 10 mins).

8) stir up and let it cool a bit before you eat!

That's it. Very easy. Now I know how to make it, maybe I will try mutton Biryani next time.
Thank you Mary for the brilliant cooking lesson!

2 comments:

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  2. Thanks for posting. It looks easy and delicious. I will definitely try this.

    ReplyDelete