Griha Bhojanam: Nizami Sarkari Briyani - Dum cooked Vegetable Briyani

I have been wanting to try briyani for a long time at home. But I was not very sure what is the right method of making it and how to get the perfect dum cooked style briyani. Predominantly, briyani is always done with non veg items and is never considered an ideal vegetarian dish. But when made in the right way, Vegetable briyani can be as tasty as its non veg counterpart. I haven't tried Briyani at hotels much as the Veg Briyani they serve at veg hotels are very average. I wanted to make the best one at home and relish to my heats content.

When I googled to find the perfect recipe,I found Chef Venkatesh Bhat had made a special episode on briyani where he had made this nawabi sarkari briyani. You can watch the episode here.

I have been a great fan of him. In the world of fast cooking and 1 minute cooking videos, one really can't learn the right techniques of cooking. He teaches you the perfect techniques and why it is done that way. This helps us to understand and learn better and fine tune our cooking. All the recipes tried from watching his samayal samayal has been a great hit. If you blindly follow his techniques, I am damn sure you can never go wrong in getting the right taste and texture.

This is a hyderabadi style dum cooked vegetable briyani. I have explained the techniques that suits the best for a perfect home cooked dum style briyani. Making this has been a great learning experience for me. I will try to provide as much details I can to make the best briyani easily at home.

serves:3

Ingredients

Good quality Basmati Rice - 1.5 cups ( I used Kohinoor Briyani rice)
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Unsalted Butter - 3 tbsp
Green Chili - 2 big
Tomatoes - 3 big
Ginger garlic paste - 2.5 tbsp
chopped mint leaves and chopped coriander - 1 cup each
saffron strands - 4 soaked in 1/4 cup of warm milk
Whisked thick curd - 1/2 cup
Needed salt

Masala Ingredients

Shahi jeera- 2 tsp + 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Black cardamoms- 3
Green cardamoms - 3
Cinnamon stick - 1 inch piece
cloves- 3
javithri/Mace-2
Bay Leaf - 1
Star Anise - 2 for cooking rice

Powders

Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1 tbsp
Red Chili Powder - 3 tsp (depending on how spice you want)

Vegetables Used

Potato - 1 big (cubed)
Cauliflower - 7 florets
Green Peas-1/4 cup
Carrot - 1 big
Beans - 6 (chopped big)
Onions - 2 (Thinly sliced)

Method

1. Rinse the Basmati rice for 2-3 times to remove the excess starch from rice.

2. Soak the basmati rice for 20 mins in normal water.

3. In a pan, heat ghee and butter on a low medium flame. Add all masala ingredients and give a good saute.

4. Add onions and saute until nice golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste and saute well for the raw flavor of the paste to go off.

5. Grind Tomato with green chili to a puree and add it to the above pan and give it a good mixing.

6. Add all the powders. Add whisked curd and 1 tbsp salt.

7. Cook the vegetables in gravy with closed lid for about 7 mins on medium low flame.

8. Switch off the flame after 7-8 mins and garnish with some mint and coriander leaves.

Cooking the Basmati Rice

1. In a big pan, take 4 cups of water, add a tbsp of ghee, tsp of shahi jeera,2 star anise and 1 tbsp of salt. Bring the water to boil.

2. Strain the soaked basmati rice and add it to the above boiling water.

3. Add some chopped mint and coriander leaves to the above.

4. Cook for 5 to 6 mins with occasional stirring. Please Note: Rice should not be fully cooked but only 90 percent done. The remaining cooking will happen during the dum process.

5. When the rice is 90 percent done, you can feel it with hand. The rice should break yet it should not be too soft.

6. Strain of the rice and washe once again in cold water to prevent further cooking.

Layering and Dum cooking

1. Take a heavy bottomed vessel, I used my pressure cooker bottom for layering.

2. The first layer will be vegetable gravy followed by layer of rice.

3. Another layer of vegetable gravy followed by layer of rice. Add the saffron milk, a tbsp of ghee, some crushed mint and pudina leaves.

4. Seal the vessel tightly so that no heat is escaped. You can use wet cloth, atta dough or any mechanism, but the criteria is heat should not escape.

5. Heat a dosa tawa and place the pressure cooker bottom/heavy bottomed vessel on top of it.

6. Dum cook on low flame for about 20 mins.

7. Open after 20 mins.There you are into heaven of aromatic rich flavorful Briyani.

Serving Suggestions

Take some layer of rice and some layer of vegetable and place it on a plate. Do not completely mix it. Briyani should be served layered and that is the best presentation way.
Serve with Mixed veg raita or cucumber raita.