Griha Bhojanam: briyani

Another interesting recipe from the masterchef Venkatesh Bhat from his briyani special episode (Watch the full episode here) which I tried for a sunday lunch. I have always been a big fan of him and I still have plenty of recipes from his collections yet to be tried. Never knew Briyanis can be made in so many different variations with different ingredients and flavours. He comes out with varied briyani varieties, that too vegetarian :):)

This is one such vegetarian briyani recipe, that uses juicy paneer(cottage cheese) and Methi. This aroma of Methi is the punch for this recipe. Hence, I do not add coriander or pudhina to this briyani as it might overshadow the significant aroma of Methi leaves.

This is my favourite combo and making this into briyani was really exciting. Let's quickly check out the recipe for this mild, aromatic and flavourful chunky Briyanis.

Ingredients

Fresh fenugreek leaves (methi) - 1/2 small bunch

Paneer (cottage cheese) - 200 gms (cut into cubes)

Basmati Briyani Rice - 1.5 cups

Saffron (kesar) - 6-7 strands

Milk - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 3 tablespoons

Onions - 3 large (Thinly sliced)

Green chillies - 2 slit

Fried onions - 1/2 cup

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1.5 tsp

Masala Ingredients

Green cardamoms - 2
Black cardamom - 1
Cloves - 3-4
Cinnamon -1 inch stick
Bay Leaf - 1
Black peppercorns - 5-6

For Marination

Thick Yogurt - 1 Cup

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp

Coriander powder - 2 tbsp

Roasted Cumin powder - 1 tbsp

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala powder - 2 tsp

Needed Salt

Method

Marinating the Paneer

1. Marinate the paneer cubes with ingredients listed under "Marination". Let the paneer cubes remain soaked in the marinated yogurt mixture for half hour. This helps all the flavours to be absorbed inside the paneer and also helps it become soft.

Paneer cubes marinated in yogurt and spices

Cooking the Basmati Rice

2. Wash the Basmati Rice 2 times well for the excess starch to get rinsed off. Boil the basmati rice with a tbsp of ghee ,enough water and 1.5 tsp of salt till it is cooked about 90 percent. Drain the rice and keep it aside for dum cooking with the gravy. You can feel it by breaking the rice.

90 percent Cooked Basmati Rice

Preparing Methi Paneer Gravy

3. Discard the roots of the methi leaves. Chop the leaves and tender stem part finely. Wash them thoroughly to get rid of mud and the bitter taste.

4. Heat a heavy bottomed pan, add ghee and all ingredients under "Masala". Add Onions,green chili and ginger garlic paste. Saute well until the onions are cooked and become translucent.

5. Add the marinated paneer, methi leaves and fried onions and mix well. Add needed amount of salt after checking. Cook the mixture on low flame for about 10 mins.

Preparing the Methi paneer gravy

Layering of Briyani

1. Soak strands of saffron in 1/2 cup of warm milk overnight or for about half hour.

Saffron soaked milk

2. Take a big heavy bottomed pan/cooker for dum cooking.

3. Layer the Methi Paneer gravy first. Add the remaining rice on top of the gravy as second
layer.

Layering of Paneer Methi Masala

4. Sprinkle the saffron + milk all over the rice as shown in the picture.

Layering of rice topped with Saffron milk

Dum cooking

5. Place a Dosa Tawa on flame. Transfer the dum cooking handi/pressure cooker pan to dosa tawa and cover the pan tightly so that no heat escapes.( as shown below)

6. Cook for about 15 mins on low flame with the pan fully sealed.

7. Methi Chaman Briyani is all ready and piping hot to be served along with any raita of your choice :)

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.