Mushroom/Chicken Biryani

A cloudy lazy Sunday afternoon with no other social commitments in sight, called for a heavy meal at my house today. I finally decided upon south indian style mushroom biryani and tandoori fish. Since hubby dear has been asking for fish kulumbu for months together now, I decided to throw that in as well.

I have to mention here that the biryani I make is different from the north Indian style biryani or the Shaan masala type one. This is a rich tasting biryani with a myriad ingredients that add a super enticing flavor to the dish. Served with a simple raita, it is one rich dish for a cozy Sunday afternoon lunch with the family.

Ingredients:

To grind 1:

small onions - handful - grind to paste without water

To grind 2:

cashewnut - 6 to 7

scraped coconut - less than a handful or a piece of coconut

Grind both these together with minimal water

Other:

Onion - 1 big or 2 medium- sliced

Tomato - 1 big - diced

Green chillies - 6 - sliced

Mint leaves -  1 bunch - remove the leaves and chop

Coriander leaves - a few stalks - remove the leaves and chop

Ginger Garlic paste -  1tbsp

Mushroom - 1 box- diced (OR chicken - cut into required size pieces)

Saffron - few strands soaked in warm milk

Ghee - 1.5 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Basmati Rice - 1.5 cups

Dhania Powder - 1 tsp

Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Lemon juice - few drops

Whole Spices:

Bay leaves - 4 to 5 small

cloves - 4

cinnamon - 1/2 inch

mace - little

star anise - 1 - broken

maratti moggu - 2

elaichi - 2

Method:

1. Dice the onions, tomato, green chillies and mushrooms as mentioned in the list above.

2. Chop the mint leaves and coriander leaves and mix together and keep aside.

3. Prepare the grinding mixtures 1 and 2 as mentioned above and keep aside.

4. Soak the saffron in warm milk. Keep aside. 

5. Soak the rice in water for about 10 minutes.

6. In a pressure cooker, add oil and ghee.

7. Once the oil-ghee mixture is hot, add all the whole spices and let it saute a little bit. Let the spices brown slightly.

8. Add the sliced onions and saute until slightly brown.

9. Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute.

10. Add the sliced tomatoes and sliced green chillies and saute well until tomatoes are crushed.

11. Add the chopped mint-coriander leaves and saute.

12. Add the small onion paste and cook for a few minutes.

13. Add the cashew-coconut mixture and cook for a few minutes.

14. Add the dhania powder, chilli powder and garam masala and let it all cook for a few minutes.

15. Add the mushrooms and mix and cook for a few minutes.

16. Drain the rice and add the drained rice to the cooker.

17. Add 3 cups of water for 1.5 cups of rice.

18. Add required amount of salt.

19. Add the saffron with the milk.

20. Add a few drops of lemon juice to the mixture.

21. Close the pressure cooker and let it cook for one whistle.

22. Let the pressure release on its own.

Voila! Steaming hot biryani is ready. Serve with a simple raita and enjoy!

Mushroom Biryani