Chicken Biryani

   The benefit of making chicken biryani at home is I can adjust the spice level so that my kiddo can enjoy it and then I don't have to cook anything for him separately. Although it takes a bit of time and preparation for making biryani the result is worth the wait and effort :-)

Here's a simple recipe for making biryani at home--  

Ingredients-

For marinating chicken-

1. Chicken-200 gms (with bones or boneless as per preference)
2. Curd- 1 cup
3. Ginger-garlic paste- 2 tbsp.
4. Turmeric, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder- 1 tbsp. each

Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, curd and all dried spices, mix well and keep aside for 30 to 45 minutes. The longer you keep it marinated the better it tastes.

Ingredients for making the Birayni-

1. Basmati rice - 2 cups
2.  2medium sized onion cut horizontally into thin pieces
3.  2 medium sized tomato or 1 cup tomato puree
4.  Ginger-garlic paste-2 tbsp
5.  2-3 green chilies
6.  2-3 cloves, cardamom, 1 tej patta
7.  Oil - 2tbsp 
8.  Ghee- 2tbsp 
9.  Salt as per taste 
10.  Garam masala or biryani masala, if using.

Recipe-

1. Wash rice in water 2-3 times and put it on a strainer so that excess water drains out.
2. Heat oil +ghee in a pressure pan or cooker or you can use a thick-based pan also. You can either one of them as well but I used both. Add tej patta, cloves, cardamom, then add onion and fry till it turns brown.
3. Now add ginger, garlic paste, tomatoes, slit green chilies and fry again.
4. Then add turmeric powder, red chili powder and cover it for a minute or two.
5. Keep a spoonful of this mixture aside that will be used for making curry.
6. Now add the marinated chicken, mix well with little water. Let it cook so that chicken becomes tender but its not cooked complete. This usually takes 10 minutes.
7. Add rice now and mix lightly taking care that the rice grains are not broken.
8. Add salt, garam masala or biryani masala and water. Cover the lid and cook for 1 or 2 whistles. Rice should not turn mushy. Alternatively you can also use semi-cooked rice and then just hard boil it by closing the lid.

While the biryani is getting ready lets make the curry for accompaniment. Grind the onion, tomato mixture into a smooth paste. Fry it in little oil, add water, salt and garam masala and boil it.

 Garnish biryani with coriander leaves.

Serve with papad and raita of your choice. Yumm:-)

Rice stuffed capsicum

This dish came out while I was thinking of making something similar to veg sizzler but because of time constraint I had to settle on this non-sizzling version 😉. I only had to get veg pulao done (which my toddler also likes) which is simple and quick😋

Lets check out the recipe of veg pulao-

Ingredients-

1) 2 cups rice washed and drained

2) 1 cup veggies of your choice- I opted for onion, carrots and cauliflower; chopped finely

3) Ground spices like bay leaf-1, star anise-1, 1 inch piece of cinnamon, 1 black cardamom, 2-3 cloves.

4) Oil or ghee for cooking

5) Salt as per taste

6) 1 1/2 tsp cumin powder

You can also add 1 tsp biryani masala. However I chose to keep the pulao simple and less spicy.

Recipe-

1) Heat oil or ghee in a pan or pressure cooker, add ground spices and fry for a minute

2) Add veggies and a pinch of salt 

3) Check if  the veggies are a bit tender, add rice, stir well, add salt and cumin powder, add water and cook. As we are going to bake the rice again with capsicums, make sure it has sufficient moisture when it is cooked.

Preheat the oven to 200 C. 

In the mean time, deseed the capsicums and grease it with oil inside and out.

Let the pulao cool down, stuff it into the capsicum (make sure you remove bay leaf otherwise it may get burnt), drizzle some oil/ ghee over it and put it in the oven for 12-15mins.

While it is getting ready, cut few carrots into thin long strips, boil them in water for 10 mins. Drain the water, drizzle salt and pepper generously over them. (This left water can be used for making soups or as a vegetable stock).

Once the capsicums and baked, serve it along with carrot salad and fried egg 😀

Veg fried rice - indo chinese fusion

My intention was to cook a rice dish other than the regular pulao or khichdi for dinner because my toddler isn't fond of eating rice. He only loves roti, puris and paratha:). With a few variations, this dish came out very well. To increase the nutritional value, I added different veggies which were available with me and also added Indian ground spices to make a fusion.

Ingredients-

1) 1 cup raw rice
2) Finely chopped french beans, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, onions, peas etc or any other vegetables of your choice- 1/4 cup each
3) Finely chopped garlic cloves- 6-8
4) Soya sauce- 2 tbsp
5) 1 bay leaf and 1 star anise/chakra phool, 1/2 inch piece of cinnamon (You can skip these if you want to give only chinese flavour to rice).
6) 5-6 cashew nuts coarsely chopped and fried
7) 8-10 raisins soaked in warm water for 10 mins
8) Oil for cooking
9) Salt as per taste


Recipe-

1) Boil 5-6 cups of water in a pan and add rice to it. Add 1 tbsp salt. Once cooked, drain the water and spread in a plate so that the rice grains doesn't stick together.

2) Heat 2-3 tbsp oil  in a pan, add bay leaf, star anise, cinnamon. Once it turns brown, add garlic, onions, french beans,carrots or all those veggies which are going to take time to become tender.

3) Keep the burner flame on high or medium high (if you cant handle high flame) and keep tossing continuously. Then add  remaining veggies.

4) Add soya sauce, cooked rice and just a pinch of salt.

5) Mix lightly making sure the rice grains are not broken. Finally add fried cashew nuts and raisins.
   
                           

Indo chinese veg fried rice is ready to be served.