Hyderabadi vegetable biryani

Iam happy to be a part of Divya’s South Vs North Challenge group, where each month a member of the respective teams challenge the other team with a dish that belongs to their native cuisines. We get one full month to try and post this recipe in our space. This month I got an opportunity to pose the challenge against our North team friends. Iam thankful to Divya for this opportunity.  Now about the recipe, I chose to go with Hyderabadi vegetable biryani . It is a simple one but scares many only for the reason the bottom part of it gets burnt and ruins the entire dish. But believe me, an enough amount of moisture and a low flame with proper covering will make your dish just awesome. I have put in the maximum effort for this post  with lot of step by step pics and notes to make it easier for my north indian friends. Hope it will help you all. So Get ready to cook this and be the first team to win the points.

I have adapted this from  Vahchef's Vahrehvah. But i did not get it perfectly when i followed him, so had to make few changes. 
* please note that using any of the masalas and mint leaves in excess quantities can leave a bitter taste to your biryani 

*updated : I prepared this hyderabadi vegetable biryani in oven today (with less masala, as i had a guest at home who cannot tolerate more spices, so the rice in pics look lighter). I have update the pic at the end of the post. preheat the oven to 180 C and bake for 20 mins. if you feel it is still very moist beneath, bake for another 5 to 10 mins. This depends on what kind of baking dish you use. usually ceramic ones like mine gets done faster.

 

hyderabad veg biryani

Ingredients

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp of homemade biryani masala powder  (can increase by 1/4 tsp if you chose to make it spicy, this is moderately flavoured. you can use a store bought one too, but adjust the quanity as mentioned on the pack)

1/3  tsp red chili powder

1/8 tsp turmeric

250 ml yogurt (I used not very thick and not very thin)

4 tbsps ghee or oil

Few saffron strands

30 ml hot milk to soak the saffron strands

Nuts

almonds as per your desire (optional, I have not used)

raisins as per your desire

cashews as per your desire

Fried onions

1 onion thinly sliced deep fried to brown (set aside, you can use store bought too, these are not onion flakes and is available as fried onions). if you are interested in making more flavourful fried onions check here

Veggies 

8 medium sized cauliflower florets

1 large boiled potato cubed (peel the skin and boil till ¾ done)

1 large carrot chopped

fistful of green peas

1 ½ tbsps mint leaves minced (chopped finely)

2 tbsps. Coriander leaves chopped very finely

2 green chilies slit

dry spices

2 inch cinnamon stick

4 green cardamoms

1 black cardamom

2 big strands of mace

1 star anise

6 cloves

1 bay leaf

½  tsp shahi jeera

for cooking rice

1 ½ cups aged basmathi rice (soaked for atleast 30 mins)

1 tsp oil

¼  tsp shahi jeera

salt to taste

Method

1.   Heat oil in a pan; add the dry spices except shahi jeera . Sauté till you get an aroma. takes around a min, do not burn.

2.   Add shahi jeera and sauté

3.   Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a min

4.   Add potatoes and fry for 2 to 3 mins. 
5.   Add the rest of the vegetables and fry for 2 to 3 mins

6.   Add turmeric, salt, red chili powder and biryani masala powder. fry for a min

7.   Pour 100 ml yogurt. mix and cook covered for 2 to 3 mins

8.   Cook uncovered till the moisture in the yogurt evaporates

9.   Add mint and green chilies. mix well and fry for a min. set aside
 

10.                In a large pot, bring 5 cups of water to boil, add oil, salt, shahi jeera and rice. Adjust the salt.

11.                Cook this rice till it is ¾ done. drain off the excess water and set aside

12.                In step 9 we had setaside the pan with veggies, transfer half of it to a utensil or pressure pan or your dum biryani utensil. set aside half of the veggies

13.                Add nuts and raisins. 
14.                Add fried onions

 

15.                Pour the left over half of yogurt to the biryani pan, (not to the one that is set side). mix well and check the salt. Begin to heat on a low flame
16.                Layer half of the rice. Layer the veggies that was set aside from step 12

        

17.                Add fried onions

18.                Layer rice again

19.                Add nuts, chopped mint and coriander leaves

20.                 Begin to heat an old heavy bottom tawa and proceed with the next step

21.                Pour saffron milk. cover the pan with 2 thick moist kitchen towels. Place the lid and a heavy object on the lid. I do not place any heavy object, as my lid itself is very heavy. Or you can make dough made of wheat flour. Moisten the rim of the pan, place this dough around the rim and place the lid over it. Press the lid tight so that it sticks to the dough tightly and no steam vents out. I do not prefer to do this as this mess up the pan and cleaning is a great pain. you can even use a foil to cover tightly 

22.                Move this pan to the hot tawa, cook on medium flame for 5 mins & set the flame to low. cook this way for 5 mins

Notes and tips

1.   I have used a small pressure cooker that has a heavy bottom. use the right size of utensil, do not use a large pan to cook little biryani.The cooking time during dum can vary slightly depending on the thickness of your utensil. so judge accordingly and cook on dum. A perfect biryani must not burn at the beneath and not very moist at the bottom

2.   you can even place the pan in another wider utensil ¼ filled with boiling water and place this rice pan with in that and cook (like a double broiler method). I tried doing this few yrs ago, and did not like the taste and the biryani was too miost. if you wish you can try that way too.

Serve hot with onion raita.

Thanks to my Biryani Guru for this gorgeous biryani, which I have been cherishing for years.

Oven Baked Biryani pic

Minnie,Chandrani, Sanoli, Meena, Sanotsh, Kirti , Shruti, Nabanita, Sheelu, Radhika, Gheza, Manjula have tried this Recipe and posted in their blogs.  A special thanks to all of you for trying this recipe.