Hyderabadi style vegetable biryani recipe

Hyderabadi biryani is of two types based on the type of cooking. Kachha and Pakka. Different types of meat are used mutton, lamb or chicken. Vegetable biryani is the less famous biryani. Like one of my colleagues said, there is no vegetable biryani, biryani means mutton or chicken. Usually people mistake vegetable biryani with vegetable pulav. And rarely, I have seen vegetable biryani really spicy and tasty. I got the basic recipe for this vegetable pakka biryani off the net and improved it over years. And believe me I have compliments for this dish every time I make it, from everyone who have it, followed by a request for recipe. I have never actually written recipes and this is my first time. Like any Indian cook, I go by approximations. Here is an attempt to write an exact recipe for the best vegetable biryani you can ever make. You would, like me, get it perfect in a couple of attempts. Also, I would not say this is an authentic Hyderabadi biryani recipe but it is definitely very close to the authentic one and also the best tasting Hyderabadi biryani that can be made at home. Frankly, lot of famous places in Hyderabad serve awesome non-veg biryani but not very good veg biryani. Some places in hyderabad where you can find good chicken or lamb biryani are Paradise, Bawarchi, Hyderabad house, Niagara, Madina hotel

Preparation and Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

For the gravy:

Vegetables diced: 4 cups (Potato (Aloo), Carrot (preferably orange carrot and not Indian gajar, cauliflower (Phool Gobi), beans, peas, capsicum (Green bell pepper)

Oil - 1 1/2 cup

Frying pan (kadhai) - 1 big

Turmeric (haldi) - 3 tsp (no harm in using more)

Bay leaf (Tej patta) - 1

Tomatoes - 2 big or Tomato puree/paste - 4 table spoons

Onions -1 big 

Dry coconut powder or dessicated coconut  - 1 cup (there is a difference between dry coconut powder and dessicated coconut. Dry coconut powder is made out of dried coconut by grinding it. Dessciated coconut is grated first and then ground. Hyderabadi style recipes use dry coconut powder. But it is not always easy to find dry coconut powder outside India)

Green Chillis - 4 (you can add more or less depending on how spicy you want it)

Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tsp

Corainder (Dhaniya) leaves - 1 cup (you can add more if you like the flavor of coriander)

Mint (Pudina) paste - 2 tsp or Mint (Pudina) leaves - 1/2 cup

salt - atleast 1 1/2 tsp (can add more depending on how salty you like it)

Lemon juice of 1 lemon

curd - 1/2 cup (preferably sour curd)

Paprika powder (Red chilli powder) - 1 tsp

The below spices are also the ingredients for garam masala. You can instead add 1tsp of garam masala but the flavour of the biryani is because of the freshly ground spices. And i am not sure all the garam masalas available in the market have these ingredients.

Cardamom (Elaichi) - 4 nos

Black pepper - 10 nos

Cloves (Lawang) - 5 nos

Cinnamon (Dalchini) - 2 inch stick

Caraway Seeds (Shah jeera) - 1 tsp (shah jeera is different from jeera or cumin seeds. It is a spice typical to Andhra style or Hyderabadi style recipes. I feel this is what gives a unique flavour to the garam masala prepared for Hyderabadi style recipes)

For rice:

Basmati Rice - 3 cups

Coriander (Dhaniya) leaves minced - 3 tsp

Mint (Pudina) paste - 1 1/2 tsp or Mint (Pudina) leaves minced - 3 tsp

Lemon - 1

Oil - 3 Tbsp

Ghee - 3Tbsp

Pot or Vessel to cook rice

For final baking:

Any oven safe dish

Onion - 1big (cut in circular rings)

saffron (kesar) - 1 pinch (soak it in warm milk)

Aluminium foil to cover the dish

Before you begin with the preparation, soak the saffron in warm milk. Have the diced vegetables ready. Soak the rice in 4 cups of water. 

Pour the oil in the frying pan. after the oil is heated toss the separated onion rings in to the oil. Fry them till they are golden brown. keep them aside as they will be required for the final baking. Toss teh bay leaf in to the frying pan. after 15 sec, toss the vegetables in the oil. Fry them in the oil for about 15 minutes on medium flame. Meanwhile blend into a smooth paste all the remaining ingredients required for the gravy in a blender. After the vegetables are fried for 15 minutes, add the paste to the frying pan. Cook till oil separates from the gravy. There should be at least 2 to 3 tea spoons of oil separated from the gravy, as this oil has a lot of flavour and will make the rice flavourful when baked. Usually dum biryani is very tasty because the rice cooks in the flavour of the marinated vegetables or meat. Since we are not doing dum style biryani but pakka style, the flavoured oil is important. Check the salt and spice level in the gravy once it is done. The salt and spice levels should be slightly more than what it would be for a usual gravy, as the gravy will be finally layered with rice. If you feel spice is a bit less, add a few pinches of garam masala to the gravy.

Heat the oven to 400 deg Farenheit or 205 deg Centigrade. Now place a pot or vessel to cook rice on the stove. add 8 cups of water to the vessel. and add the coriander, pudina paste and juice from the lemon. Drain the water from the rice. When the water is boiling, add the rice to it. You should not cook the rice completely. Usually basmati rice takes about 15 minutes to cook to the desired level. The rice will cook a little bit more in the oven, so make sure when you feel that the rice in the vessel is almost cooked and would require about 5 or 7 minutes, take the vessel off the stove and drain the water using a colander. After you feel the rice is dry enough spread it on a wide plate and add the ghee to it and gently mix it. 

In the oven safe dish, grease the bottom with oil. Spread a layer of rice, top it with the fried onions, add a layer of the gravy and pour some saffron milk on the top in a few places. again top it with rice and continue the process by ending with a layer of rice. Usually three layers of rice and two layers of gravy is good. the top and bottom layers of rice should be thinner than the middle layer of rice. the saffron milk lets the flavour from the gravy creep into the rice layers. This is where the oil also helps. Cover it with an aluminium foil. make some holes with a fork on the top in a few places. Bake it for about 25 minutes. If it is a glass dish, you can see the oil on the sides and bottom of the vessel simmering. Let it stand for 2 to 3 hours to get the best flavoured biryani and place it in the oven for 15 minutes before eating or in the microwave for 3 minutes. Biryani always tastes better the next day because rice absorbs more of the flavour.

Agneepath Review

I was so excited about the movie as it was a Karan Johar's production, starring my favorite actor Hrithik. So when we were late for the movie by 2 minutes because of some hassle in the mall parking lot, I ran up leaving my husband to find a parking spot, took the tickets (though we booked them online, you still have to wait in the queue for at least 5 minutes and sometimes much more). Finally when my husband reached, knowing how crazy I am about Hrithik, sent me in to the audi while he got popcorn :-). The movie started at least 15 minutes late with some sad ads and some interesting movie trailers. Finally the movie starts and I've already finished half my pop corn :-)  (calories!!!)

The movie started fine with the Zamindar of Mandwa, Vijay in his childhood and masterji (Vijay’s dad). The scenes with chotu Vijay and his dad are good….. but I was still waiting for Hrithik. Some of the scenes till masterji dies leave an impact on the viewer. Some of them for the wrong reasons.. a bit gory. The first quarter of the movie has passed without Hrithik. The highlight being arrival of Kancha (Sanjay Dutt). He looks repulsive and scary. Ok... now that masterji's gone, I'm still waiting for hrithik. And then.. finally I am happy.... here he comes..... (me drooling a bit... quite a bit :-)) They show that the little boy Viju has become this handsome hunk who works for a Lala (Rishi Kapoor) who is a drug peddler and human trafficker in Mumbai. Rishi kapoor is soooo…… good with his act that you actually feel disgusted and feel like punching his face for auctioning young girls. And ya, I forgot... before all this, enters Kali (Priyanka Chopra).  Actually she is worth forgetting in the movie. She's got no role whatsoever, and with people like Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik and Rishi Kapoor... you don't have time for her. I just felt that in the first half Hrithik was not used much. At this point, I felt that the storyline was built up so that the second half can pick up pace. And then I can get all the drama and action I was expected and that I was entitled to :-) .

Second half... big disappointment. Not because it was worse than the first half but the action just did not come, the drama was constrained, not like the Bollywood drama you expect to see in a KJo movie. What happened to the KJo who made Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum? There is a mother and sister in Agneepath also. Why no melodrama? If you have started it, just blow it king size. I am a Bollywood fan. I want larger than life stuff shown. I came to watch a KJo movie because his movies are known for the entertaining drama. And there is precisely just one scene where I had tears in my eyes and it was definitely Hrithik's acting and partly my love for Hrithik (can’t see him cry). But there should be more crying if there is a son separated from a mother and a sister for 15 years!!! The slow song with the sister also doesn't evoke many feelings. Just feels like okayyyyy……… now what else….??? what are you gonna do about Kancha. Sanjay Dutt as Kancha is too good, and again his acting is sooo….. good that you feel repulsed looking at him. In the middle somewhere, it felt like Vijay does have a plan and a plot on how to take care of Kancha. But alas! Hrithik gets kicked twice… the only two times that Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik come face to face in the movie. And the second time Hrithik gets kicked, the movie ends in 10 minutes. So, where is my hero kicking the villain??? Now at this point I declare to my husband that it is not a good movie. He smiles victoriously (doesn't like my drooling over hrithik much) Anyway.....so my question is if Vijay is not a super hero whose one kick makes at least 2 dozen people go flying including the scary Kancha, give him a good plan. Hrithik is shown helpless in the movie. So….. helpless, that during the movie I was thinking why hrithik signed the movie... this is suicide for him. Okay.... say even if he gets kicked all through the movie by Kancha... why did not I get to see Hrithik kick some Sanjay's ass in the end. The end was too simple, just some low profile drama with the lath path Agneepath poem (which by the way is quite catchy). And hence ends my waiting.

One more movie of Hrithik, which I watched on the first day, is going to be a flop. The first was Kites (what a disaster!).  Or maybe not.... the next day I meet my friends and apparently they all can watch it a second time.

Finally, the movie has brilliant performances which makes a decent one time watch. Don't go with high expectations, and maybe you will not be as disappointed as me. The movie has an average plot, brilliant performances, good poems J, poor flow and a mediocre climax. I am going to watch the original Agneepath today, maybe it will make me feel better about KJo's Agneepath.