My mum cooked a delicious biryani when I was visiting last week - a meat and chicken concoction which was finished within the day (usually there are leftovers - not this time!), so this inspired me to make this biryani today.
Normally being lazy, I would make a pilau/akhni which just consists of uncooked rice being added to a bhuna style chicken/meat/fish dish, and cooking together. But I thought I would attempt the harder rice dish being biryani today, after a not so happy week. Why not enter the weekend on a happy note and for me being happy equals nice food.
To make this dish, I had to cook several components separately, the keema, the rice, the potatoes and the egg, then combine all together at the end for a final cook.
Ingredients for rice:
5 rice cooker cups rice, (soak in water until required)
Boiling water
Salt
Ingredients for keema:
3 tbsp. oil
2 small cinnamon sticks
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
4 peppercorns
3 small bay leaves
1 inch ginger, minced
7 cloves garlic, minced
3 small onions, chopped
Salt to taste
500g minced mutton/keema, washed and drained
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. chilli powder
3 tsp. curry powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. garam masala
1 blended tomato
Chopped coriander stalks
Ingredients for potatoes:
3 medium potatoes, cut in large cubes
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of chilli powder
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp. oil
Ingredients for eggs:
4 large eggs
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of chilli powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tbsp. oil
Additional ingredients for layering process:
Food colouring (I used 4 colours for 4 layers)
Fried onions (I used pre made fried onions)
Melted ghee
Firstly, wash then soak your rice in almost double the water. Put to one side.
Boil your potatoes, until just soft. (I did this in the microwave to save time and cooker space. Just use a microwaveable bowl, then put your potatoes and enough water to just cover the potatoes. Cook on high heat for 5-7 minutes.) Drain the potatoes, then put you turmeric, chilli powder and salt in and mix well. In a frying pan, put in your oil, then fry the potatoes until golden brown on all sides. Leave to one side.
In a small saucepan, put your 4 eggs in and boil until hard. Peel, then put your turmeric, chilli powder and salt and marinate the eggs. In the pan that you fried the onions, put in a little more oil, then fry the eggs until golden brown all over. Leave to one side.
In a large saucepan, put in your oil and once hot, add your dry spices (cinnamon sticks, cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns and bay leaves). Once oil is infused, then add your ginger and garlic. Allow to brown then add your chopped onions and fry on a high heat, watching that they don't burn. You want them to brown a lot.
Once browned, add salt, then your keema/mince. Stir and break the keema up so you don't get big lumps. Once keema has browned, add your powdered spices (turmeric, chilli, curry, cumin, coriander and garam masala powders), then mix well. Add a little water so the spices don't burn and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Then add your blended tomato and coriander stalks. Stir well again, then allow to cook for a further 5 minutes.
Whilst keema is cooking, boil some water in the kettle, and put in an other large saucepan with some salt. Once it comes to a continuous boil in the saucepan, carefully drain your rice, and add it to the boiling water.
Going back to the keema, add approximately 1 cup (250ml) of boiling water to the keema, turn the heat to medium and allow to cook for a further 5 minutes or until oil separates. Turn off heat, and leave to one side.
When your rice is 3/4 cooked (you can tell when this is when you take a grain of rice and when you break it, it goes into 3 pieces), drain your rice, or use a sieve to get the rice out (which is what I did).
In a big saucepan, you want to start the layering process. Drizzle some ghee in the bottom of the pan, add a layer of rice, then add food colouring, some of your fried potatoes and some fried onions. Put a light layer of the keema on top of this and spread out evenly. On top of the keema, put another layer of rice, spread evenly, then drizzle with ghee, add food colouring, potatoes and fried rice. Add keema and spread evenly. Repeat this until you reach the last/top layer which should be rice. On the top layer, drizzle some ghee, food colouring, cut the 4 eggs into half and arrange across the top in a circle, fried onions and coriander. Cover the entire top of the saucepan with foil, then put the lid on. This will create a dum process, which means that the heat stays in the saucepan, allowing the rice to cook and separate nicely.
Leave to cook on a very low heat for about 10 minutes, or until rice is fully cooked.
Serve on it's own with a salad and maybe raita.
I know this seems like a long process, but i think it's definitely a dish for a special occasion, or when you feel like cooking something interesting!
I hope you guys enjoy!
Yaz ❤
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