Hyderabadi Vegetable Dum Briyani

Who won't crave for hot and spicy Hyderabadi veg briyani?I love it and I some how feel that the nearest Grand snacks restaurant ie amirtham in my area serves the best veg Dum Briyani. And whenever we feel like having Dum Briyani we go there.i tried once at home but isn't get it perfectly(it was good but not same as the one we ate at the restaurant ).So after a lot of trail and errors over a period of time I finally got a dum Briyani which was close to the taste of amirtham restaurant and my folks were happy and relished it.Though this Briyani was spicy for us ( our husband and kid's spice tolerance is very very low),you can add more green chillies or red chilli powder if your spice level is high.

Preparation time:35 mins

Serves:3

Ingredients:

Basmati rice-2 cups

Mixed  chopped Vegetables(carrot,beans,cauliflower,potato,peas)-1 1/2 cups

Thinly sliced onions(lengthwise)-1 no

Tomato purée -from 1 tomato

Ginger-1 inch

Garlic-6 cloves

Small onions-5 nos

Curd-1/2 cup

Bay leaves-4

Cinnamon stick 1/2 inch -3 nos

Peppercorns-5

Cloves-4 

Cardamom-4

Slit Green chillies-4

Chopped coriander leaves-1/4 cup

Mint leaves-1/4 cup

Cashews-5 

Raisins-5

Chilli powder-2 tsp

Turmeric powder -1 tsp

Sugar-1 tsp

Garam masala-1 tsp

Oil-2 tbsp

Ghee- 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1.Wash and Soak 2 cups basmati rice in 3 cups of water for 20 mins.

2. After 20 mins add the whole garam masala(2 bay leaf,1 cardamom,2 peppercorns,2 cinnamon sticks and 1 clove) and cook them till they are fluffy and 3/4 th cooked.I cooked in a heavy bottom Kadai with lid on, till they are 3/4 th cooked.

3. Spread the cooked rice on a plate and let it cool down and the grains separate.

4.Take half portion of this rice and mix 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and keep it separately.

5.Grind ginger,garlic and small onions to a fine paste.

6.Heat a wok with 2 tbsp of oil and add the remaining bay leaves,cinnamon,cloves,peppercorns,cardamom and a tsp of sugar

.

7.when the sugar carmelises add the sliced onions and slit green chillies and sauté till the onions are golden brown.

8.Add the ground garlic,ginger and onion paste and mix well and cook for minute.then add the tomato purée ,chilli powder,turmeric powder and salt and sauté till the tomatoes are cooked.

9.Now add 1/4 th cup of curd and mix well.add the vegetables and half of coriander leaves and mint and sauté well for a minute.now add a cup of water and close the wok with a lid.

10.Cook till the vegetables are done.the consistency should be semi-dry gravy.Before taking it off the heat,add garam masala.

Preparation of Dum :

11.Fry the cashews and raisins in a tbsp of ghee and keep it separately.

12.In a heavy bottomed pressure cooker add a tbsp of ghee and spread half of the white and yellow rice and then spread the vegetable gravy, add the fried nuts and raisins,and some coriander and mint leaves

.

13.Add the remaining white and yellow rice on top of the vegetables and spread some nuts,coriander and mint leaves. Add the remaining curd on top of this rice.repeatthe above process if you have more rice and vegetable gravy( if you are preparing for a large group).

14.Close the cooker with the lid but don't put the whistle and simmer the flame.let it cook for 8-10 mins.

15.After this time, open the cooker and mix it delicately so that the rice don't get mushy and you can add another tbsp of ghee when mixing the rice to get a rich taste and flavour.Serve hot with raita.

Tips:

* I didn't have star anise, but you can add it if you have along with cinnamon and other spices.

*Make sure you cook the basmati rice to 75% . It gets cooked fully when it is on dum.

*The vegetables mixture should be semi-gravy and not completely dry.

*If you wish,you can garnish the hyderabadi vegetable dum briyani with fried onion slices.