" DUM PUKHT BIRYANI "
For this recipe you are going to need cumin seeds 1ts, pinch of saffron/ zaffron, prunes/ dried plums/ aaloo bhukare 8-9 - you can get these dried plums from an indian store they come under the name of aaloo bhukara and they are fairly easy to find, bay leaves 3, 1½ garlic, 6-7 birds eye red chillies, 1 lemon and 1½ inch ginger, 2 L sized red onions, some fresh mint. Greek style yogurt 1½ cup, Qila excel Extra Long Grain Basmati rice 5 cups soaked, kewra water, 2 kilos of fresh chicken, food colour. Spices - 1½ ts full whole coriander, 10-12 dried red chillies, 10-12 green cardamoms, 1½ ts cumin seeds, 1½ inch cinnamon, 1½ ts full whole black pepper, half nutmeg/ jaiphal, 1 inch mace/ javathri and 5-6 cloves.
Start by grinding the garam masala/ spices and start cooking the sliced 1 ½ L sz onion in a pressure cooker with 1 cup of cooking oil on md- low heat while the onions are being browned grind the ginger, the garlic, the birds eye chillies with 2 L spoon full yogurt. Cut the chillies 8-12 roughly and the mint finely, slice the lemon.
Once the onions are golden brown they actually look more brown than what they are and these onions are cooked on md-low heat the reason for that is that once we remove the onions into a plate and let them cool if you have cooked them on a high heat they won’t go crunchy or else if you cook them on a md-low heat they will. Once the onions are dried and are cool crush them in the grinder which has the yogurt, ginger and garlic mixture and marinate the chicken with this paste, 1L spoon of yogurt, 1½ ts full salt for an hour. Its optional to marinate doesn’t make much difference.
Add the chicken in the oil in which the onions were browned, add the bay leaves, dried plums and the garam masala grounded, mix. Then to cook the rice in a very big pot take quite a bit of water, add 4ts full salt/ 3tbs and add 5-6 cloves, cover then we are going to leave that on one side to boil and add 1tbs kewra water to the saffron. Cook this until the water has completely dried and oil has completely separated and we are going to cook it until its basically sticking to the meat. Then add the kewra water and saffron. Some people don’t like kewra water so if you don’t like it you don’t have to add it.
Chicken and water has be prepared together because we don’t wish the chicken or the rice to go cold when giving dum.
Once the water started to boil add the rice and squeeze 3-4 tbs approx. lemon juice to it, mix so that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot due sudden temp change and let that cook itself. A way to tell if the rice is ready is that it starts moving slowly in the pot and half these rice grains will still have a bit of solid grain in them whereas half of them wont and that’s when you take the rice out you don’t want to cook it perfectly because its going to cook again in dam. Once the rice is done, drain it in 2 separate strainers.
Switch on the cook top at on lowest setting and keep a oven tray, sprinkle the cumin seeds to the bottom of the pot, add half the rice spread evenly, layer it with the chicken, add the chillies, the mint and the lemon. Then add the second layer of rice and try to cover the masala completely and add some red/ orange food colouring. Once we have layered the rice and the chicken, cover the pot and set aata/ dough around so that the steam doesn’t escape. Once half an hour has passed remove the dough, mix the biryani and its ready to serve.
Courtesy Ramya
25 июл 2016
