Biryani

taunto

Copy/Pasting from my cooking blog ( http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/riz9007 )where I share authentic Indian/Pakistani/Arabic recipes. Most of the recipes are handed down to me by Late mother, my sister or my sister in law. Hope you enjoy it!

This is without a doubt my favorite dish. Sadly, this isnt considered a "health" food and a serving of this is about 800 calories. This is something I usually prepare for my friends and they love it very much. The technique of this recipe is taught to me by my sister and law. Hope you all enjoy it



Ingredients

1.5 lbs Beef or lamb stew meat. A bit of fatty part is good
4 onions
4 tomatoes
5-6 Tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 cup Yogurt
1/4 bunch of cilantro
1 pack "Shaan Bombay Biryani Masala" (I only trust Shaan brand for this)
1 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 cups of Rice (soak in room temp water)
1 tbsp Cumin
1 handful of salt (I prefer kosher for this)
1 stick of cinnamon
3 cardamom
3 cloves (these are black things that're hard to describe. Ask for "Long" at your local Indian store)
2 medium size russett potatoes. Big slices
Optional
3 green chillies uncut. Cut them up if you like it REALLY hot
1tsp vanilla extract


Method:

Start by thinly slicing all the onions and frying them in the oil. You have to fry them till most of the moisture is gone from the onions but dont burn them. They should be dark red color (black is not good

Add thinly sliced tomatoes in it after that. Try to make a paste out of it and make sure most of the moisture out of the tomatoes is gone. Once again, we're not going for burned but rather low moisture.

Take out this paste and put it aside. In the left over oil (feel free to add some more if needed) add the meat and ginger garlic paste. Cook on high till the water evaporates while stirring the meat in between so the meat dont stick to the pan. Once the water is evaporated, kind of fry the meat for 5 minutes. Add about 2-3 cups of water. Let the meat tenderize on very low heat. We're not going for a fast fix, this will take time. Depending on what kind of meat it is, this part will take atleast 45 minutes, typically 1 hour is a safe time. After the meat is "almost" tender, add the potatoes and cook both potatoes and the meat till both of them are completely tender. Feel free to add water while the meat is cooking if it needs it but the end product should be a bit dry (though a bit of leftover gravy is good)

In a separate large pot, add about 10 cups of water, salt, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Cook on high heat. Once the water starts boiling, add the Rice (after draining). You donot want to completely cook the rice. As soon as the water starts boiling after adding rice, turn off the heat immediately and drain all the water out in a strainer.

Let the rice sit in the strainer for a bit while all the water drips out. We're going to use the large pan you used to cook rice in. Take out a frying pan or some other metal pan that you can use to take the direct heat while the main large pot sits on top of it. You donot want to give the main pot direct heat. use the butter to grease the entire pot. Leave the leftover butter at the bottom and toss the meat in it. add the Shaan Bombay Biryani Masala, yogurt and the onion+tomatos paste we made. Mix this up. Add the chopped up Cilantro (toss some green chillies if you got some, adds a nice flavor to it). Now, layer the rice on top of the gravy and on the very top put the vanilla extract if you got some. Close the lid. Remember, it is very important that this pot not take direct heat from the stove. Now, if the meat before putting in the large pot was kinda "soupy" (lots of gravy left) then cook the large pot with rice on high heat for 20 minutes, if the meat before putting into the large pot kinda dry then you can cook for only 10 minutes. After the 10-20 minutes of high heat, cook on low heat for another 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Mix up the layers and enjoy some Biryani