Veg Dum Biriyani

My Third recipe is “Veg Dum Biriyani”, the best of all biryani's. In my childhood, my dad used to buy Chicken Biriyani from Hotel Samco in Chennai which was our family’s favorite. But once I stopped eating non-veg, I started missing that dish... Though I could get Biriyani in veg version, the taste was never the same; even my mom’s veg biriyani could not satisfy my biriyani craving... Finally my first day in the US, after a long flight journey, the only way left to have dinner was to “BUY” from the nearby Indian restaurant... RK got me Veg dum Biriyani from the “Paradise Biriyani Point”. Oh boy, it was so delicious and took me back to my childhood days. After having the biriyani there for a few times, finally decided to recreate the magic in my kitchen. I had spent a lot of time researching on the web, for the best veg dum biriyani recipe, before coming up with my own recipe that suite my taste buds.

Veg Dum Biriyani

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Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 1 hr 15 mins

Servings 3

Ingredients

  

• Onion - 1 Large
• Green Chilli - 2 Small
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
• Carrot - 1
• Green Beans - 5-6
• Cauliflower - 10 florets
• Potato - 1
• Curd - 2 Tbsp
• Turmeric Powder - ¼ tsp
• Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Water - 1 Cup
• Salt - ½ tsp to taste
• Bread - 2 slices
• Cashews - 10
• Coriander Leaves - 1 Tbsp finely chopped
• Mint Leaves - 1 Tbsp finely chopped
• Saffron Strands - 2 pinches
• Ghee - 2 tsp
• Oil - For frying

For Cooking Rice

• Basmati rice - 1 Cup
• Water - 4 Cups
• Jeera - ½ tsp
• Green Chilli - 1 Small
• Bay leaf - 1
• Cinnamon Stick - 1
• Cardamom - 1
• Clove - 3
• Ghee - 1 tsp
• Coriander Leaves - 1 Tbsp finely chopped
• Mint Leaves - 1 Tbsp finely chopped
• Salt - ½ tsp adjust as per taste

To Temper

• Oil - 1 Tbsp
• Bay leaf - 1
• Cinnamon Stick - 1
• Cloves - 3
• Cardamom - 2
• Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
• Star Anise - 1

Instructions

 

• First soak the rice in room temperature water and leave it for about 30-45 minutes.
• Add the soaked rice to a pot of boiling water along with all other ingredients mentioned under “For Cooking Rice” (Jeera, Green Chilli, Bay Leaf, Cinnamon Stick, Cardamom, Clove, Coriander Leaves, Mint Leaves, Ghee and Salt). Give it a nice stir. Leave it to cook in high flame.
  
   
• Once the rice is half done, Strain the water completely and Keep the rice aside.
• Now, Heat a heavy bottomed vessel, I used my pressure cooker. Add oil; once the oil gets hot, add all the ingredients under “To Temper” (Bay leaf, Cinnamon stick, Clove, Cardamom, Star anise and finally Fennel seeds). Then add the slit green chilli, ginger garlic paste and half of the finely sliced onion. Fry them nicely till the onion color changes to golden brown.
  
   
• Once the onion turns golden brown, add all the veggies and fry them for 2 minutes. Then add curd to the veggies, give a quick stir and follow it up with turmeric, chilli powder, salt and mix them thoroughly.
• Add the water now to the mixture and cook for one whistle. In case of not using a pressure cooker, cook the veggies till they are 90% done.
  
   
  
   
• While the veggies are cooking, Heat a Kadai with oil and fry the remaining half of the finely sliced onion, followed by bread cubes and cashews. One by one, till there color changes to golden brown. Do not burn it, the food would taste bitter. Drain them well and place them in a clean tissue to remove any excess oil.
  
   
• Once the veggies are done cooking (make sure there is no excess water in the mixture. In case of excess water cook for another 5 minutes in very high flame so that we do not overcook the veggies but just remove the excess water), switch off the flame and sprinkle half of the coriander leaves, mint leave, fried onions, bread cubes and cashews. Keep the remaining half for topping.
  
   
• Finally time for assembling our dum biriyani. Add the half-done rice over the veggie mixture. The layers should be like veggies in the bottom; fried onions, bread, etc. on top of the veggies and finally rice on top. On top of the rice layer sprinkle the saffron strands, add the ghee, Coriander leaves and mint leaves. Now, close the lid. Make sure the lid is sealed tight. If using a pressure cooker, close the lid, but do not put the whistle.
  
   
• Now comes the Dum cooking. Heat a tawa in low-medium flame and place the cooker/heavy bottomed vessel over it and cook for 20 minutes in low-medium flame.
  
   
• Serve hot and make sure you serve with all the cooked layers, garnishing with fried onions.
  
  

Notes | FAQ

- Soaking the rice, results in faster cooking. Within 10 minutes rice will be half done. So, once you start cooking your rice, side by side you can start the veggies gravy preparation. Leaving the cooked rice longer leads to drying of rice.
- I preferred cooking rice in a vessel instead of other techniques like pressure cooker, rice cooker, and micro wave. As this was suitable for me to get the rice half-done perfectly without flaws.
- Adjust the salt according. Keeping in mind you are adding in both gravy and rice.
- Finely slicing the onion will result in crispier fry.
- You can also add toasted bread cubes instead of fried ones.
- You can even soak the saffron strands in warm milk for few minutes and add the mixture over the rice. But I prefer directly adding saffron strands over the rice.
- I Dum cooked for 20 minutes, first 10 minutes in medium flame and the next 10 minutes in low flame.
- Dum cooking in high flame will result in burnt biriyani.
- If you are vegan, you can skip the curd and replace Ghee with Oil.