For some people briyani is a very complex dish and think it is one of the hardest dishes to make. First of all you need a caldero which is great for cooking rice. Cooking the rice in a stockpot will make the rice gummy or worse it would turn out looking like halwa a term for it making look mushy and quite watery. So therefore It is not advised to use a stockpot at all. Calderos are best suited for cooking rice and they cook to a perfection. They can be found in a lot of places like Target.
That is where I got mine and the price is reasonable. So enough of the chatter and let’s get to cooking. I added 3 cups of rice to my largest caldero. This is made with only white or brown basmati rice. I rinsed the rice until the water was clear and no longer cloudy. I added 1/2 gallon or 2 liters of water and brought the rice to a boil. I added 3 tbs of olive oil, 1 pinch of cumin seeds, 1 pinch of black peppercorns,1 bay leaf, 1 black cardamom, 2 green cardamoms, 2 cloves, 1 broken piece of cinnamon stick or 1 pinch of cinnamon powder, 1 pinch of pink salt and stirred. The peppercorns, cinnamon stick, green and black cardamoms get ground in mortar and pestle while bay leaf and cloves remain whole.
I wrapped some aluminum foil under the lid, placed it on the pot. turned the heat down to low and cooked the rice for 20 minutes. When the water is absorbed and the rice is al dente which means it is a little hard. I opened the lid and added 1 pinch of powdered food coloring and 4 strands of saffron. I covered the rice again and let it sit undistubed for now and proceed to next step.
The next step is in to making the curry. I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to another pot. 1 cut 1 onion or shallot and caramelized it. I added the freshly made Biryani Masala with 2 aloo bukara, 1 pinch each of red chili powder, pink salt and turmeric. I stirred and added 1 small piece of ginger that I washed and peeled with 2 cloves of garlic that I crushed in my mortar and pestle and added it to the masala base. I chopped 1 tomato and 1 green chili. I cooked the tomato on low heat until it turned mushy.
Here is where I would add 1 bag of frozen mixed or individual vegetables to the curry and cook for 20 minutes on low and add to the rice if I wanted mixed vegetable biryani. If I wanted beef, veal, chicken, lamb, quail, turkey, oxtail, goat Briyani I would add the meat to the curry base and cook the meat for 40 minutes to an hour or until done. If I wanted fish, shrimp or mixed seafood briyani, I would fry the fish then set it aside to keep the fish intact then make the curry base and readd the fish then stirr gently. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the curry of choice and gently fold with the rice.
If you want to make egg biryani then hard boil between 6 to 12 chicken eggs or a whole carton of quail eggs. Boil for 10 minutes. Cool and remove shells fold in to curry base and gently add to rice mixture. Or add 1 can of canned fish of choice in tomato sauce like mackerel or sardines. Leave fish in tact as you add to the rice. Add 1 tsp of tomato paste if the curry is a little thin. This will thicken up nicely.
Cover and let sit on dum for 10 minutes.
Also last minute to this addendum 1b or 1 kilo of mince being of turkey, beef, veal, chicken, lamb and goat for non veg keema ( queema) briyani or 1 bag of Morningstar Farm crumbles is suitable for for veg options too. Kofta and nargasi kofta can be another possibility. Just form meatballs. For nargasi kofta add 1 handful of either besan or rice flour to mince and put it around the egg. Fry them in a little bit of olive oil, set aside then readd after making curry base cook 5 minutes before adding to rice.
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