Vegetable Dum ka Biryani

The minute one thinks of hyderabadi cusine, "dum" ka biryani come instantaneously to ones mind. It is a very popular dish in hyderabad. There is no restaurant in hyderabad that doesn't have the dum ka biryani. So today I will be sharing the vegetarian version of dum ka biryani.



Ingredients:
1.) Basmati rice - 2 cups
2.) Cloves - 6
3.) Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
4.) cardamon - 2
6.) star - 1
7.) Bay leaves - 3
8.) Green chillies - 5
9.) nutrela soya chunks - 1/2 cup
10.) Biryani masala - 2 - 3 tspns
11.) garam masala powder - 1 tsp
12.) onion - 1 medium
14.) Curd - 1 cup
15.) milk- 1cup
16.) Edible color or kesar(saffron)
17.) veggies (carrot, peas, cauliflower)
18.) Ginger garlic paste - 1 and 1/2 tsps
19.) mint leaves - 1 /2 cup
20.) Turmeric - pinch
21.) chicken/mutton masala - 1-2 tsp(optional)
22.) Cashews - 10
23.) salt

Procedure:
Take one table spoon of oil in a pan add 2 cloves, 1/4 inch of cinnamon stick and one cardamon,
bay leaf, cashews and star. Once u start getting the aroma of the masala's and the cashew starts getting brown , add rice and mint leaves and toast it. Remove the rice from heat when it is slightly toasted. Cook the rice with 3 cups of water ( 1: 1and 1/2 measure of rice and water). When the rice is 80% done, remove from heat.

Take the soya chunks, add water to it and microwave it for about 2 mins. Once they are soft, run it through cold water and wash it thoroughly.Squeeze out the excess water from it.
Chop the onion vertically. Fry half of the vertically chopped onion till golden brown.

In a pan add 2 tbspns of oil. When the oil is hot add the rest of the spices(cloves, cinnamon, cardamon and bay leaves). Once they start giving out a nice aroma add rest of the vertically chopped onions and saute. to this add ginger garlic paste and vertically slit green chillies and saute well. Once the onions are golden brown and the raw flavor of ginger garlic paste is gone add the veggies along with the soya chunks. Stir for a minute and add biriyani masala, garam masala , chicken/mutton masala and salt. Cook till the veggies are 75% done. Now add curd to this and cook the veggies till 80% done (it would take just another couple of mins).

Take a wide pan and add a layer on the cooked veggies. Now add a layer of the 80% cooked rice. Top with fried onions. On top of this add another layer of veggies. Over the veggies add another layer of rice and top it fried onions. Finally dissolve kesar or edible color in milk and pour over the biryani. Close a lid on pan (tightly) and place it on low heat for about 10 mins, till all the flavors are steamed together (this is the meaning of DUM).
Sometimes the bottom may get burnt, to avoid this place this pan in another larger pan with water(double boiling).
Once the biryani is done mix well and serve with salan, bagara baingan , stuffed capsicum (http://arcotneha.blogspot.com/2009/01/stuffed-capsicum-curry.html) or raitha.
Generally the dessert that accompanies this rich entree is qubani ka meeta (http://arcotneha.blogspot.com/2009/01/qubanikhubani-ka-meeta.html), another famous dish from hyderabad.