Makhani Paneer Biryani

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Biryani of different Styles

Dish: Makhani Paneer Biryani

Here's a delicious biryani made with paneer for all paneer and biryani fans. Paneer is cooked with tomatoes, spices and some cream to make a lip smacking curry that is layered with basmati rice and then baked off (or cooked on dum) for an awesome tasting biryani that is sure to wow anyone.

I had more than a gallon of 1% milk that needed to be used up real fast, so I made paneer flavored with cumin seeds, ground coriander, chili flakes and kasuri methi. Now that I had that in the fridge, I was looking for recipes to use it and found the recipe for Makhani Paneer biryani here. It sounded like the perfect dish to make with my homemade flavored paneer.

Read more »

Kerala Vegetable Biryani (Vegetarian Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Biryani of different Styles

Dish: Kerala Vegetable Biryani

The theme for this week's blogging marathon is one of my favorite. My love for biryanis has made me try quite a few different varieties already. So when Valli had Biryani of different styles as one of the themes for this month's marathon, I knew this was my chance to try 3 more delicious biryanis and add them to my repertoire.

This Kerala Vegetable Biryani from Veg Recipes of India has been on my to-make list for quite a while now. This is a layered rice dish with basmati rice and spicy vegetable curry cooked in coconut milk.

Read more »

Tamil Nadu -- Chettinad Vegetable Biryani

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 26
State: Tamil Nadu
Dish: Chettinad Vegetable Biryani

We are coming all the way south of India to Tamil Nadu. Capital of Tamil Nadu is Chennai, formerly known as Madras. For most of the North Indians, people from the south are all Madrasis. I have been called that quite a few times in my own life. So the point is, it is the most famous South Indian state. It is most known for its monumental ancient Hindu temples and classical dance form Bharata Natyam.
We visited the famous temples in Tamil Nadu and I've been to Chennai to present a paper during my graduation. Food wise there is hardly anything to go wrong in Tamil Nadu with fluffy idlis, crispy dosas and other delicious South Indian dishes being sold at both 5 star restaurants and at road side stalls.
Tamil Cuisine is rice based and forms the major portion of their diet. Their are regional sub-varieties in Tamil cuisine, like Chettinadu, Kongunadu, Madurai, Tirunalveli and so on.
Specialties: Idli, Dosai, Uthappam, Filter Coffee, Kootu, Sambar etc.,

Today's Dish: Initially I was planning to make 'Kachipuram Idli' today, but then changed my mind and started searching for some Chettinad recipes. The Chettiar community, who is the majority in this region, are a very successful trading community. Chettinad cuisine is one of the spiciest and the most aromatic in India. It is famous for its use of variety of spices used mainly in non-vegetarian food. The dishes are hot and pungent with fresh ground masalas, and topped with a boiled egg that is usually considered essential part of a meal.

Read more »

Shahi Biryani

I have started to enjoy making Biryanis, both to entertain and also for Sunday lunches. You can tell from the increase in the biryani recipes on the blog in the recent past. Once the rice and spiced veggies on done, then all is left to do is the layering part which is my favorite thing to do. The layered look is very pretty on the plate too. Also it is easy to multiply the ingredients and make them for a crowd.

I'm on the look out for new and interesting biryani recipes and when I saw this being made on a Telugu cooking show, I promptly noted it down. This biryani has a spice paste that gives all the flavor to the dish.

Read more »

Veg Dum Biryani (Hyderabadi Vegetable Dum Biryani)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter V
Theme: A-Z Vegetarian Dishes of Andhra Pradesh
Dish: Veg Dum Biryani (Hyderabadi Vegetable Dum Biryani)

Letter V stands for my all time favorite vegetable Vankaya (brinjal/ eggplant), but I stopped myself from making yet another vankaya recipe (I already posted 4 recipes with eggplant in this month). So I made yet another favorite of mine, Vegetable Dum ka Biryani.

The first time I ever had veg dum biryani was some 8 years ago when my MIL made it when she visited us. It was quite a lengthy and time taking process -- marinating the veggies, par boiling the rice, layering and then cooking on dum. I tried to make the process a little bit simpler and slightly faster than my MIL's dish. 

Instead of marinating the veggies, I cook them with spices so they don't taste bland in the final dish. I either microwave basmati rice or pressure cook for only 1 whistle, so rice still holds its shape and does not turn mushy.

Read more »

Qabooli Biryani (Hyderabadi Chana dal Biryani)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter Q
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: Q for Qabooli Biryani (Hyderabadi Chana dal Biryani)

Letter Q stands for Qubani (apricots). Qubani ka Meetha is a very famous Hyderabadi dessert that is made with dried apricots that are soaked and then cooked with sugar and drizzled with cream. I wanted to make it, but couldn't find good quality apricots. So I made Qabooli instead.

Qabooli is biryani made with spicy chana dal (split pea lentil) and layered with basmati rice. I used black chana/ chickpeas instead and it turned out quite tasty. This is a filling and delicious dish that is great to make when you have company.

Read more »

Dal Biryani

It's been a while that I sent an entry to Susan @ Well Seasoned Cook's famous My Legume Love Affair (MLLA) event. This month's edition is being hosted by lovely Nupur @ One Hot Stove. I love legumes and they are integral part of my cooking. My 5 year old LOVES dal chawal and I'm very glad that I can sneak in any veggie in to a dal and he'll eat it without complaining. So much for little victories :-)

This Dal Biryani recipe is adapted from one of the Telugu cooking shows that I recently watched. I really loved the idea of using dal in biryani, it makes it a complete dish with the required carbs, protein and fat. It is filling and delicious to boot.

The original recipe was for 'Panchratan Dal Biryani' with 5 different legumes. But I remember a nutrition expert on one of the other cooking shows saying that 'adding more good things to a dish is not necessarily good for health'. She mentioned that using a lot of different beans/ nuts/ oils/ seeds (anything for that matter) slows down the body from absorbing the good nutrients from each of the ingredient. I don't know if that is true or not, but I used only 3 legumes -- Chickpeas, Adzuki beans and Moong beans. But the recipe is versatile and any sturdy legume that doesn't become mushy when cooked can be used.

Read more »

Rajasthani Gatte ki Biryani

Blogging Marathon: Week 2/ Day 5
Theme: Traditional Dishes
Dish: Rajasthani Gatte ki Biryani

I have been planning to make this dish for over a year. I wanted to make it for BM# 12 when Valli had a theme for Rajasthani dishes. It was when BM was for 7 days and I actually made 4-5 dishes, but had to opt out of the marathon because I started having some serious morning sickness in my initial stages of pregnancy. So finally got to make it for this week's "traditional' dishes.

"Gatte' are boiled besan/ chickpea flour logs that are cut into bite size pieces and cooked with other masalas and layered with rice to make this hearty, protein rich biryani. This is a very filling dish and one bite into 'gatte' will have you hooked with the earthy taste and soft texture.

Read more »

Vegetable Biryani in Slow Cooker

Wish you All a very Happy & Prosperous New Year 2013!!

I don't usually make any resolutions, I believe that if something needs to be changed, it has to be changed right away and there's no need to wait for a new year. But I do have couple of resolutions for this year, to eat as healthy as possible and waste as little as possible. One more resolution for the blog is to try and post as many new recipes as possible.

Today, we begin the 24th edition of Blogging Marathon. Valli came up with some very interesting and challenging themes and for the next 4 weeks I have some delicious recipes coming up.

Read more »

Tomato Biryani

Yet another week flew by and I'm back for this month's 2nd edition of Blogging Marathon. For this week, my theme is "Cooking from BM Blogs". It was really difficult to settle on one blog and I had 3 recipes picked out from almost all of the marathoner's blogs and finally made 3 dishes from Valli's "Spicing your Life". 

Valli is the master mind behind Blogging Marathon and I'm always amazed on how she manages to be a full time working mom of 3 young kids, an active blogger AND organize blogging marathons, cooking melas and Indian Cooking Challenges. Blogging marathon has given me a chance to try variety of dishes and also keep my blog active at least 2-3 times a month. So big Thanks to Valli for being an inspiration to me.

For today's post, I made Valli's quick & delicious "Tomato Biryani" that goes with the "30 minute meal" theme. I bookmarked it the minute I saw it on her blog, but haven't had a chance to make it until now.

Read more »

Egg Biryani

My theme for week 2 of BM# 18 is Biryani/ Pulao. I probably make some kind of a rice dish at least once or twice a week. Fried rice or pulaos are great for a quick week night meal and are excellent when there are odds and ends of veggies lurking in the fridge. 

As I mentioned earlier, I consider myself a lazy cook and try to take short cuts when cooking which is a big reason why I don’t venture into making full-fledged biryanis (steps include marinating the veggies, par-cooking the rice, layering etc. etc..). But when I saw this recipe for Egg biryani in Anjum Anand’s New Indian cookbook, I had to try it right away. It does involve par-cooking the rice and making the masala separately and layering everything. I have to say I enjoyed making this dish and may be this is the beginning of my culinary adventures in biryani making. 

Read more »

Vegetable Biryani using Biryani Mix

For Day 2 of BM# 17, I made this easy to make Biryani using ready to cook biryani mix. All you need (as it says on the mix) is rice, vegetables and yogurt.I added just a little bit of extra salt and that was the only additional ingredient I added to the dish. 

Making a biryani from scratch is not my cup of tea. My MIL makes a mean biryani that is to die for and she makes it in a very traditional way; par-boiling rice, marinating vegetables, layering and steaming. I, on the other hand, prefer mixing all the ingredient in the pressure cooker and boom, there you have my biryani.

This mix is quite convenient on days when you have company at home and are running short of time. The taste is pretty close to the real thing (if you have ever tasted the real thing, that is.. I can't say I ate a real dum ka biryani anywhere else but the one made by my MIL) and gets done in less than half the time needed for the real thing.

Read more »