Hyderabadi Biryani ( vegetarian )

I made this last weekend when I invited some friends for dinner. I make it quite regularly and get a thumbs-up everytime from the kids and hubby

Its offcourse vegetarian and I learnt this from my SIL who learnt it from a family friend who owned a restaurant and made a mean Biryani. They made nonveg in their restaurant but he taught the vegetarian version to my SIL and I tried to recollect how she made it once in India and have now been making it for years myself and this is one thing that I can make very confidentaly knowing that it will be liked by one and all.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups basmati rice,5- onions (big),3-4 green chillies ( slit length wise),3 tbsp ginger garlic paste,2 tomatoes,3 tbsp yogurt,2 tsp - red chilli pdr,approx 3-400 gms beans slit lengthwise and then chopped in half ( I used the ready made frozen ones),approx - 200gm peas,a few florets of cauli,3 carrots - slit lengthwise and cut into long thin pieces.5-6 black pepper ( whole),4 inch cinnamon stick,1 big black cardomom,4-5 small green cardomoms,2 tsp jeera,1 tsp garam masala pdr,a few strands of saffron soaked in about 1/4 cup of warm milk,2cups(tightly packed) - fresh chopped coriander leaves,1cup(tight packed) - fresh chopped mint leaves,1cup- halved cashews

Method:

Soak rice for 15 min in lot of water. Put 3-4 tbsp of cooking oil and some salt and put it on the stove on high heat. Bring it to a boil and lower the heat. Let it cook till it is almost done but not completely done. When you press it between your finger and thumb, it should be slightly firm but not very soft. Drain the excess water and spread it out on a big plate to let it cool.

In a pan, take about 6-7 tbsp cooking oil and heat it on medium heat. slice the onion thinly ( horizontal circles) and fry in the oil till they are golden brown like this and then drain it on a paper towel.

Now add jeera to the same oil, when it splutters, add the whole garam masala ( cinnamom, cardomom, pepper etc) and then add the cashews. once the cashews start turning pink, add the ginger garlic paste, chilli pdr, coriander pdr, garam masala pdr and stir till oil floats.

Add green chillies, chopped tomatoes and once they are softened, add yogurt and cook till the oil seperates. Now add all the veges, mix it properly, cover with a lid and let it cook till the veges are done.

now take a large bowl or an oven safe dish/container. Spread a layer of rice first. then put a layer of the cooked veges, then the fried and drained onions and then chopped mint and coriander leaves. Put another layer of rice and the same layers of veges, onions and chopped greens. I normally put one half of rice in the bottom layer and then half of veges and again the rest of the rice and the rest of the veges. but you can make as many layers as you want. It looks like this from above and the other pic shows how the layers look from side.

Now, sprinkle the saffron milk on it. With a serving spoon, take 4-5 big chunks of thick yogurt and put on top of the biryani. Cover it properly with foil and push it in the oven for ‘dum’ on low heat for 15-20 min or half hour depeding on the oven. I normally leave it there untill the guest arrive. Take it out at serving time and mix it very lightly and serve with ‘mirchi ka salan’ or ‘baghara baigan’ ( recipe coming up soon) and raita.

Tip:

My Jiju who turned vegetarian recently gave me a tip to add soya chunks after soaking them in warm water, along with the veges. It tastes even better if you first shallow fry it in little oil till it tunrs pinkish and then soak it in water. Its good for us vegetarians too as the soya is a rich source of protien for vegetarians.

I also added Paneer once along with the veges to make it richer, and it was loved too !!

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Missi roti - my way

Before starting with my ‘No Frills Cooking’, I thought that since I will be putting the calorie count wherever possible of the recipe I will be posting, I better do some research on how many calories do we acually need. Well, this is what I found out…

The recommended daily calorie intake varies depending on how old you are. For the average adult this is about 2000 per day (women) and 2500 per day (men). These calories should be made up of foods from the main food groups.If you’re trying to lose weight you could start by eating 500 less calories per day. This should help as long as your diet is well balanced and you’re getting lots of exercise.The recommended daily calorie intake is different for children, pregnant women and older people. See your GP for advice.

Dietician Jyoti Mehta who says that the rule of thumb is that a person’s ideal weight is calculated such that for every 5 ft we allot 45.36 kgs and another 2.27 kg for every inch. “If your height is 5’8” then your weight should be 63 kgs.

Coming back to my missi roti, its very nutritious since you combine vairety of flours to make it. Normally I don’t make jowar/bajra/rajgira etc ki roti even though I know how nutritious they are - the only reason being that I dont know how to make them on their own since it needs a lot of practice to make them perfect. So this is the way we eat these grains and doesn’t need any special skills. If you can make normal wheat flour rotis then you can make this too.I normally buy all types of flours available at the Indian grocers, in approx equal quantities. I come home and mix them all together and keep this mixed flour in a different container. It saves time later as you don’t have to open 5 different boxes to make these rotis. Just one cup of this mixed flour and one cup of wheat flour is all you need to take out of the pantry.

How to make it:

1 cup mixed flour ( equal quantity of besan, jowar flour, bajra flour, soyabean flour) or whatever flours are available.

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup methi leaves, washed and chopped ( I used it since I found some fresh leaves at the shop, otherwise I use a tbsp of dry ones)

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper ( or use red chilli pdr)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp jeera ( cumin seeds)

1 tbsp, washed and chopped coriander leaves

1 green chilli, finely chopped ( I didnt add it since the kids don’t like it).

and little oil for making the parathas ( approx 1 tsp per roti)

Mix all the ingredients together and knead a stiff dough. divide them in 10 equal parts and roll out the rotis. Heat a tawa on the stove and cook the roti using little oil till both sides are golden. Take it off and serve with spreading ghee over it ( I do that only for children, they need the extra calories ) and with some pickle.

I normally prepare this dough and keep it in the fridge. Its very convenient then to make one roti each for a hurried yet extremely nutritious breakfast as you can just roll it up and eat it on your way to school/work or if you have more time in the morning then, make them for lunch boxes. They can even be frozen and warmed up for a quick breakfast or snack.

Calories: Each roti is approx 187 Cal if you make 10 rotis out of it ( not counting the ghee that I put on kids rotis). It will vary if you make more or less, so change it accordingly. For example if you make only 5 rotis out of this dough then the calorie value of each roti will double up.