Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani

Biryani! Doesn’t that word conjure feelings of joy and comfort? Who doesn’t love this pampered, fragrant, rice delicacy that reigns supreme as the world best one pot meal?

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani

For many of my dear readers, today’s post is a long awaited one. At last I got to blog the recipe of the quintessential ‘home style’ Chicken Dum Biryani from the royal kitchen of the Nizams. A dish that calls for an elaborate process and requires lots of TLC aka ‘tender loving care’ while preparing unlike the quick pressure cooker biryani. There are two versions, Kachha (raw) and Pakki (cooked) Biryani. Today’s recipe is basically a Hyderabadi kachha style of biryani where marinated raw chicken and partially cooked basmati rice are layered and cooked on dum, over low heat. I prepared this biryani a couple of times, the recipe is perfect and has never failed me. Once the biryani is cooked on dum, as you open the lid, the kitchen smells fragrant, rich with the reassuring aroma of pure ghee and saffron and the chicken cooked to melt in the mouth tenderness.

Chicken Dum Biryani

A few things to keep in mind while preparing biryani. Use best quality aged Basmati rice, good quality chicken and the best saffron available. Marinate chicken for at least 4-6 hrs and if running out of time then two hours will do. No short cut methods and all the ingredients listed below are a MUST, in other words, there are no substitutes for the mentioned ingredients.

Marinated Chicken ~ Partially cooked basmati rice

Caramelized Onions ~ Saffron Milk

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe

Marination: 4 hrs Prep & Cooking: 1 hr

Serves 6-7 persons

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Ingredients:
1 kg chicken, washed and drained completely
2 large onions, finely sliced
2 tbsps chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp saffron
1/2 cup luke warm milk
salt to taste
2 tbsps ghee + 5 tbsps oil
For marination:
3/4 cup thick curd/yogurt
8-10 green chillis, make a small slit in them
1 1/2 tbsps ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp red chilli pwd (adjust)
1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
3/4 tbsp coriander pwd
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
3/4 cup pudina leaves
juice of 1 lemon
1 3/4 tsps salt
Biryani masala, make pwd:
8 cloves
1″ cinnamon stick
4 elaichi/cardamom
3/4 tsp shah jeera
12 pepper corns
Ingredients to cook rice:
4 cups Basmati rice
6 cloves
3 cardamoms
1″ cinnamon stick
3 bay leaves
1 marathi mogga
1 star anise
10 mint leaves
1 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsps salt
water as required

1 Marinate chicken with the ingredients called for ‘marination’ along with biryani masala pwd. Keep aside for 4 hrs or a min of 1 1/2 hrs. While the chicken is marinating, work on the rest of the preparation.
2 Cook basmati rice in lots of water along with bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, marathi mogga, elaichi, oil, salt till its half cooked. Strain the water and spread the rice on a large wide plate. Allow to cool.
3 Heat 1 tbsp oil + 1 tbsp ghee in a vessel, add sliced onions, saute for 8-10 mts till caramelized. Remove and keep aside.
4 Add the saffron to the luke warm milk and combine well. Keep aside.
5 Take a wide deep vessel to prepare the biryani. Add 3 tbsps oil, add the marinated chicken and spread out over the vessel. Cook on high for 2 mts. Add a tbsp of oil over the chicken pieces. Reduce flame.
6 Spread half of the rice over the chicken layer, pour half a tbsp of ghee all over the rice, add half of the caramalized onions and spread over the rice. Next sprinkle a tbsp of coriander leaves and pour about one fourth cup of saffron milk over the rice. Over this layer, spread the remaining rice. Again pour half a tbsp of ghee all over, add remaining caramelized onions and spread over the rice. Finally sprinkle a tbsp of coriander leaves and pour remaining saffron milk over the rice.
7 Place lid and over the lid place a heavy weight and seal the edges with wheat dough. Cook on high flame for 2 mts. Remove the vessel from the stove and place a iron tawa. Allow to heat. Reduce to low flame and place back the biryani vessel on the iron tawa and cook biryani for 20-25 mts. Turn off heat and do not remove lid for 10 mts.
8 After 10 mts, remove lid, combine gently and serve hot with raita and curry of your choice.

Our Sunday meal ~ Chicken Dum Biryani, Nilgiri Chicken Korma and Raita

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe

Prep time: 30 min

Cook time: 60 min

Yield: 5

Main Ingredients: rice, chicken

Biryani! Doesn’t that word conjure feelings of joy and comfort? Who doesn’t love this pampered, fragrant, rice delicacy that reigns supreme as the world best one pot meal?

Pachi Pulusu


This is a traditional Andhra recipe from my hubby's hometown . Even my mom use to prepare  but i started liking it more after my marriage .I first had a taste of this recipe after marriage and the tanginess of the tamarind, the heat of the chillies and the crispiness of the onions bowled me over. It's very simple to prepare, it took me hardly 10 minutes to put it together. It can be had with rice or by itself as a soup or rasam.


Ingredients:

Tamarind - 1 big lemon sized ball
Onion - 1/2 of a big one - Finely Chopped
Green Chillies - 2 Split
Jaggery/ Sugar - A pinch
salt 

coriander  

Dry Red Chillies - 2

Seasoning:

Mustard Seeds - 1 Teaspoon
Curry Leaves - 5 - 6
Jeera - 1 Teaspoon


Oil - 2 Teaspoons

Method:

Soak tamarind in 3 cups of water along with salt. Extract the juice and discard the pulp. Add the onions, green chillies and salt,coriander  to the tamarind juice.

Heat oil and add red chillies,mustard seeds. After they splutter, add jeera and curry leaves. Pour this seasoning over the tamarind mixture. Add a pinch of jaggery. Let it stand for 30 minutes before serving.

                                              

Salmon fish fry

Hi
  For the first time  i prepared fish after my marriage and surprisingly it came out very good and now salmon has became one of my fav recipe.


Ingredients for Simple Salmon Fry Recipe

Salmon - 1 lb
(cut into small)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - As reqd
Lime - 1/2 pc
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

oil

coriander-1

Preparation Method of Simple Salmon Fry Recipe1

Squeeze the lime over the salmon.
Mix little water and other ingredients to make a paste.
Marinate the salmon with the above paste for 10 - 20 mins.

Now is the fun bit: using your hands - make sure that each fish piece is thoroughly coated with the spice mixture - ensuring that the powder dows not "clump" together at all - use the fish pieces to evenly mix the spice/lemon-juice/oil mixture. Then finally - place the fish pieces "face down" - i.e. skin side up and cover the dish with clingfilm. Place this in the fridge for an hour or two - that will give you plenty of time to get on with other things that you need to do.

When you come back - get a large frying pan - and pour in a few drops of olive oil - and get the flame going high to get the pan really hot. If you have an extractor fan above your hob - you should get that going on max as well. Then - when the pan is real hot - place the fish pieces in - skin-side down - and let them stay in the pan for a few minutes - sizzling away. Shake the pan horizontally slightly (but not too much) - just to ensure that the pieces don't stick and burn on the surface of the pan. It helps to use non-stick frying pan for this method.

After about 6 mins - use a spatula or tongs to carefully turn over each fish piece so that the skin-side is now up. You can see that it is beginning to look quite good now. You may reduce the heat a bit at this point - because by cooking the fish on high heat with skin-side down you have actually very gently cooked the fish right up to the top of the fish - and all you want to do now is to brown the top. However - be warned if you follow these instructions the salmon will be very tender and "just-cooked" in the middle
Pour some light oil (like Sunflower Oil ) in a flat pan and stir fry.

:- Serve hot with coriander ,onions and lemon.

Carrot halwa

Celebrating my 1st Engagement  anniversary with our tradional Indian sweet "Gajar ka Halwa".Actually i did thought to post this about a week ago, BUT.. last week was bit busy.

                  Now something about this carrot pudding or carrot halwa,which is the most famous of

 Indian sweet dishes. It origiantes in the northern parts of India. As kids we always had this made from the RED long variety of carrots, which grows in the cooler climates of India (mostly north) and are available only during the winter months. They are juicier and naturally very sweet so halwa made from them is more carrot and less sugar and tasted real heavenly. If anyone can get red carrots, should definately try making the halwa with them.

But everywhere else we get these orange carrots only,and halwa tastes delicious with them too.

                        This is  is one of my favorite Halwa.........................................:)

Ingredients:

Shredded carrot 2 cups
Milk 2 cups
Sugar 1/4 + cup
Cardamom powder 1/2 teaspoon
Unsalted butter/ghee 2 tablespoons
Cashews, raisins, almonds to garnish

Method:

Roast the cashews and raisins in a little ghee and keep it aside.
Boil the milk until it gets reduced to half.This should be done in medium high heat for about 8 to 9 minutes stirring occasionally so that it does not stick to the pan.
In a nonstick pan melt the butter and stir fry the shredded carrot on medium heat for about 5 to 6 minutes so that the carrots leave the raw smell and slightly change the colour..Take care the carrots do not get burnt.
Add the evaporated milk and cook for about 10 minutes until the milk gets completely absorbed.
Add the sugar and stir well.Cook for 3 more minutes and add the cardamom powder and cook till the halwa starts leaving the sides of the pan and the ghee starts oozing out.

Garnish with the roasted cashews and raisins.

Pav Bhaji Recipe

Pavbhaji is a popular Indian Street fast food. Pav means Bun(loaf of bread) and bhaji means mixed vegetable with spices .Most popular snack  a mixture of various vegetables are boiled, mashed and cooked with a spicy masala and served with butter fried pav.

Pav Bhaji Recipe
Prep & Cooking: 50-60 mts
Serves 2-3persons
Ingredients

   Potatoes,boiled and mashed 4 medium
• Tomatoes,chopped 4 medium
• Onions,chopped 2 medium
• Green capsicum,chopped deseeded 1 medium
• Cauliflower,grated 1/4 small
• Green peas,shelled 1/4 cup
• Ginger,chopped 1 inch piece
• Garlic 8-10 cloves
• Oil 3 tablespoons
• Green chillies,chopped 3-4
• Pav bhaji masala 1 1/2 tablespoons
• Salt to taste
• Butter 3 tablespoons
• Pav 8
• Fresh coriander leaves,chopped 1/4 cup
• Lemons,cut into wedges

Method:

• Cut potato into small pieces. Wash the vegetables with water.
• Cook all the vegetables ( cauliflower, potato, peas) in a pressure cooker .Mash them coarsely. ( If you are using frozen peas, then no need to pressure cook the peas)
• Heat 2 tbsp. of butter in a frying pan or kadhai.
• Add green chili,chopped onions and fry it until it become light golden brown in color. 
• Add ginger garlic paste 
• Then add chopped tomato and cook till it becomes tender.
• Add pavbhaji masala, chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, salt, and cook again for 4-5 minutes. (Incase you are using the frozen peas then add now)
• Add the boiled vegetables, lemon juice and mix well. Simmer till it becomes thick, Stir and mash into pieces in between.
• Slit the pavs horizontally.
• Apply little butter on tava and roast the pavs till hot and soft.
• Garnish bhaji with chopped coriander leaves and onions. Serve hot with pav and tomato sauce/green chutney.

Sambar

 Sambar recipe is one of the most loved dishes of mine and  in South Indian cuisine. It accompanies most every meal. In South India, there are variations to this sambar recipe, but this is the one I use and i learnt .

                  Sambar commonly contain a variety of vegetables and are often finished off with more spices and curry leaves sautéed in oil. Sambar is especially popular as a breakfast dish, served with idli , vada and rice.

Ingredients For Sambar Powder

• Coriander seeds - 1 table spoon
• Chana dal - 1 tea spoon
• Urad dal -1/2 tea spoon
• Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon
• Asafetida - 1/4 tea spoon
• Red chillis - 2 to 4, according to taste
• Black pepper - 1/4 tea spoon
• Mustard seeds - 1/4 tea spoon
• Methi(fenugreek) seeds - 1/4 tea spoon

Ingredients for Sambar:

• Toor dal - 1 small cup
• Tamarind - a lime sized ball
• Onions 2 medium sized, chopped
• Tomatoes - 2 medium sized, chopped
• Curry leaves - a sprig.
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped.
• Salt - 1 tea spoon or to taste.
• Water - 3-4 cups.

Ingredients for seasoning:

• Oil+ghee - 1 tsp each
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Asafoetida - 1 pinch
• Turmeric powder - 1/4teaspoon.

Preparation:

• Roast the sambar powder ingredients on low flame. Grind to fine powder.
• Soak tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes. Get pulp using 1 cup of water.

Cooking Method:

1. Cook Toor dal in 2 cups of water till it is soft.
2. In a deep pan, Heat oil.
3. Add mustard and cumin seeds. When they stop crackling, add asafetida and turmeric powder, curry leaves, chopped onions.
4. Fry for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add 1 cup water. Add ground sambar powder. Boil.
6. Mash the cooked dal. Add to the mixture.
7. Boil for 5 minutes. Add the tamarind pulp, salt. Stir. Add more water if needed.
8. Boil for about 5 minutes.
9. Add chopped coriander leaves.

Sambar is ready to serve withdosa,Rava Idli,Rice.

Enjoy

Kheema Palak

Spinach is one of very few vegetables that we both like and I cook it at least once a week. I usually fry the spinach or make a dal spinach ,but today i tried out  a new and a old variety that is keema palak .Kheema is a  goat or lamb meat and i mixed it with a bowl of spinach .Both palak and kheema are good for health. Yesterday i found spinach sitting in my fridge for a long time and thought of finishing it .On weekends for sure i will cook non veg ,so i thought of preaparing kheema this week.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp Oil
• 2 Cardamom
• 2 Cloves
• 1/2 tsp Saha Jeera
• 1 small Onion Chopped
• 1 – 2 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 2 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp masala powder
• Salt to Taste
• 2 cups or approx. Ground Goat or lamb Meat
• 1  6 oz or 170 gms Packet Baby Spinach Chopped (can use bunch spinach)
• Cilantro to Garnish,mint 

Preparation:

• Heat oil in a pan, add cardamom, cloves and saha jeera.  Add onions and saute until onions are translucent.
• Add ginger garlic paste and continue to saute until the rawness of ginger garlic is gone.
• Add ground kheema and cook for 2-3 minutes or until most of the liquid is evaporated.  If using raw meat, wash and add the kheema and mix well.  cover and cook for approx. 10-15 minutes until the kheema is cooked. Also adjust the chili powder and salt.
• Add coriander, turmeric, chili powder,masala powder, coriander powder and salt.  Mix well.
• Add a hand full mint leaves.
• Add Spinach, mix well, cover and cook for 2-3 minutes until spinach withers and is cooked.
• Remove the cover and continue to cook until all the liquid is gone.  Or until it is done.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or roties.