Deewali and dushhera special dishes # what to serve guests on festival occasion # simple vegetable biryani # vegetable biryani with goodness of coconut

On festival occasions we meet our relatives and have guests coming in and some times we dont understand what to serve....and at times like this we get some food from outside....but instead you can try this dish which takes really less time to be prepared and also tastes just like a hotel chef made biryani

Below quantity Would serve 5 people 

Ingredients : 

Rice - 1\2 kg 
Coconut milk - as per the container or bowl in which you are measuring the rice [1 glass rice = 1.5 glass coconut milk ]
Pudina - 4 fists full 
Coriander - 3 fists full 
Green chillies - for one kg rice 10-12 medium size 
Tomatoes' - 7-9 medium size tomatoes for one kg rice 
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp 
Chopped vegetables - carrot, aloo, beans, green peas 
Paneer - 12-18 cubes 
Ghee - 2 tbsp 
Oil - 5-7 tbsp 
For masala - biryani leaf, cloves, elaichi, sajeera, jeera, cinnamon sticks

Preparation time 45 min  

• Soak the washed rice in water for minimum of 90 minutes or 2 hours. 
• keep mint and coriander leaves plucked and washed  
• cut the tomato into 4-6 pieces  
• cut the coconut into small pieces grind it into fine paste by adding water as and when required. Strain this using a strainer. Dont mix too much of water. 

** TIP - you can add warm water while grinding which will help to squeeze the coconut milk more easily and leaves no juice in pulp** 

*** BASMATI RICE WOULD ADD MUCH FLAVOR AND SMELL TO THE BIRYANI***

Step 1: Take green chillies , mint leaves , coriander leaves , salt and grind them into fine paste (you can add little water (about 30 ml) just for smoothening of this paste) Then add diced tomato pieces and grind it till it becomes a smooth mixture

This green paste in the photo is  step 1

Step 2 : Take a pan add 3-5 tb spoons of oil and let it get heated Then Add zeera - 1 tbsp Sajeera - 1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp Cardamom - 3 Cinnamon - 4-5 sticks Biryani leaves - 5-8

Let them fry till 2 minutes

Add vegetables and let them get cooked up to 30% (no need to close them with a lid)

After these vegetable get cooked 30% add the grinded paste to this and let these vegetables boil in that mixture for minimum of ten minutes.

This helps the vegetables absorb the flavor of our masalas and also removes the wet smell of mint and tomatoes'. Make sure this whole mixture looks like a curry with gravy in it...not too thick nor too liquid...just medium...

Step 3 : Take a cooker in which you can fit in one kg of rice.We will be cooking the rice directly in the cooker without use of any bowl. Add 2 tbsp of ghee in the cooker and let it get heated. Add 1 tbsp of sajeera and let it fry and then add washed rice. See that rice is drained off water properly using a strainer.

** If the water is left out too much in rice it will disturb our water measurement so be careful with it** 

** one important tip is that don't strain the rice first only and keep it. This will cause rice grains to break **

Let the rice get fried in this ghee for 4-7minutes. Keep the flame low and don't mix too often as this will break the grains,

Then add coconut milk by the measurement of 1: 1 1\2

We generally take water measurement as 1:2 ( one glass of rice and two glasses of water). But here, firstly our curry contains little amount of gravy and hence it would need less amount of water and secondly as we are cooking the rice directly in the cooker it consumes less amount of water

Then let this come to a boiling point and se that rice is cooked up to 40% and then Slow down the flame and spread the curry gravy on the rice evenly.

**After this do not mix the rice and curry should remain like a layer **

Close the lid of the cooker and put it on a medium flame and put the cooker on sim for 5-7 minutes as soon as 3 whistles come.

Off the cooker after this and wait till the whistle becomes free. 

And here is your yummy biryani ready with a creamy texture of coconut and spicy flavors of tomato and masalas...!! Serve it hot....!! 

**while serving the rice, do not mix it, just cut vertically with a spacula and serve so that every body gets the rice and masala equally**

Raita can be served along with it..

Here is the recipe for raita..

. 

Ingredients :  

Chopped onions : 3-4 medium sized

Chopped green chillies : 3-4

Chopped tomato : One medium sized 

Chopped cucumber : Half of a medium sized 

Chopped mint and corriander leaves : A fist full of each of them 

Curd - 150 ml

Preparation :  

Take a bowl add all the chopped vegetables mentioned in the ingredients above. Add salt to taste . Add curd to It. Mix them thoroughly and your raita is ready. We can add coconut powder if we want thick consistency in the raitha...Season it for a good presentation.

Let it be your friends, family, parents, inlaws or anybody just try this, and make them fall in love with your biryani