Mix Vegetable Biryani

Rice is the staple diet of almost half the population of India and with varieties of rice, pulavs and biryanis found in our country  I doubt whether anyone will get bored with rice. Though personally I like non veg biryanis today for the potluck party I decided to make this delicious mix vegetable biryani which was much liked by my family .

Served it with raita , achar and spiced buttermilk. The combo was awesome.

Sending this to potluck-party-cyber-style  by Jagruti

Ingredients :

For the vegetable :

1/2 cup each ..................( carrots, capsicum, french beans , peas, cauliflower)
1 1/2 ...............................onion ( chopped )
4 tbsp............................ginger, garlic, coriander and green chillies paste
1 tbsp..........................chilly powder
1 tsp........................... clove, cinnamon and cardamom powder
1 tsp............................turmeric powder
2 tbsp........................ghee
salt

For the rice :

2 1/2 cups .................rice (basmati preferably long grains )
1 cup.........................curd
3 to 4 ......................cloves
2...........................cardamoms (opened a bit)
1 inch ..................cinnamon
1 tsp....................cumin seeds
1/2 tsp..................pepper
2........................bay leaves
1......................stone flower ( Dagad phool )
2 tbsp...............ghee
salt

For garnish :

1/2 ......................onion (thinly sliced)
1 tsp.....................cornflour
10 to 12 ..............cashewnuts
10 to 12............... raisins
1/ cup ...................ghee
1..........................small tomato ( round slices)
1 .......................capsicum ( thin stripes )

Method :

For the garnish :

Sprinkle salt on sliced onions and mix .

After 10 minutes squeeze the water out of them.

Sprinkle cornflour on them . (this ensures that your onions become crisp very fast while frying)

Heat ghee in a  non stick pan and fry cashews and raisins separately till golden.

Keep them aside and in the same ghee fry onions till crisp.

Keep the onions aside.

Use the same ghee to make rice and vegetable.


For the rice :

Wash and drian the rice for 15 minutes.

Heat ghee in a big pan and add all the saboot masala.

When they give out nice aroma add washed and drained rice and stir it for 5 to 10 minutes.

Add salt and whisked curd and 4 cups water and cook till almost done with .

Dont cook the rice fully or else it will break.

Spread the rice on a big flat plate.



For the vegetable :

Heat ghee in a pan and saute onions till transparent.

Add the green paste and fry till the rawness is gone.

Now add all the vegetables except capsicum .

Add all the masala powders and salt and cook till almost done.

In the end add capsicum and cook for 2 more minutes.

Arranging the biryani :

In a broad microwavable dish arrange the rice layer at the bottom.

Spread a layer of vegetables on it .

Again repeat with the rice and vegetable layer.

On top spread all the remaining rice .

Sprinkle some saffron mixed milk on the rice ( this gives a very nice flavour) and

2 to 3 tsp ghee on top .

Now bake the dish in oven for 10 to 15 mintues at 180 degrees celcius.

You can also arrange the layers in a cooking pan and cook it by keeping it on a thick bottom tawa.

Garnishing :

Garnish the biryani with cut tomatoes, capsicums .

Sprinkle fried onions, coriander leaves, cashews and raisins.

Serve hot with raita , papad and pickle.