Vegetable Biryani - A Perfect Sunday Meal

In my opinion, biryani makes for the perfect Sunday lunch. A one dish meal and enough time in the afternoon to change one's persona to that of a beached whale. Sleep for a couple of hours to give the tummy a chance to concentrate and work hard to digest all that food. With all that rich and oily rice intake, there's not much else one can do.

Without further ado, let us get on with the recipe...

From now onwards, I am going to include one very important point that I have been missing out on. The number of people this particular recipe serves. I think that was a big mistake. One I am not sure I can rectify for all the previous posts. But I can at least make a fresh start from now. So here goes...

This is a typical adaptation of the Hyderabadi biryani to suit local tastes and I like to refer to it as the South Indian Biryani.

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups or 1/2 kg Basmati Rice

1/2 kilogram Onions, finely sliced

1/2 kilogram Tomatoes, finely sliced

Handful Mint Leaves

300 grams Potatoes, diced

300 grams Beans, diced

300 grams Carrots, diced

Salt to Taste

3 Bayleaves

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

4-5 Cups Coconut Milk

1/2 Lemon Juice

1/4 cup Oil

1 small stick Cinnamon

Masala Paste:

100 grams Ginger

100 grams Garlic

5-6 Green Chillies

12 Cloves

4 inches Cinnamon

6 Pods of Cardamom

METHOD:

Soak the rice in water for about 1/2 an hour.

Heat oil. Add the cinnamon and bay leaves.

When well fried, add the onions.

When the onions start getting brown, add the mint leaves. Fry for a few minutes longer.

Now add the paste and fry well till it is fragrant.

Add tomatoes and cook well till mushy.

Add the diced vegetables and the turmeric powder and the salt.

Fry for about 5-10 minutes.

Mix in the soaked rice, add the coconut milk and cook covered till almost done. When about 80 per cent done, mix well and add the juice of the lemon.

Serve hot with a raita of your choice.

Enjoy!!!!!!!

Carrot Capsicum Rice - The Dreaded Carbs

I love rice. Is it any surprise? Any self respecting South Indian would. I cannot do without rice. It is very very hard for me to give it up for anything in the world. In today's world, where everyone is so afraid of eating those dreaded 'carbs', I boldly go where other fear to tread. I eat rice without any qualms at all. In my opinion, rice cannot be all that bad considering us South Indians have eaten it for generations without ill effects. I think people are carrying this NO CARBS or the CaRBS ARE REALLY BAD FOR YOU a little too far.

I think the problem mainly lies in the fact that back in the day, people would eat just that. Nowadays, the variety of food available for daily consumption is mind boggling. So, in addition to eating normal everyday food, we tend to over indulge ourselves with desserts, sugars, fats etc..

Now to come to our dish of the day - Carrot Capsicum Rice. This recipe is adapted from Viji Varadarajan's book - "Samayal". This is an immensely simple but very tasty rice dish, which can be easily served up as a one dish meal along with a raita or curds. It does not have too many ingredients and so the flavor of the carrots and the capsicum really comes through. I have tweaked her recipe slightly, with the addition of onions,red chillies and asafoetida.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Basmati rice

400 grams Carrots grated

400 grams Capsicum diced finely

2 large Onions diced finely

3 tablespoons chopped Coriander leaves

1/2 teaspoon Mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds(jeera)

2-3 Dried Red Chillies

10-12 Curry leaves

4 tablespoons Oil

1/4 teaspoon Asafoetida

1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder

2 to 3 spoons Pitlai powder ( recipe follows)

1 tablespoon Lime juice

Salt to taste

PITLAI POWDER:

3 tablespoons Coriander seeds (Dhania)

1 tablespoon Bengal gram dal (Chana dal)

2 Red Chillies

1/4 teaspoon Asafoetida

2 tablespoons Coconut grated

1 teaspoon Oil

Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil and fry the coriander seeds, red chillies, asafoetida and Bengal gram till golden and fragrant. Keep aside.

Heat remaining oil and add the coconut. Fry till golden brown. Keep aside.

When all ingredients are cool, grind to a fine powder.

This is a versatile taste powder which can be used to flavor vegetables and other rice dishes also.

METHOD:

Boil the rice with double the amount of water till fluffy and cooked. Keep aside.

Heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds and when they crackle, add the cumin, red chillies and curry leaves.

When cumin turns golden, add the onions, asafoetida and turmeric powder. Fry till translucent.

Then add the carrot and capsicum. Fry for a few minutes. Do not let the vegetables become too soft.

Add the salt, pitlai powder and rice.

Add the lime juice and turn it a few times. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with raita or simpler still, just curd (yoghurt).

ENJOY!!!!!!

Vangi Bhaath And Old Memories

One of the least eaten or liked vegetables has to be brinjals aka aubergines or egg plant. For some reason, this is a very acquired taste. But this was one vegetable that was cooked regularly at home in one form or the other. I think one reason for this has to be that it is my mother's favorite veggie. She made it in so many different ways and made sure that all her kids loved it as much as she did. One never realises how many different ways the same veggie can be made until such time that we sit down and start writing about it. It then hits you like a tonne of bricks that this was the same veggie in an entirely new avatar.

But I had never eaten vangi bhath till I got married. Thats when my mother in law mentioned this dish for the very first time. Loving brinjal as much as I do, I was totally excited about the combination of rice and brinjal. The icing on the cake was the fact that the end product had a very sweet, spicy and tangy taste all at the same time. Quickly learnt how to make it and it has been a staple on our dining table ever since.

Very easy to make particularly with the MTR Vangi bhath masala so readily available.


Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 cups brinjal cut up into little bits
3 tablespoons gingelly oil
2 tablespoons cashewnuts
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
8-10 curry leaves
2 tablespoons MTR Vangi bhath masala powder
1 lemon sized ball tamarind soaked in water and juice extracted
1 teaspoon powdered jaggery


Method

Mix the tamarind juice, vangi bhath powder and jaggery till well blended.
Heat one tablespoon oil. Fry the cashewnut bits till golden brown. Keep aside.
Heat the remaining oil. Fry the mustard seeds till they crackle. Add the curry leaves and then the brinjal bits.
When well fried, add the tamarind/vangi powder paste to it. Cook till raw smell of tamarind disappears.
Add the cooked rice to this and mix well till the masala coats each grain of rice well.
Garnish with the cashewnuts and serve hot with papads.

Vangi Bhath Masala Powder:

Grated coconut- 3 tablespoons
Chana dal - 2 tablespoons
Urad dal - 2 tablespoons
Coriander seeds- 2 tablespoons
Sesame seeds- 2 tablespoons
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cloves - 2
Green Cardamom - 1
Jeera - ¼ teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds- ¼ teaspoon
Red chillies - 5
Cinnamon- 1" piece
Asafoetida - a pinch



Heat a pan and dry roast the grated coconut till a light golden colour and keep it aside.
Roast red chillies to light brown color and keep aside. Dry roast all other ingredients. When cool, grind all the roasted ingredients together to a fine powder.