Vegetable Dum Biryani

Spring is here with lovely weather and its time to spend time outside. This weekend some of my friends arranged a potluck dinner to take advantage of the good weather and i was given the choice of preparing spicy biryani. Me and my husband have a great inclination to the taste of biryani than anything else when it comes to a choice of rice variety.

Ingredients:



2 cups Mixed Vegetables(Potato,Carrot,Cauliflower,Beans,Peas)
6 Green chillies (slit lengthwise)
1 Onion (optional - cut length wise, fried till brown)
lemon juice




6 cloves
4 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods
1 inch Cinnamon stick
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 bay leaves
2 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste
pinch of saffron
pinch of orange color(optional)
2 cups yogurt
6 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 tbsp of salt
lemon juice

2 cups Basmati rice

Preparation: For Dum Biryani, we need to marinate the vegetables and spices in yogurt so that they give aromatic flavor and taste. First Heat oil in a pan and fry all the mixed vegetables for about 10 minutes and keep them aside. Now take a medium sized bowl and add cloves, green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds, ginger garlic paste and green chillies. Add yogurt and mix them well with one table spoon of salt and lemon juice each. Now add the fried vegetables including the oil, to the above mixture and keep it closed tightly for about 2 to 3 hours based on your time. The more you leave it to marinate, better the taste. Once it is marinated heat the pan again, add the marination and boil for about 10 minutes. turn off the stove and start preparing the rice.

Wash and soak the rice for 15 minutes and cook the rice in a vessel using 2 cups of water. Add a tablespoon of ghee, bay leaves and one table spoon of salt while cooking the rice. Adding ghee will keep the rice grainy and separates evenly. Let it cool for 10 minutes and then spread the rice evenly on a large plate.

Now mix the saffron with 4 table spoons of warm milk. Additionally you can also add a pinch of red color to the milk, if you want the biryani to be multi colored.

Its time to finish the background preparation and start the final process. Now take a aluminium foil container/casserole and first add the boiled marination then the rice. Randomly mix the rice with marination and make sure you are not mixing them completely. You can use a non-stick vessel also instead of aluminium foil container.
Finally sprinkle the saffron/red color milk over the rice mixture randomly. You like onions, you can sprinkle them also. Close the container tightly with aluminum foil/lid.

Preheat the oven to 400F and place the container for 25 minutes. Let it cool for 5 minutes before serving.