Vegetable Biryani

This is my second entry for the Recipe Marathon on the One Hot Stove blog. I made this the day before for our Christmas dinner and its an adaptation of the meat biryani recipe from this great blog, Sailu's Kitchen. I have tried making this with Chicken as well as vegetables and both times the results have been delicious! The thing that I like the best about this recipe is that even though its a biryani, you cook the rice and meat/vegetables all together. The original recipe called for pressure cooking everything together. Since I was using vegetables I just cooked it covered without pressure. Also reduced the amount of ghee/oil and the ginger/garlic paste. The results were quite good :)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups Basmati rice
3 cups, mixed vegetables (I used carrots, green beans, red potatoes and green bell pepper)
1 cup thick buttermilk
3 cups water
2 cloves, 1 elachi, 1/2″ cinnamon stick
1-2 bay leaves
2 onions, finely sliced
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 tsp red chilli pwd (adjust)
1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
1 tsp coriander pwd
very small pinch of nutmeg pwd
little less than 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1/4 cup pudina leaves
salt to taste
1 teaspoon ghee + 1 teaspoon oil

Biryani masala, make powder:

3 cloves

1″ cinnamon stick

1 elaichi

pinch of shah jeera

pinch of jeera/cumin seeds

small piece of japathri/mace

1/2 anaasa puvvu/star anise

For marinade:

juice of half lemon

1 1/2 tbsps curd

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1/4 tsp red chilli pwd

1/2 tsp coriander pwd

few mint leaves

1 Marinate the vegetables with the ingredients called for ‘marinade’. Keep aside for 20 mts. While this is marinating, work on the rest of the preparation.

1. Wash Basmati rice. No need to soak in water
2. Slice onions
3. Chop tomato
4. Pick pudina leaves and chop the coriander leaves
5. Prepare biryani masala pwd
6. Beat curd to form thick buttermilk

2 Heat 1 tbsp oil + 2 tbsps ghee in a pressure cooker vessel, add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, marathi mogga, elaichi and saute for a few secs. Add sliced onions, saute for 7-8 mts. Add the ginger garlic paste and coriander-pudina leaves and saute further for another 5 mts.
2 Add turmeric pwd and red chilli pwd, saute for another 2 mts. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute for 3-4 mts. Add the marinated veggies along with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Cook covered. Turn off heat and cool. Remove lid and you will find that it will appear like a thick gravy. If the gravy appears very watery, cook further without lid till it forms a thick gravy.
3 Turn on the heat again, add 3 cups of water and 1 cup of thick buttermilk. Add the biryani masala and nutmeg powder followed by salt. Add the drained basmati rice and combine. Wait for the gravy to boil once and adjust seasoning. Cook covered till rice is soft. Serve hot with raita.