Vegetable biriyani in Tamil Nadu Style

Vegetable biriyani in Tamil Nadu Style, originally uploaded by lorises.

This vegetable biriyani is one of the quick ones where you put all the spices together and let the vegetables cooked with the rice. You can also do the whole thing in pressure cooker but the vegetables need to be added later... . I generally pressure cook chicken/mutton/beef biriyani. Otherwise just cook in the rice cooker or in a regular pot with lid or in a dutch oven. Since I learn this from my Tamilian friends in Mundanthurai, especially Pushpa Akka in the Mundanthurai Guest House Kitchen and from my friend Sara' s mother (U. Saravana Kumar). Thanks go to both of them.

I used long grain basmati rice here. In Tamil Nadu they use biriyani rice which are short grain fine quality unboiled rice.

Recipe:

Rice: 3 cups
Vegetables: carrots. broccoli, bell pepper, cauliflower, peas
tomatoes: 2-3
onions: 1 big red one
garlic: 4 cloves
ginger: 1 tbsp
Mint leaves: fresh 1 sprig
Coriander leaves: 2 aprig
Thai green chiies: 2-3 chopped
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Salt: as you want
curry leaves: 3-4
Black pepper: 1/4 tsp or less
chilli powder: 1/2 tsp or as you want
coriander powder: 1tbsp
aniseed/fennel: 1 tsp
nutmeg: 1/8 tsp
star anise: 1
clove: 2-3
cinnamon: 1/2 inch stick or powdered 1/8 tsp
cardamom: 2
oil: to fry

I first add all the whole spices and green chili in there. Add garlic ginger and onion fry them well add the chopped mint leaves. Then add tomatoes. Fry them well. add vegetables and then add rice. Fry them for little bit. Add water: for three cups add 6 cups of water. Cover the lid and let it cook until the rice is done. You can add some more mint leaves and coriander leaves at this point too. Remove from the hat mix it well granish it with coriander leaves and serve hot.

dinner sample...

Here are some regional variation in Indian vegetarian cooking! I cooked Shukto which is mixed vegetable dish with bitter gourd or any other bitter vegetables or leaves in it, Split pea lentil soup (matar dal) with asian white daikon. Both are from Bengal and the third one is green beans sauted with spices and coconut. this recipe is from North Karnataka!

Shukto:

It taste bitter because of the bitter gourd or any other bitter vegtables. That is why you eat this mix vegetables with rice at first and then eat other dishes such as dal, sauted or fried vegetables, meat or fish and sweets at the end. A lot of non India friends ahve hard time eating bitter vegetables. Therefore, you have to be willing to try and like bitter food. The intensity of the bitterness depends on how much bitter gourd you use. Here I used:
green plantain - 1
zucchini: 2 small one
potatoes: 2 small red skin
eggplant: 1 long Japanese one
bitter gourd: 1 or 2 small Indian variety

If you have pumpkin or yellow squash you can use that instead of zucchini. you can add radish or white daikon and string beans or French beans there. In India, combination depends on the seasonal vegetables. There are a lot of variation of this dish. In fact, every family or person have their own recipes. And some times cook it differently depending on the availability of spices and vegetables!

Spices:
mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
panch phoron: a mixture of five spice mix from India (optional)
mustard and white poppy seeds paste: 1 TBSP
oil for cooking: 1 tsp or so ( I use little mustard oil for traditional flavor)
salt: as you want
turmeric: 1/4 tsp or less
ghee: 1 tsp (optional)

Mustrad and poppy seeds paste:
soak both of them in water and grind them in a grinder.

process:
Cut all the vegetables in to small cubes. I use a wok to cook this. In hot oil add mustard seeds and when they splatter I add all the vegetables. saute them for a while with salt and turmeric powder. When the vegetables are some what soft add the mustard seeds paste and let it simmer for another 5-10 minutes. when they are some what dry remove it from the stove.
I like to add the panch phoron later on. But it is not necessary. In a small pan roast the panch phorn ( five spice mix) and coarsely grind it. Add them on the top of the cooked vegetables. ghee is also optional and you can add on tsp at the end!