Aromatic Egg Biryani

As an adult, I think Biryani is my favorite Indian dish. Meat/veggies/eggs and rice are cooked separately before being layered with various elements and finally, cooked together in steam…it results in one of the most tempting and insanely delicious rice preparations ever. Seriously, if you haven’t tried Biryani until now, you are missing a lot.

Biryani can easily be made at home. It has a few different layers and thus, preparation for making Biryani takes much more time than cooking it. The important thing here is that the end result is glorious and so much worth it. The magic ingredient here is the fried onions.

Hyderabad, a city in southern India, is famous for this dish- a heaven for biryani lovers. They have so many varieties of it. Egg Biryani is my absolute favourite!

Though the traditional recipe doesn’t use any vegetables in Egg or Meat Biryani, I like making mine with some veggies like carrots and beans. You can skip them for a more authentic taste but they are great to feed veggies to your family for a healthier choice.

Egg Biryani is a spectacular rice indulgence, made with the magic of best quality rice, phenomenal Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and spiced hard boiled eggs. When you remove the lid of your Biryani, that first aroma is mind-blowing. The rice with the help of steam, absorbs the spices, gravy, flavor everything and the result in intense. It is truly a gastronomical delight.

Give this recipe a go friends, and enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups Basmati rice (Use the best quality rice)

1 cinnamon, 3 cloves, 1 bayleaf and 2 cardamoms

1/2 cup of Selection of vegetables of your choice, chopped . I use Carrots and French beans. (Optional)

2 Sliced onions

2 tomatoes- finely chopped

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

2 tablespoon yogurt

Fresh Coriander leaves and fresh mint leaves

1 tbsp red chilly powder

2 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 green chillies

1 tsp garam masala powder

4-5 Saffron strands soaked in 2 tbsn warm milk

2-3 drops Orange food color (Optional)

Salt as per taste

A heavy bottomed pan, lid and aluminium foil

Method:

Par-boil the rice with a good amount of salt, some cumin seeds and a bayleaf till they are around 50 percent done.  Set aside.

Shallow fry your boiled eggs gently with a pinch of turmeric and red chilly powder. Set aside.

Fry your onions on medium-low heat till they are brown and crispy and keep them on a kitchen towel so that it absorbs the excess oil. Keep aside.

In a pan, take some oil and when it gets hot, add your cumin seeds, green chillies, condiments and g.g paste. Fry for about half a minute.

Add chopped carrots and beans. Fry for a couple minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes. Cook till tomatoes soften.

Add yogurt along with the dry spices and salt. Salt quantity should be more than what you’d usually put in a dish. This mix should taste a bit over-salty to you.

Cook till you see oil leaving the mixture. The trick here is to have a thick gravy. The watery, thin gravy will overcook your rice and turn your biryani soggy. Put the flame off and we now have all the elements to layer up the biryani.

Layer up!

In a heavy bottomed pan, spread a thick layer of the veggie mixture. Cover it with the rice. Sprinkle coriander leaves and mint leaves and fried onions. Sprinkle a pinch of garam masala and 1 teaspoon of clarified butter (ghee).

On the top layer make holes gently with your fingers and place your boiled eggs in them.

Mix the Saffron milk with orange food color and sprinkle the liquid all over the top of your biryani.

Seal your pan with foil and place the pan-lid on top tightly so that there’s no room for steam to escape. Press the foil edges that are sticking out from the edges of the lid towards the bottom so that the foil gets even more packed and firm.

Cook on high flame for 3-4 mins and then on low flame for around 20 mins. Eventhough the biryani is packed, you will still get a gorgeous aroma wafting in the house. That’s when you know biryani is done!

After turning off the heat, let the biryani sit inside the packed pan for around ten minutes to imbibe the leftover steam.

Serve your biryani hot with vegetable raita or as it is! Enjoy!