Trirangi Briyani

Yesterday was Independence Day. While I was reading newspaper the prominence of tricolour of our Indian flag in the paper just gave me the thought to cook something tri colour in kitchen today. So with momie’s help came up with the idea of cooking trirangi briyani.

I cooked this Briyani with a different style and a bit of lengthy process (but time and effort did paid off) then my earlier Briyani recipe. Using Spinach and Saffron as colouring agent gave it a colourful look. Coconut chutney made it extremely delicious. Let’s check on the recipe...

Preparation time: 35 minutes (25 minutes to cut vegetables, spinach & coconut side by side boil rice add 10 minutes to make coconut chutney and grind spinach)

Cooking time: 35 minutes (20 minutes to fry vegetables add 15 minutes to make briyani)

Serves: for 6 people

What goes in it:

For Coconut chutney:

Coconut, chopped- 1 cup

Onion- 2 small sized

Garlic- 4-5 cloves

Ginger- small piece

Green chilli- 6 chillies

Curry leaves- 1 sprig or 10-12 leaves

Pepper seeds- 5-6 seeds

Curd- 3 tbl spn

Ghee- 2 tbl spn

Cumin seeds- ½ tbl spn

Asafoetida (Hing)- ½ tbl spn

Salt- 1 tbl spn or as according to your taste

For Briyani:

Basmati Rice- 2 cup

Divide this rice into three equal parts

For green coloured rice:

Spinach (palak), grinded- 200 gm

Salt- to taste

For yellow coloured rice:

Saffron (Kesar)- 8-10 threads

Milk- 1 tbl spn

Salt- to taste

For white rice:

Carrot, diced & boiled- 2 tbl spn

French Beans, diced & boiled- 2 tbl spn

Peas, boiled- 2 tbl spn

Potato, diced & fried- 2 medium sized or ½ cup

Onion, rings & fried- 4 medium sized or 1 cup

Capsicum, vertically sliced & fried- ½ cup

Raisins (kismis), fried- ¼ cup

Cashew Nuts (kajju), fried- ¼ cup

Oil- to fry

Salt- to taste

How did I make it:

Wash and soak rice in water one hour before making the briyani. Boil the rice along with little salt in it in a cooking pot. This will take about 10 minutes. Drain off the water and let it cool.

Side by side cut carrot, french beans, potato, onion, capsicum & coconut. Also sort out spinach leaves properly. Boil carrot, french beans & peas in a cooking pot. This will take about 5-7 minutes. Drain off the water and let it cool.

After basic preparation is done, make coconut chutney. In a mixture grinder put chopped coconut, curd, onions, garlic, ginger, green chilli, curry leaves, pepper seeds and salt. Blend it properly to make a thick paste. Take it out in a bowl.

In a small frying pan, put oil and let it heat. After it heats up, put cumin seeds and hing to it. Let it pop properly. Switch off the stove and add this to the chutney. Mix it well.

Grind spinach in the mixture grinder. Take it out in a bowl. We will use this for adding green colour to the rice.

Also take a small bowl, put little milk in it and kesar in it. Grind it in traditional way. This syrup will be used to give yellow colour to the rice.

Before Grinding

After Grinding

Take a kadai. Put oil in it and switch in the gas. After oil heats up fry diced potato, onion rings, sliced capsicum, raisins & cashew nuts one by one. This will take about 25 minutes.

Let’s begin giving different colours to our rice.

In case you have not divided the boiled rice in three equal parts. Do so now.

To one part of the rice, add spinach paste and salt. Mix them well. This readies green coloured rice.

To second part of the rice, add boiled and fried veggies and dry fuits and salt. White coloured rice is ready.

To the third and last part of the rice, add kesar and salt to the rice. With this, giving three different colours to rice is complete.

Finally assemble the briyani in a cooking pot.  First make a layer of palak rice (green colour) at the bottom of the cooking pot. Then spread out a layer of coconut chutney on it. Now make a layer of white coloured rice on it. Again evenly spread out a layer of coconut chutney. Lastly make a layer of kesar rice (yellow colour).

On a low flame, heat the cooking pot with the lid closed for about 5-7 minutes. Leave it for some time.

[Foodies’ Note: Do ensure you heat the briyani and keep it closed for another 7-10 minutes. This will give add delicious taste to your briyani.]

Serve yummy tri- colour briyani in a plate.

Veg Briyani

Vegetable Briyani is a common recipe cooked in almost every kitchen.  So nothing great behind it, I simply cooked it last Sunday afternoon...

Preparation time:  10 minutes to boil rice and simultaneously cut vegetables

Cooking time: 20 minutes including frying of potato and onion

Serves: 4

What goes in it:

Potato, vertically sliced- 1 big sized

Capsicum, vertically sliced- 1 small sized

Onion, vertically sliced- 1 big sized

Cashew nuts (Kaju), raisins (Kismis), almonds (Badam)- ½ cup

Cinnamon bark (Tej)- 4-5 pieces

Cloves (Laung)- 5-6 nos

Caradamom (Elaichi)- 5-6 nos

Rice, boiled- 1 cup (I used bastmati rice)

Carrot, diced and boiled- ½ cup

Peas, diced and boiled- ½ cup

French beans, diced and boiled- ½ cup

Turmeric powder- ¾ tbl spn

Red chilli powder- 1 ½  tbl spn

Briyani Masala- 2 tbl spn (I used Badshah Briyani and Pulav masala)

Oil- to fry

Ghee- 3 tbl spn (for sauté)

Lemon juice- 1 tbl spn

To make it look yummy:

3-4 pieces of Cashew nuts

Coriander leaves- ½ cup

How did I make it:

Wash and soak rice 1-2 hours before making the briyani.

Boil the rice with a pinch of salt for about 10 minutes. [Foodies’ Note: Don’t make the rice too mushy] Also add diced carrots, french beans and peas to it. When rice are almost done add few lemon drops. This will give nice texture to rice.

Drain off the water and let it cool.

Take a frying pan and pour oil in it to deep fry potato and onions till they turn golden brown. This will take 5 minutes each.

Remove oil from the frying pan. And add ghee to it or you can pour out extra oil from the pan and keep about 3 tbl spn of oil in it. Heat it up. Add cinnamom, cardamom & cloves to it while it heats up. This will bring a nice aroma in kitchen. Then put capsicum and fry them till they turn dark green. Now put raisins, almonds, cashew nuts to it. Fry it for about 5 minutes till raisins puff up.

Then add cooked rice, boiled vegetables, fried vegatbles, turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder and briyani masala. Mix them all gently.

Use cashew nuts and coriander leaves for garnishing.

 Serve it with curd and roasted udad papad.