Life’n'Such - To Good friends, good food and a good life!

Shrimp and vegetable biryani

I visited Firdaus, Zahra and the new baby Maria yesterday, and Firdaus made this amazing biryani with shrimps and vegetables. I helped, by playing with the kids I saw how this biryani is made, and it is super easy, atleast it looks that way when Firdaus made it. And guess what, we didnt have to cut any onions! I can classify this as an instant biryani. It doesnt need to be marinated long, and it gets done in say about 1 and half hours.

It is delicious!!!!!!!!! Try it once, and you will see.

Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable mix (we used frozen package)
whole cumin,
cumin (jeera) powder,
fenugreek (methi) seeds,
mustard (raai) seeds,
bay leaves, (tej patta)
spices: 2 tsp turmeric (haldi), 2 tsp corriander (Dhania) powder, red chilli powder (mirch) as per taste, 1 tsp salt
5 small tomatoes chopped,
1 and half tsp garlic paste,
1 tsp ginger paste
oil for cooking (you need a good amount)

For shrimp marination: (atleast 10 mins)
Shrimps (atleast 2 and half cups)
1 tsp ginger,
1 tsp garlic,
1 tsp lemon juice,
1 sp oil,
1 tsp turmeric (haldi)
1-2 green hot peppers (mirch)
oil, whole cumin and cumin (jeera) powder for cooking

To make rice:
3 cups rice soaked atleast 1 hour (Do this first, before starting the other process)
1 tsp cumin whole,
few black peppers whole,
2 inch cinnamon stick
6-7 cloves
2 tsp salt
water for boiling rice

Red food color, and kewda essence

Method:
Start by making the curry. First pour oil in the pan, and let it heat. Add the jeera, methi, raai and the 1-2 bay leaves. After they start crackling, add the spice mix, and the tomatoes and ginger garlic paste. Mix well, cover and let cook for sometime. Add a little water, and cover and cook till tomatoes are done (they have to be melted). Add the veggies, and let it all cook together.

While this is cooking, marinate the shrimp with all the ingredients listed. After 10-15 mins later, in another pan, heat abt a tbsp of oil. Add the whole jeera and the powder. Then add the marinated shrimp. Fry this till all the water disappears.

Add the shrimps to the veg curry, and let it simmer for sometime. Abt 5-8 mins.

Now start making the rice. Use a big pan for this, in this same pan, we are going to make the layers of the biryani. Boil the water with all the ingredients listed. Then add the drained rice to this. Boil covered abt 6-8 mins, till the rice is almost done. Drain off the water. Let most of the rice remain at the bottom of the pan. Add the shrimp and veg curry to this. Then top with the remaining rice, sprinkle few pinches of red food color and about 8-10 drops of kewda essence.

Cover the pan. Let it sit on simmer for few mins, till the rice is done. Mix once, and again simmer covered for a while.

Done! I wish I could attach a sample of this biryani. It was simply great! I am not a shrimp lover, but this…oh I cant explain how great this was! Thanks Firdaus, Zahra and Maria.

July 14th, 2006