Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani in less than half an hour

I suddenly had this enormous craving for Biriyani today considering I am not much of a Biriyani enthusiast. I suddenly wanted to eat this nice Biriyani that they serve in four seasons with good raitha.

The hankering increased after I finally got out of my bed today for a meager 4KM run. I decided to treat myself and set on to read recipes on how to make this thing.

It actually turned out to be quite easy. You can be done with it in ten steps. It is a good thing to experiment on a holiday :)



1. If you are in India, you can get this mixture of cloves, cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon, Star anise, Black Cumin in a packet for like 10 Rs in the small shop next to your house. If you don't, get them separately. This Start anise and black cumin are optional. The cloves will take over the aroma business anyway.

2. Take 1 measuring cup worth Basmati rice. Add 1 cup water and put it in the electric cooker. Add 2  cloves and 1 cardomom to this. Add a tiny pinch of turmeric to rice. Let this cook

3. Chop 1 capsicum, 1 carrot, 2 small potatoes/1 large potato, 4-5 beans,1 green chilly. If you have green peas, add a handful. Put them in a microwave safe bowl. Sprinkle water generously and set it on high for 5 minutes.

4. You need to chop one big onion. Cut in to two halves. Use one half for the raitha(side dish from yogurt) and the other one for the Biriyani. Cut length wise.

5. Now add a teaspoon of oil in a big pan and fry the length wise cut onions until they turn golden-dark brown. Add cashews if you can find any. Once done, put the mixture in a bowl and keep aside.

6. In the same pan, add  two table spoon oil. Add 2 cloves, 2 cardamom, 1 bay leaf, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 star anise, a pinch of black cumin, 1 Tb spoon ginger garlic paste, 1/2 tsp black pepper powder, 1/2 tsp red chilly powder, 1 pinch of turmeric, 1/4 tsp garam masala powder. I added a small piece of jaggery for taste.  Fry well.

7. Take the steamed vegetables and add it to this mixture and fry well. Add salt. Fry until the vegetables are coated with the masala. After 4-5 minutes, transfer this to a bowl.

8.Now take the cooked rice spread a layer on the pan. Add a layer of vegetables and then a layer of fried onions. Repeat this one more time. Grate half a carrot using a cheese grater. This is a personal quirk, because I love the look of grated carrot on anything.

9. Put some fresh coriander (and/or mint leaves) on top.

10. Sprinkle a little bit of water on this set up , close the pan, set the flame to the lowest and let it cook for 10 minutes. The flame should be as low as possible. I kept the pan on a flat pan filled with water so that I don't heat the rice directly. This is the "Dum" part of the "Dum" biriyani.

After 8-9 minutes. (Do make sure it doesn't get burnt in between) , add a spoon of ghee or butter on top.

Put some chopped onions in curd (yogurt). Add salt and green chilly. Mix well and serve as a side dish for the Biriyani.

Eat!