Student Biryani

Student biryani is a famous Pakistani food-chain, which has now turned into a brand from a small cafe. I felt  a bit awkward when I first heard the name student connected to a biryani. But the story behind this is quite interesting.

 'It was a sunny afternoon in October 1969 when students were returning home and stared at the sign on Katrak Road which was never there earlier. There was written Cafe Student. A man of around 40, Haji Muhammad Ali, was standing behind the stall which had few plates and a bucket full of aromatic, flavorsome rice that he named Biryani. Passerby could not resist trying this unique food. This was the beginning of Cafe Student. From a humble start to becoming a brand, from a brand to a trend and from a trend to an icon. Cafe Student has come a long way. '

This unique, scrumptious and delicious biryani has never been replicated. But this recipe of Masala Mornings could do justice to the original one, infact a little better than that as we can do adjustments to suit our individual taste buds. The original recipe is quite oily whereas what we did here is remove the oil from top of the masala once it is done. This make it less oily and no compromise on taste also.

Ingredients:

Meat (Mutton or Chicken) -3/4 kg

Potatoes- 3 medium

Oil-3/4 cup

Tomatoes-3 chopped

Brown Onion-1 cup (Fried onions)

Green chillies-12

Ginger-garlic paste -3tbsp

Yellow color 1/4tsp

Salt -1 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder -2 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder -1 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder -1/4tsp

Garam Masala-1tsp

Yogurt -1 cup

Coriander leaves 1/2 cup

Mint leaves-1/2 bunch

Alu Bukhara(dried plums)-10/ or you can add raisins too

Kewra water 1 tsp (could be substituted with rosewater too)

Method:

1.Heat 3/4 cup oil and add fried onions. Onions should be slightly golden brown; too much brown would turn the masala to bitter. 

2. Add ginger garlic paste to it and a little water(about 1/4 cup) which would prevent the onions from browning further.

3.Pop in the mutton/chicken and fry for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add tomatoes, green chillies,yogurt , salt and dry spices except garam masala. Fry well till water dries.

5.Then, add1 1/2 cups of boiling water and cook till mutton is half done.

6.Remove oil from the curry and keep aside, add cubed potatoes,chopped coriander,  mint leaves, garam masala, 1 tsp kewra water and 10 dried plum, cook till all done.

RICE:

Ingredients:

Rice-1/2kg

Salt 3 tsp

Black Cumin/Jeera 1/2 tsp 

Bay leaf 1

Method:

Boil water with salt, black cumin seeds and bay leaf. Add rice and boil rice till half done. Drain and keep in Dum for 15 minutes.

Assembling/Layering Process:

Spread rice on top of meat mixture, add the oil which we took out from the curry(optional) and yellow color. Put to cook on high flame for 5min, then lower heat completely and simmer for 15 minutes.

Linking this to:

Holiday Event

Khaliat Nahal/Honeycomb Bread

Khaliat Nahal /Honeycomb bread (now popularly known as Hanan's Honey Bunny) is quite famous now in our family. Hanan(my sis) introduced this among our cousins and everyone just loved this. They are behind her now for the recipe and no better idea to share this here than sending to each one of them.

Khaliat Nahal, which means Bees' Hive, is a middle-eastern delicacy which get its name due to its appearance similar to the honeycomb. These are bite size stuffed buns which differs according to the filling or syrup used. Some are sweet while others savoury. Here is  sweet version with cheese stuffed and later soaked in sugar syrup. These buns are too soft that kids as well as elders would defenitely love this.

Bun:

Ingredients:
All purpose flour/Maida  3 1/2 cups
Milk 1 cup
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Water 1/4- 1/2 cup
Egg 1
Sugar 3tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp
Butter 4 tbsp,melted
Instant yeast 1 1/2 tsp*
salt 1/2 tsp
Triangle cheese- 6-8 pieces
Egg 1 , slightly beaten for egg wash
Sesame on top 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:
1. Sieve the flour, then add milk powder, sugar, yeast and salt to it. *If the yeast is granule type, then soak in warm water for 15-30minutes until it bubbles up. And if it is pizza yeast, just throw it into the flour.

2. Make a well in the centre and add oil, butter and the egg. Mix together. Now add all the milk. Start kneading together and gradually add the water a little at a time. You might not need it all, so add it sparingly until your dough is nice and soft. Knead for a good 8-10 minutes. The more you knead it the softer the buns will be.

3. Touch a bit of oil with your fingertips and apply all over the ball of dough. Cover in a bowl and set aside for 40mins to an hour for it to double in size. You can pop in the bowl into preheated oven and rest it there which would make the whole process fast. For this, you should preheat your oven to the maximum temperature and then turn it off before keeping the bowl inside.

4. Once it doubles in size, punch it down, and break off tiny bits of dough. You should get about 30-40 tiny pieces out of this. Take each piece of dough, and stretch it out with your fingers, then add a small piece of cheese in its center. Bring the edges together and form a ball so that the cheese is completely enclosed within the dough. Repeat this with all the dough.

5. Grease your pan/pans with butter. Place the balls of dough in a 'honeycomb' pattern. Try to get them close to each other so that there are no or very little spaces in between.

6. Cover the pans and set aside for a second rise, about half an hour. Sprinkle sesame on top (if using)

7. Now apply egg wash on the balls, preheat your oven to 180 C and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the bread is nice and golden on top. If your balls are smaller 15 minutes might do.

8. Remove from the oven and pour your syrup all over the hot bread. Remember that the syrup needs to be cool and the bread needs to be steaming hot straight from the oven. Turn it out and place on a rack to cool and for the syrup to glaze slightly.

Sugar Syrup/Glaze:

Ingredients

Sugar 1 cup

Water 3/4 cup

Honey 1 tbsp

Saffron a pinch

Method:

Boil sugar,water and saffron together until all the sugar melts and the syrup is slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add honey. Mix and set aside to cool completely. 

LInking this to  Bread from Scratch Event hosted by he Big Sweet Tooth & Cooks Joy