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.

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