NARGISI KOFTA BIRIYANI

Exotic  meal in which eggs stuffed in meatballs (Nargisi Koftas) are served in savory rice in mughlai style. It’s worth the effort in spite of lengthy process.

INGREDIENTS:

For RICE:

3 cups Basmati Rice

4 no.s Cloves

6 no.s Peppercorns

8 no.s Cardamom

For Kofta:

6 no.s Eggs boiled

750g Chicken/Meat mince

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste

¼ tsp Cumin powder

2 Green chillies, finely chopped

1 tsp Coriander powder

1 tsp Red chilly powder

1 tsp Garam masala

5 tbsp onion ,finely chopped

For MASALA:

4 tbsp Ghee

1 Bay leaf

3 Cardamoms

8 Peppercorns

¼ tsp Cumin seeds/Jeera

4 cups Onions, sliced

1 tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste

3 Green chillies

2 Tomatoes

2 tsp Red chilly powder

1 tbsp Coriander powder

½ tsp Turmeric powder

½ cup Curd

1 tsp Garam Masala

2 cups Mint leaves, chopped

A generous pinch of Saffron

A pinch of Yellow color

4 tbsp of Milk

1 tsp Shah Jeera/ Caraway seeds

METHOD:

Boil rice along with the whole masalas and salt until it is 3/4th cooked. Drain and keep aside.

For Koftas, add all ingredients along with salt to a food processor or blender and process for a few seconds until well-blended. Refrigerate this for about 15 minutes.

Make 6 balls out of this minced meat mix.

Take one ball and flatten on a piece of baking sheet into 4” diameter and ½” thick.

Place one whole boiled egg in between and shape them into koftas covering the egg nicely. Make sure that no crack seen.

Keep it aside and repeat the procedure with all other eggs and mince balls.

Deep-fry these koftas in high flame for about 30 seconds or so until it turns brown on all sides.

Drain on a tissue paper.

Deep-fry onions until it turns golden brown and crisp.

Once cooled, crush these onions in a blender. 

For masala, heat ghee on a deep-bottomed pan.

Throw in whole spices and sauté for a few seconds, carefully. If burnt, the whole masala would turn bitter.

Add the crushed onions into it and sauté for a while. Pour a little hot water in that as the onion lost its moisture when fried before and so there is a chance of burning.

Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies to it and sauté for a minute more.

Cook tomatoes in it along with yogurt, red chilly, coriander powder and turmeric powder until the gravy is cooked nicely.

Cook tomatoes in it along with yogurt, red chilly, coriander powder and turmeric powder until the gravy is cooked nicely.

Add water to this if needed.

Pop in garam masala and mint leaves; mix well.

Carefully add the nargisi koftas and cook for about 8-10 minutes until masala gets infused into koftas and is done perfectly.

Soak saffron in warm milk for about 10-15 minutes. Then add a pinch of yellow color to it.

Now, for the dum process, place ¼ of the rice at the bottom of a deep dish; then layer the masala.

Now, layer the half of the remaining rice and sprinkle saffron-milk and a tbsp. of oil here and there. Layer remaining rice on top of that.

Sprinkle a tsp of garam masala and 2 tbsp of oil on top and close the lid.  Let the pot remain so for about ½ an hour until the rice is done perfectly.

Serve with mint or any raita of your choice.

TIPS/VARIATION

Strain chicken mince and make sure no water is left behind; otherwise the koftas may break while shaping them.

You can use either wax paper or cling film to shape koftas so that you get smooth shape.

Mushroom & Peas Pulao

Mushroom and Peas Pulao is a complete dish and can be eaten as a complete meal on its own. A bowl of your favourite raita, achar and pappad is all you want. I always make it sure to add those vegetables which are my kids' favourite to make sure that they don't complaint. Mushrooms are my son's favourite whereas girls love peas. 

INGREDIENTS:

Courtesy: Shehzad Husain

Serves: 6

Basmati Rice      2 1/2 cups

Mushrooms    100 gm/ 1 1/2 cups

Green peas(fresh or frozen)    1/2 cup

Vegetable oil      2 tbsp

Cinnamon sticks     2"

Black Cardamom       2

Kalonji/ Black Cumin/ Karinjeerakam 1/2 tsp

Garlic cloves     3,chopped

Tomato    1 medium

Water    4 cups

Salt    2 tsp

Method:

1. Wash the rice atleast twice and set aside in a sieve(strainer).

2 In a medium saucepan, heat the oil and add the spices, garlic and salt.

3. Add the sliced tomato and button mushrooms and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. 

4. Now add the rice and peas and gently stir around, making sure you do not break the rice.

5. Add the water and bring the mixture to the boil. lower the heat, cover and continue to cook for 15-20 minutes.

Mixed Seafood Biriyani

Mixed seafood biryani is my family's favourite dish since years. We can use any combination of seafood like prawns, mussels, clams,fish,squid,crabs etc. The choices are infinite. This way, your entire family is happy as there is a choice for them to have. Actually when you add fish only, the fishy smell/flavour predominates; whereas here, there is no such problem . A mixed flavour which is quite nice and devoured by all. The technique is as same as that in making Fish Biriyani.

 Ingredients:

Marinade: 
Mixed Seafood * - about 3/4 kg 
Red chilli powder
Salt
Pepper

Other ingredients:
Rice  2 1/2 cups

Ghee 1 tbsp
Oil 3 tbsp
Onion 300 gms/ 2 cups 
Ginger paste 2tbsp

Garlic paste 2 tbsp

Green Chillies 5 or more
Tomato 2 medium/ 1 1/2 cups
Red Chilli powder 1/2tsp
Coriander powder 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala ** 2 tbsp
Coriander leaves 3 tbsp
Mint leaves 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Marinate seafoods in marinade ingredients & keep refrigerated for about 1/2 an hr. Then shallow fry it. Keep a few pieces of prawns or some belly pieces of fish or so aside which could be used in masala.  

2.Wash rice atleast 3 times & drain. Make sure that no water is left behind.

3.Cut onions in chunks & pulse them in a food-processor or blender. Do not make paste of it. Just crush them. You can slice them too; but crushing makes it easier to cook.

4.Heat ghee & oil in a pan. Add crushed onions & saute for 2-3 minutes. Add ginger-garlic paste. Saute again for a minute more. You can either crush all of them together..ie; onion, ginger ,garlic and green chilly.

5.Now add tomatoes , red chilli powder & coriander powder. Cook masala nicely. Stir in between. Halfway through, add the reserved pieces (prawns etc.)which we kept aside. Cook till masala is done. It's okay if the fish in the masala break down into pieces.Add 1 tsp garam masala to this and turn off the flame.

6.By the time, cook rice. Add rice and salt to the boiling water and cook till done.Drain and keep aside

7. The dum : Take a large skillet. Layer a little rice at the bottom ; then masala; then rice,. Top with some garam masala( 1 1/2 tbsp) powder, coriander & mint leaves. If you are making in huge quantity, then you can layer masala in the middle also & then, repeat the procedure. Keep in dum for about 15 minutes.

10. Garam masala smells & tastes good if u make it at home freshly. I make it fresh ;a small quantity; whenever there are guests. It really smells awesome..

** Garam Masala (yields 2 tbsp)

Saunf 1 tsp
Cardamom 2
Clove 2
Cinnamon 1" stick
Black Cardamom 1(only the inner thing)
Nutmeg 1/2
Star anise 1/2
Mace 1

Heat this for min or 2 ..till a nice aroma gets out of it. then powder it using a garlic crusher.(spice crusher).

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

Paneer Fried Rice

Nowadays I'm always late for posting recipes. I'm a member of Jagruty's potluck party group and I'm supposed to post this on 28th ,that is..today. but, I'm late as usual.With no laptop and managing home and kids singlehanded can be the reason. Jab is out of town since 2 weeks and viral attack at my home made me busy. But I didn't want to miss this. So here is my contribution to the second half of the theme. I had to recreate dish posted by En Samaiyal. ie; Paneer fried rice. It was so easy,healthy and delicious.

ClickHere for the recipe

Lal Qila Mutton Biriyani

It rained again a day before!! Isn't that a good thing? :)

 It's vacation here for a couple of weeks and we mothers were fully engaged with our kids while the UAE weather turned mild and pleasant this week. The climate was heading to summer  and the newspapers predicted much hotter summer days than usual that we were getting sort of mentally prepared for that. That's when it rained here and brought a cooler and pleasant weather for the week.  We went downstairs and for a ride to savour this rare UAE rain. I was fasting and was hard to wait till the sun sets to sip in coffee . Thank God that there were some frozen Kaayadas (unnakkaay/plaintain snack) to pair up with my mug of coffee while looking at the rainsplattered window ;)

First week of vacation is over and we have had lots of fun. The whole generation was here with me , 7 of them(3 boys and 4 girls).. We had lots of fun, playing,baking, roaming and of course, fighting. A gang of kids means a Noisy House. They play and interact, fight at times etc. when they feel bored and have nothing to do. So it's better to keep them engaged with some or the other tasks. I always ask them to help me out while cleaning or baking. They love baking goodies. They even baked some chocolate chip cookies & Cornflakes cookies all by themselves.

Now about the recipe:

It's my sister Hanan's contribution to the blog. She is very good when cooking biriyanis. This is my 9th post on Rice label. Her BBQ Chicken Biriyani is now quite famous here. There are many more biriyanis in my drafts to be posted soon. This one is also as delicious and simple to try out. 

Ingredients:

Courtesy: Shireen Anwar

For marinade:

Mutton 1/2 kg

Tenderizer 1 tsp

Ginger & garlic paste-1 tbps

Yoghurt- 1 cup (reserve 3 tbsp for dum)

Salt- 2 tsp

 Marinate together for atleast 1 hour

Other Ingredients:

Basmati rice. -1/2 kg. [ cook with 2 tsp salt]

Bay leaf -1

Cinnamon -1 inch

Pepper corns- 10

Cloves- 5

Green Cardamom -5

Black jeera -1/2 tsp

Red chilly powder- 2 tsp,

Turmeric -1/2 tsp

Cumin/Jeera - 1 tsp

Water- a little

Tomato- 3. Blended

Brown onion- 1 cup (sliced and fried)

Potato 2

Boiled egg - 3

Method:

Fry onions till brown and crisp. Crush it in grinder when cooled.

Deep fry potatoe cubes in the same oil till brown.

Heat Ghee in a deep dish and add whole garam masalas (mentioned in the list). Saute for a few seconds till its aroma comes out. Add a little hot water( a few tbsps to avoid burning) ,turmeric and red chilli to it. 

Now add mutton and fry in high flame for about 5 minutes. Cook till it is half done.

Blend tomatoes and add to it.

Now add the crushed brown onions. Mix well to coat the mutton pieces nicely. Cook till mutton is completely cooked. Sprinkle garam masala powder to it. Add the fried potato cubes to it.Now the masala is ready. No need to add herbs of any kind.

Dum Process or Layering:

For this, layer the mutton gravy/masala at the bottom, followed by rice. Take some yogurt and add turmeric or yellow color(saffron) to it and sprinkle on top of the rice layer; here and there. Cover and keep in dum for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot! Don't mix biriyanis while serving. It should be served always as you see in the picture. You can serve with boiled eggs. Here, boiled eggs are deep fried which is entirely optional. Take care while frying and avoid frying if the egg is cracked somewhere; otherwise it may explode in oil.

Caramelised Orange Pulao

Pulao is an easy and comforting one-pot meal . It's the only way to make my kids eat vegetable if served with their favourtie mint raita and pappad. The addition of orange flavour in this recipe, brought a cute smile on their faces and believe me, nothing was left for me. Those gilafi kebabs at the back paired well with this rice.
Got this recipe from a booklet of Lurpak Ghee.

Nutrients in oranges are plentiful and diverse. The fruit is low in calories, contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, but is rich in dietary fiber, pectin, which is very effective in persons with excess body weight. It is a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin A and B-Complex Vitamins.
Coriander leaves are also used in an enormous quantity rather than just garnish. It is an excellent source of minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice 1 1/2 cups
Pure Ghee/oil 3 tbsp
Onion, 1 medium
Bay leaves 2
Cloves 2
Cinnamon stick 1 1/2 inch
Red Whole chillies 4-6
Coriander leaves, chopped 1 cup
Mint leaves, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup
Water 3 cups

Caramelised Orange:

Butter 2 tbsp
Sugar 2 heaped tbsp
Oranges 2
Cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp

Method:

Heat Ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add onion and saute for 2-3 minutes.

Add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon and red chillies. Saute for 1 min. Add coriander leaves and mint leaves. Stir-cook for 1 min. Add rice,water and salt. Stir well.

Bring the rice to boil on high heat. When rice starts boiling, reduce the heat and cook covered until rice grains are cooked.

In a small non stick pan, melt 1 tbsp of butter. Add pine nuts or cashew nuts and stir-fry until golden in colour. Remove from heat and set aside.

Remove the skin of the oranges and cut oranges into thick round slices. Remove the seeds. Heat 2 tbsp of butter. Add sugar. As the sugar caramelizes add the sliced oranges. Coat oranges with the caramelized sugar, and sprinkle cinnamon powder over them. Remove pan from heat.

Gently mix caramelized oranges into the cooked rice. Garnish with the butttery pinenuts or cashew nuts, coriander and mint leaves.

Serve hot.

Linking this to:

Healthy me & Healthy Us

Kids Delight

Nauratan Vegetable Biriyani- Healthier option (veg)

Happy Navratri to all those who celebrate !!

There's no need to be in diet to make healthy choices.The food we choose for our daily meals could be entirely transformed into healthier ones 'just like that'. Its not necessary that we skip any meal or starve for keeping our body fit. We don't have to eat sweeet things to feel happy and full. Some small adjustments and tricks can lead us a healthier life.Now here is a healthy variation of biriyani- the otherwise rich delicacy.

Biriyani is such an unavoidable meal in any Indian home. We can't resist us from serving or having this atleast once a month or rather a week. I could hardly imagine any fridays without ghee rice or biriyanis. Now this recipe is healthier in the sense that only Olive oil is used  ; 9 types of veggies involved and hence the name; and no garam masalas added.

Ingredients

Basmati Rice ½ kg (I used Jeerakasala(small grain rice) rice here)
Oil ½ cup

Onion 2 sliced
Spinach 250 gm finely chopped
Potatoes 3 cut into cubes
Peas 1 cup
Carrots 2 cut in cubes
Eggplant 1 cut in cubes
Beans 12 cut in 1 inch pieces
Dill ½ bunch chopped
Tomato 4 chopped
Fenugreek leaves 4 bunches small


Ginger garlic paste 2 tsp heaped
Chili powder 3 tsp
Salt 1 ½ tsp
Turmeric ½ tsp
Cumin 1tsp heaped
Coriander powder 2 tsp heaped
Kewra 1 tsp
Yellow color pinch
Milk ½ cup

Method


1. Boil rice along with 2 tbsp of salt till done. Drain and keep aside.

For Masala:

1. Heat oil and fry sliced onions till they turn light golden.No need to turn this into crispy brown.
2. Add in chopped fenugreek leaves, with ginger garlic paste, chili powder, salt, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and chopped tomatoes
3. Fry well adding little water .Add chopped spinach with  chopped vegetables, cover and cook till all vegetables turn tender.

Dum:
1. Mix in kewra water,milk and yellow color and keep aside.

2. Give a layer of rice followed by a layer of vegetable mixture, then sprinkle milk and kewra mixture, top with 2 tbsp ghee. Layer the remaining rice on top.

3. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or till the steam comes out. The delicious nauratan biryani is ready to serve.