Deepavali and Vegetable Dum Biriyani

Trust you all had a wonderful deepavali. We had a feasty and colorful deepavali too. Sharing few deepavali moments with you all..

Diyas before we lit them...

Our Altar with Lakshmi, Ganesh and Shiva for Lakshmi pooja..

Now, after offering prayers to god, it is time to pray your growling stomach, so here is what we had :

We did not arrange it for picutre as we were already hungry so just took the picture the way I had served it for my husband. from left to right on top : Raw banana palya, badusha, gulpavate, chakli and ghatia sev, cucumber, down we have vangibath and plain rice with ghee. Bele saru and Yogurt accompanied the meal too.

Next day we made Vegetable Dum Biriyani with some left over sweets. Biriyani was tasty and thought of blogging it.

I was tempted to try it after seeing it in almost every blog. Everyone has their own version. On a recent visit to grocery stores, I picked up Shaan Bombay Biriyani Masala packet. Not sure why I chose to buy it, but it was a hit at home. Tips from many blogs helped to make this preparation much better. Here is my version..

Recipe Source: Various

Ingredients :

Mix Vegetables : 150g (mixture of carrot, french beans, peas, cauliflower-washed and cut into 1" pieces)

Potato : 3 medium sized (washed, peeled and cubed into 1.5" pieces)

Ginger Garlic Paste : 1/2 tbsp

Tomato : 3 juicy medium sized tomatoes (washed and cut into small pieces)

Onion : 2 small (peeled, washed and cut into small pieces)

Onion : 1/2 (cut length wise and deep fried for granishing)

Safron Strands : few soaked in 1 tbsp of milk

Orange food color : a pinch

Basmati Rice : 350g

Chapathi dough for sealing

Method:

1.Soak Basmati Rice. Soak saffron strands in hot milk. Cut vegetables and keep them aside. Cube potatoes. Boil vegetables till they are half cooked in water. You can combine potatoes with them too. Potatoes should be bigger pieces than rest of the vegetables. Pick half cooked potatoes, pat dry them and deep fry till they turn golden brown color.

2. Half cook rice, drain the water. Scoop put 2 small cups of rice and mix orange food color and keep aside.

3. Take oil in a pan, add onions and ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell dissappears. Add tomatoes to it and cook till tomatoes are juicy. Add in shaan vegetable biriyani masala, salt and cooked vegetables and mix well. Switch off the stove.

4. Take a non stick pan which has a secure lid. Coat the pan with oil. Layer rice and vegetables alternatively. Start with a rice layer and end with a rice layer. When you spread vegetables, dont forget to put in few pieces of fried potato. Close the lid and seal the edges of the lid with chapathi dough. Cook on a very low flame for 10 mins. Electric rice cooker (not a pressure cooker!!!) works BEST for this.

5. Remove from the stove and garnish with saffron strands, fried onions and serve with raita of your choice.

This is the simplest DUM biriyani recipe I could come up with which was tasty enough to crave for more.

Other Dum biriyani recipes you can look for :

Sushma's Hyderabadi Biriyani

Jayashree's Hyderabadi vegetable biriyani

Viki's Kitchen Hyderabadi vegetable biriyani

and many more such recipes which actually tempt you to make !!!

Sending our lamps, altar and festive food to decorate the blogs of Rekha &Sharon (Diwali Dhamaka), Blogadda ( Diwali Moments) and Emreen (It's festival time)