Layered vegetable biryani/ Hyderabadi vegetable biryani/ Vegetable biryani recipe/ Dum biryani

Biryani is one of the famous recipe in india. During sunday's lot of indian houses are filled with a  aroma of biryani.  As we all know hyderabad is famous for biryani. This layered biryani is also its kind.  I have dum cooked this biryani in pressure cooker. Traditionally it is cooked in clay pots. Layered  veg biryani is slightly different from regular veg biryani. It has lots of crunchy fried onions and fried nuts. making it richer and tastier. Cooking biryani really needs little bit patient.  You have to cook the grains soft and seperate. It should not be mushy.

Peparation of Layered vegetable biryani contains  three parts...

1. Cooking rice.

2. Preparing vegetable gravy. 

3. Layering the biryani.

If you cook rice and  prepare vegetable gravy, then  layering is a very easy task.   The worthy time you spend will definetly give you a good result. Go ahead , plan in advance and give your family a real  indulgence.

Here is the recipe...

Recipe category  :  Indian main course
Preparation time: 45 mins
Cooking time      : 45 mins
Serves                  : 4

Ingredients:

For cooking rice:

Basmati rice - 1 and 1/2 cups

Water -  2 and 1/2 cups

Cardamom - 2 nos

Cloves - 2 nos

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Bay leaf - 1

Mint leaves - 1 tbsp

Salt - as needed

Oil/ butter  - 1 /2 tbsp

For preparing vegetable gravy:

Carrot - 1 no

Beans - 10 nos

Potato - 1 no

Cauliflower-  10 -12 florets

Green peas - 1/4 cup

Curd - 1/4 cup

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Garlic - 4-6 nos

Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Mint leaves - 1 tbsp

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Biryani masala - 3/4 - 1 tsp

Oil - 2  tbsp

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Cardamom - 1 no

Cloves - 1 no

Bayleaf - 1 no

Star anise - 1no

Salt - as needed

For layering biryani:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Onion - 2 nos

Cashews - 1 tbsp

Milk -  1 tbsp

Saffron - 1 pinch

Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Mint leaves - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak basmati rice atleast for 30 mins. In a pressure cooker add required amount of water and add cardamom, cloves, Cinnamon, bayleaf and mintleaves.

 2. Allow it to boil and add required amount of salt and 1 tbsp of oil. When water boils, add  soaked and drained rice and stir well.

3.  Allow water and rice to boil. After 10 - 15 mins. there  will be only  little water  in the pressure cooker and rice will be cooked more than half. (If you press grains it will broke ) At this stage close the pressure cooker with whistle and keep in the lowest possible flame for 10 mins.

4. After 10 mins , when pressure subsides, open the pressure cooker, the rice grains will be separate. It will be cooked 3/4 th. Transfer the rice to a broad vessel.

5. Now  chop the veggies like carrot,beans , potato. Wash and clean  coriander leaves and mintleaves. Slit green chillies. Slice the onions. cut the cauliflower in to bit sized florets.

6.  Take ginger and garlic in a mixer jar and grind it to a smooth paste.

7. Heat   2 tbsp of oil in a pan . Add spices and let it brown. Now add ginger garlic paste and saute it till raw smell leaves.

8. Now add veggies  like  chopped carrot, beans ,potato,  slitted green chillies and cauliflower florets one by one and saute them  well. Finally add green peas  mint and coriander leaves and saute them well.

9. Then add red chilli powder , biryani masala powder and salt. Mix it well. Fry them till  masala coats veggies. Now add curd and  mix well. Fry it for 5 mins.

10. If the mixture is dry, you can sprinkle some water also. Now vegetable gravy is ready.

11.  Now  lets fry onions and nuts for layering. In a pan heat 1 tbsp of oil , add thinly sliced onion and  fry them till it turns brown and crispy. 

12. Transfer the fried onions to a plate. In a vessel heat  a tbsp of milk and add pinch of saffron to it.

13.  Heat oil/ ghee and fry cashews till golden brown. You can also add some raisins and blanched almonds at this stage.

14. Now lets layer the biryani. In a pressure cooker, spread the layer of rice, sprinkle saffron milk.

15.Now add vegetable gravy, fried onion and coriander and mint leaves.  again spread the layer of rice.  Repeat it until you finish rice and vegetable gravy.  You can put as many layers you want. But finish it with a rice layer. top it up with some fried onions and  coriander leaves.

16. Now close the pressure cooker with  pressure regulating valve. Keep the flame to the lowest level and dum cook it for 15 - 20 mins. If you unable to put your flame to the lowest level.  Then take dosa tawa and keep it in the low/medium flame and place cooker over it as shown in  the below picture and dum cook it for 15 - 20 mins. The layers inside the pressure cooker also shown in the below picture

17.   Garnish the layered biryani with fried cashew nuts. Serve veggies and rice portions equally.  You can also mix it and serve.

Now layered biryani is ready :)

Serve with onion raita :)

Enjoy the delicious layered veg biryani :)

Notes:

• You can  also deep fry  the onions.
  
  
• Don't skip coriander and mint leaves as it gives nice flavour to the biryani.
  
  
• You can also add ghee roasted raisins and almonds while garnishing.
• Take care while cooking rice. It should not be mushy. The grains should be separate.