Mushroom Biriyani

Biriyani.

The though is just enough for me to drool :P

Mushroom.

I could die for it and eat it every single day. Such an amazing ingredient with so many varieties and textures when cooked the right way.

So this is again one of my favorite dishes and made easily without much effort! I know this is not the authentic way biriyani is cooked. My version, cooked easily and it such a hit specially when people are hungry and you need to have good solid food.

Ingredients

Button Mushrooms - 2 cups (cut into quarters)
Onions - 2 medium sized (finely chopped)
Tomatoes - 2 (roughly chopped)
Capsicum - 2 (roughly chopped and can use different colours)
Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - Small stick
Clove - 2
Cardamom - 2
Bay leaf - 1-2 
Chilly Powder - 1 1\2 tsp ( differers with the chilly powder you use and the amount of spice you want. I like mine spicy)
Garam Masala - 1tsp
Coriander Powder- 1/2 tsp
Ground Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Jal Jeera - 1/3 tsp 
Salt - To taste
Basmathi Rice - 2 cups
Chopped Corriander - 1/2 cup 


Method 

In a deep pan, add ghee and once its hot enough, add cinnamon, clove and bay leaf,  saute for a minute and add the onions, ginger garlic/paste and saute them well. I generally add a pinch of sugar and salt while sautéing the onions as I find this enhances the taste, smell and colour. Once the onions are nice golden brown, add the tomatoes , mix well and now add chilly powder, garam masala, coriander powder, pepper, jal jeera and salt. Sprinkle little water on top of the spices and mix well. Simmer for about 10 minutes and add the mushrooms and coriander. Once you add the mushrooms, you will notice that it will start letting out a lot of water. Once that happens, add the washed and strained basmati rice, stir well and take it off the heat. 

Transfer this mixture into a rice cooker and add water accordingly. Thats it ! 15 minutes and your yummy biriyani is ready ! You can serve this plainly or with some onion or boondhi raita 

Tip - When you are adding water in the rice cooker, add hot water. This cooks the rice much faster and much better ! Also, while chopping the coriander, don't throw the stem away ! That gives maximum flavour. 

Serves - 4

Wheat and oats Halwa with pumpkin and sunflower seeds

This morning, I woke up with a sudden carving for Indian sweet ! As I was stirring my oats for breakfast, I though why not use this to my all time favorite and easy to make sweet, Wheat Halwa. Trust me, this is so easy and quick to make that incase you have guests at home suddenly and want to impress them with your culinary skills, this is the trick !

Ingredients

Atta (Wheat flour) - 1 Cup
Sugar- 1 Cup
Water - 1 Cup
Ghee - 2 tsp
Pumpkin seeds - 1/3 cup
Sunflower seeds - 1/4 cup
Oats - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Method

In a pan, add sugar, saffron and water. Let the sugar dissolve and water come to a nice boil.
Simantaniously, in another pan add ghee and add some cardamom powder to it.Then add the flour and oats and mix well and on a low flame, keep stirring it till the raw smell of the flour and oats goes away ! You can add more ghee if you want to.

Once the water boils, pour it directly into the flour and keep stirring so that there are no lumps. It might look watery but don't panic. As you keep stirring, the flour pulls in all the water and gives you that thick gooey consistency. Toast the pumpkin and sunflower seeds or you can directly just add them and stir it along with the halwa and use some to garnish as well. (Can secretly add another spoon of ghee while no one's watching ;) )

Serves - 5

I assure you, even if you are not a huge fan of oats, this will change your idea. You can also knock off the oats and the pumpkin/sunflower seeds and add just normal almond and cashew nuts to it !