Egg biriyani recipe

Egg biriyani

Biriyani is one dish which the majority of the population look forward for, for its taste simplicity, variance and a bag full of flavours.Each region has a recipe of its own with various combinations of spices. Also its one dish which is one pot and yet full of flavors due to the various spices used in its preparation. For some, preparing biriyani is very easy and quick but I confess its not so for me. I have to concentrate a lot while making biryani than other regular dishes. More than effort biriyani has a sequence of process to be followed else the taste gets altered. You have to be careful from the right level of cooking of the rice, mixing and flavouring of the dish at every possible level.

I have been doing this recipe for quite some time but every time i make I forget to click a pic... So today decided to click and blog it.

The recipe follows

Ingredients

Onions – 3-4 med ones

Saffron – a pinch

Milk – ¼ cup

Eggs – 4-6 no.s (I use small country eggs)

Ginger, garlic, green chilli – 2-3 tsp. (crushed)

Mint leaves and coriander leaves – 2-3 tbsp. (chopped

Pepper powder – ½ tsp.

Chilli powder – 1 tsp.

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp.

Coriander powder – 1 tbsp.

Whole cumin (jeera) - ½ tsp.

Fennel seeds (saunf) – ½ tsp.

Cloves – 2-3 no.s

Cinnamon - 1 small stick

Cardamom – 2-3 no.s

Bay leaves – 2

Curd – 1 cup

Salt - as required.

Method

• Finely chop onions and fry and keep aside (you could deep fry or shallow fry to your preference).
• Soak the saffron in ¼ cup of warm milk and keep aside.
• Boil eggs and keep aside, for boiling eggs you can wash and put the eggs in a pressure cooker, add water until the eggs are half emerged, switch off the stove after one whistle, and open the cooker once the pressure is released on its own.
• Using a knife make slits on the eggs or you could simply cut each egg to half, add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and pepper powder and mix well. 
• Add the crushed ginger garlic and green chilli to it. Make a powder of cumin, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and add to the egg mixture, add salt too… finally add the curd and the coriander and mint leaves and also half of the fried onion. Mix all this well and keep aside for 30 minutes.

For cooking rice

Basmati Rice – 2 cups

Hot water – 4 cups

Ghee – 2 tbsp.

Cinnamon – 1 stick

Cardamom – 2-3

Clove – 2-3

Bay leaves - 2

Cashews and raisins – as per your preference.

Salt.

Method

• Take a pan and add the ghee, fry the cashews and raisins and remove from the pan.
•  Add the rice to the pan and sauté well for about 5 mins (this is to keep the rice separate and not leaving it sticky once cooked). 
• Once the rice is well sautéed add the whole spices and salt. 
• Slowly add the hot water to the rice and close the pan with a lid and let it cook in med flame. Open and check after few minutes and let it cook until the water is absorbed by the rice and rice is almost cooked.  
• Remove the pan from the flame.

Assembling

• Keep another pan (I used a wide cast iron pan/skillet) on the flame and add a teaspoon or two of ghee/oil. 
• Bring your egg mixture and remove the eggs and keep it upside down (the yolks touching the base of the pan. 
• Once all the eggs are arranged along with a bit of masala mixture spread half a portion of the cooked rice. Spread the remaining masalas on top along with a quarter portions of the fried onions and also the saffron and milk mixture. 
• Spread the remaining rice and level the rice out and sprinkle the left over fried onions.

Let it sit covered on the low flame for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes sprinkle the fried cashews and raisins on top and gently mix well. You don’t want to make a mess of the biriyani, mix gently so that the colour stands out yet there is a mix of flavours J

Serve hot with raita, pickle and papad.

Note: You could any other deep thick bottom pan for assembling the rice and egg mixture.

Enjoy!!