Biryani
If you count all of the ¼ teaspoon spices as one ingredient, and don’t count the topping of cashews, raisins and hard-cooked eggs, this recipe has 13 ingredients. I hope that’s O.K.
This is a wonderful dish, often requested as a birthday meal in our home.
(This recipe is from Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley and Peter Thornton, a children’s picture book published in 1991 by Carolrhoda Books, ISBN: 0876144121)
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
Spices:
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon each crushed black pepper, cayenne pepper, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cumin
Vegetables:
½ cup carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled, quartered, and diced
1 cup cauliflower florets
1 cup green beans
1 cup green peas
3 cups half-cooked rice (rice that has cooked for 7 to 10 minutes)
2 Tablespoons water
½ cup cashews
½ cup raisins
2 hard-cooked eggs, peeled
- In a large frying pan over medium heat, sauté onions in 1 Tablespoon butter until golden.
- Add all spices.
- Add all the vegetables and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes.
- Butter a large casserole dish and add all the ingredients, mixing or layering rice and vegetables.
- Bake at 300 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
- Sauté cashews and raisins in 1 Tablespoon butter.
- Crumble hard-cooked eggs.
- When biryani is baked, sprinkle with cashews, raisins, and crumbled hard-cooked eggs.
