Deep Sea Prawn Biryani

I was craving biryani since the past three weeks. Not one, not two but three weeks. The reason why I could not have it was that I had other requests to fulfill for the blog and I wanted to make mutton biryani BUT THEN some good people suggested me to make Prawn Biryani and I was like HEY YOU SO CALLED CHEF why don't you make prawn biryani?

So I bought some prawns in this scorching heat and decided to boost my blood pressure by making this amazing spice blend to create one of the best biryanis I have ever made.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR BIRYANI MASALA:

1 tablespoon zeera

1 tablespoon fennel seed

4 cardamom

2 cinnamon sticks

1 black cardamom

1 star anise

1/2 sliced javitri

6-8 black pepper corns

FOR PRAWN MARINATION:

500 grams of prawns (peeled and devained of any size)

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder

Juice of one lemon

FOR BOILING RICE:

whole garam masala

2 cups rice soaked in water for 30 minutes

2 bay leaves

salt to taste

mint leaves

2 tablespoon oil

FOR GRAVY:

1 chopped onion

2 tomatoes chopped

375 grams yogurt

2 tablespoon biryani masala

2 tablespoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon tumeric Powder

salt to taste

1 tabolespoon ginger garlic paste

FOR BIRYANI TOPPINGS:

4-5 tablespoon oil

1/4 cup mint leaves

fried onions

food color or saffron mixed in warm water or milk

Let's start with making the biryani masala.

Add the fennel seeds, cumin seeds, green and black cardamom, javitri, star anise, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper corn in a grinder.

Grind until everything becomes a fine powder.

Marinate the prawns in 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and lemon juice.

Now it is time to boil the water for rice. Fill half of your boiling pan with water and add salt to taste, whole garam masala, 1 tablespoon of the biryani masala we made, bay leaves, oil and a handful of mint leaves.

After the water boils add the soaked rice to it and cook until 80% which means that the rice should have a bit of grainy feeling to it. If you cannot feel the rice then you cannot feel anything.

Strain the rice when cooked. Would take less than 5 minutes if the rice are of good quality.

Time for the base of biryani, the gravy.

Start with frying some chopped onion in oil.

Add ginger garlic paste and salt. Cook until onions become translucent.

Add chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, red chili powder, biryani masala and whipped yogurt.

NOTE - If you do not whip yogurt by adding some water in it and add it then it will form small lumps. DO NOT ADD THE YOGURT WITHOUT WHIPPING IT. WHIP IT!

Cook until the oil separates and add a little water to it.

Cut and add some green chilies if you want to spice things up.

Add the prawns with some chopped coriander, mint and some fired onions to the base gravy.

Cook them for 3-5 minutes. That's all the time they will take to release their flavor in the gravy and cook completely.

Once the gravy is cooked lower the heat. Form a layer of cooked rice onto the gravy.

Sprinkle coriander and mint leaves along with fried onions, oil and food coloring.

I add saffron mixed with warm milk instead of food coloring.

Cover the lid, cook on high heat for 5 minutes and low heat for another 5 minutes.

Turn the heat off, if you know what I mean.

Let the biryani stay covered and rest it for 20-30 minutes.

Uncover and mix.

Straight from the oceans, the Deep Sea Prawn Biryani is ready to be served.

Fish Biryani

Sea food is great in the months that end with "ER" like September, October, November, December, Januaryer, Februaryer and basically all the months.

I don't regard for the weather I eat sea food all year long. Maybe that's why I don't feel cold as much as normal people do. Maybe that's why I AM SO HOT!!!

So after more than a hundred recipes. I ask myself this. Shamsher, you love fish so much then WHY THE HELL YOU HAVEN'T MADE FISH BIRYANI?

The answer is to this question is. OKAY I WILL MAKE IT THIS WEEK AND POST IT TO THE BLOG.

I'm crazy, I have been having a conversation with myself the whole time.

So after going through various recipes I have figured out a Fish Biryani recipe that will make you fall in love with me all over again. It is a bit lengthy but I promise it will be worth the hard work.


INGREDIENTS FOR RICE:

750 grams rice soaked in water for 30 minutes at least

4 liters water for boiling

4 teaspoons salt

2 cinnamon sticks

3 cardamoms

3 cloves

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin/zeera

3 star anise

INGREDIENTS FOR FISH:

1 kilogram boneless fish

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

2-3 lemon's juice

INGREDIENTS FOR GRAVY:

4-6 medium onions slices

3 tomatoes diced

6 whole green chilies

2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon red chili powder

2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

2 tablespoon chopped mint leaves

2 1/2 cup yogurt

2 teaspoon ghee

Marinate the fish first by adding salt, turmeric, garam masala, red chili powder and lemon juice in it.

Mix it well and make sure that each piece of the fish is coated properly.

Set aside for 2 hours

Meanwhile the fish gets Marinated let's boil the rice.

Add salt, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon and cumin to 4 liter water. Boil the water and add rice.

Half cook the rice and make sure you don't disappear after adding the rice to the water.

STAND OVER IT, STIR FREQUENTLY. Drain the rice when they are half boiled and set them aside.

Time to fry the fish.

Add 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a non stick pan and fry the fish until golden brown.

Set the fish aside.

Time to prepare the gravy.

Add some more oil to the left over oil from frying the fish and fry the onions in it until translucent.

Add the ginger garlic paste and fry it for 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and with the help of your spatula crush the tomatoes so they cook thoroughly.

Add yogurt now and mix well.

Now add salt, red chili powder, garam masala, turmeric and crushed green chilies.

Mix properly and bring to a boil.

Turn the flame on low and simmer covered till the oil separates.

Now we carefully add the fish in the gravy and give it a gentle mix.

Take out another pan, a little big in size so we can mix the rice and the gravy properly.

Put a layer of the rice, pour the fish gravy on the rice layer and make another layer of rice over it.

Put chopped coriander, chopped mint leaves and ghee on the rice. Cover the pan with the lid and

Heat the pan on medium for 2 minutes and then simmer until the rice are done.

Uncover the pan and gently mix it so the fish pieces won't break.

Serve with raita and the blood of your enemies.