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.

Prawn Karahi

As winter is about to end in my homeland I am hopefully ending my series of seafood recipes. If you guys want me to make more seafood recipes please feel free to tell me in the comments.

Ending the series with a desi recipe called Prawn Karahi. Saw it on the Sanjeev Kappoor Khana Khazana Youtube channel, made a little adjustments on the ingredients according to my taste and I got to make one of the best Karahi's I have ever made.

This is my 154th recipe so far and I promise you I will start my own youtube channel after 200 recipes. With this said, I really hope I have enough money to buy a decent camera and a mic when I pass 200 recipes. So, far I have been extremely broke form the past 10 years but WHO KNOWS when my stars shine.

INGREDIENTS:

large prawns  600 grams

2 medium onions chopped

2 medium chopped tomatoes

tomato puree 6 tablespoons

5 dried red chilies

2 teaspoon whole coriander

2 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 green chilies thinly sliced

1 inch piece ginger juliened

freshly chopped coriander 2 tablespoons

8 black pepper corns

1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder

salt taste

1 teaspoon red chili powder


1/4 teaspoon turmeric

First we will make the karahi masala by grinding cumin, whole coriander, black pepper corns and dried red chilies.

I used fresh ones because they were easily available here but you guys go ahead and used the dried ones.

Time to add some oil to the pan and heat it over medium flame.

Add the chopped ginger and green chilies and fry until fragrant.

Add chopped onions and cook them till translucent or light brown.

Add the chopped tomatoes now along the tomato puree and cook till the tomatoes are tenders and properly cooked.

Occasionally give it a stir.

When the tomatoes are cooked you can now add the ground spices i-e salt, red chili powder, 1 tablespoon of karahi masala and turmeric.

Add the chopped coriander and give everything a good mix as well.

When this masala leaves the oil add the prawns and cook them until their color changes.

Add half a glass of water to the cooked shrimps and turn the flame on high.

When the water in the prawns start boiling add the garam masala and mix it thoroughly.

Turn off the flame after the water evaporates and you see oil separating from the masala. Prawn Karahi is ready to be served.

I had it with a paratha and it made my day. That is my honest feedback about this recipe.