This recipe is a fairly simple but delicious and healthy one-dish complete meal. I've made biryani rice dishes before but never one with such rich complex flavor and such a marvelous fragrance. After cooking our home was filled with a subtle exotic aroma that lingered for hours. NOTE: This and other biryani recipes are adaptable to simplifications and time savers such as using thawed/steamed frozen peas;1/8 teasp crushed red pepper instead of seven whole peppercorns; crystallized ginger and dried garlic; and pre-diced onions carrots and potatoes. Of course the dish is best and most authentic with the freshest ingredients -- but better a "quick" biryani I think than no biryani at all at the end of a long day! Depending on your preferences you could eliminate some vegetables but keep the onions garlic herbs & spices broth and rice. The turmeric imparts a lovely golden hue and sublime flavor. I've had great success adding mushrooms as well. I advise a great mango chutney as accompaniment with yogurt or sour cream. It also keeps and reheats nicely for next-day dining!
This recipe is a fairly simple but delicious and healthy one-dish complete meal. I've made biryani rice dishes before but never one with such rich complex flavor and such a marvelous fragrance. After cooking our home was filled with a subtle exotic aroma that lingered for hours. NOTE: This and other biryani recipes are adaptable to simplifications and time savers such as using thawed/steamed frozen peas;1/8 teasp crushed red pepper instead of seven whole peppercorns; crystallized ginger and dried garlic; and pre-diced onions carrots and potatoes. Of course the dish is best and most authentic with the freshest ingredients -- but better a "quick" biryani I think than no biryani at all at the end of a long day! Depending on your preferences you could eliminate some vegetables but keep the onions garlic herbs & spices broth and rice. The turmeric imparts a lovely golden hue and sublime flavor. I've had great success adding mushrooms as well. I advise a great mango chutney as accompaniment with yogurt or sour cream. It also keeps and reheats nicely for next-day dining!
Simple to make and a perfect side to any curry. If eaten as a main I would suggest some cashews and raisins and perhaps a few green cardamon pods toasted in the begginning. Good quality spices (not some old spice jar forgotten at the back of the cupboard) is key and makes the difference between a mildly spicey rice and a truely authentic dish. As one other reviewer said the recipe is best with fresh, good quality ingredients (except for the peas which are usually sweeter when bought frozen), there are many shortcuts you can take with the veg but there is no compromise with the spices.
I thought this was bland. The flavors were not nearly as strong as the biryani I've had in restaurants. Next time I will use ground spices and double or even triple the amount of each of them.
Deeeeliciuos! Easy to make and tastes great the next day.
I used red chili flakes (1/8 tsp) in place of bay leaves substituted corn for carrots (didn't have any carrots) added an extra 1/4 tsp of garam masala for kick an extra tsp of salt (it needs the extra salt!) and served with cucumber raita (Indian yogurt dish).
This is a delicious starter recipe - we modified and added spices/peppers to give it a kick. The recipe is very mild on spice as is. Tip - water took 10 minutes to evaporate in step 1 and rice was done in 20 minutes. Thank you!
Excellent recipe. Did follow up on another recommendation in the reviews and increased the amount of spices in the recipe. I basically doubled all the spices. The resulting biryani was wholesome and robust. Felt good to my Indian taste buds yet did not overwhelm my non-Indian friends!
Delicious! I had to use red curry paste since it was all I could find by me (and didn't have time to run to the Indian market). I left out the red pepper as a result since it was already in the paste. It came out incredible! Even better the next day.
Flavorful! Nice healthy option. Very filling!
