Ramzan biryani recipe...anybody?

[Reetu Mohan]

Hi,

I am looking for the perfect muslim biryani they give during Ramzan festival..is there anybody who can help me?Thanks in advance.

Edited May 24, 2006 by Reetu Mohan (log)

[Reetu Mohan]

Nobody???

[SDSeth]

what kind of biryani are you asking for?

Lamb, goat or chicken. There would be different styles from Pakistani, Lucknow, Bangladesh or Hyderabadi or even from Kerala muslim style.

You would need to be more specific. You could google for biryani recipes and select the ones you want.

[BBhasin]

A Bengali Biryani from Bowie will do

[Bull Terrier]

I'm not sure about Ramzan biryani but I can give you my recipe for biryani which does come out very nice! It should be good for 3 portions, but you can easily adjust the quantities accordingly.

Marinade overnight in the fridge around 300g of chopped meat (lamb, goat or perhaps even chicken), in yogurt, corn oil, salt and some spices (paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala). Do not exaggerate with the quantities of the spices because a delicate flavour is required for this dish.

Fry 1 finely chopped onion in vegetable oil or ghee. Fry it for around 15 minutes or so until it becomes very soft, and then add some finely chopped garlic and fresh grated ginger. Fry for another few minutes before adding the marinated meat and some concentrated tomato paste. Cook until half cooked, adjusting as necessary for salt.

In the meantime prepare and then set aside the following ingredients which are also required for the recipe:

• 1 sliced onion, fried in ghee until soft and caramelised

• Sliced almonds and chopped pistachios, and optionally also pine nuts and sultanas

• Finely chopped fresh coriander and mint

Prepare the layers in an oven dish. The bottom layer is the meat, together with any juices. Above the meat you can optionally put some fresh sliced tomatoes. Add the coriander and mint, and then the nuts. Finally add the fried onions. The top layer will be half-cooked rice. It is best to prepare the other layers before adding the rice and then cook the rice at the end.

Wash around 300g of basmati rice in several changes of cold water and then set aside. Measure out roughly double the volume of water, mixed with roughly 20% fresh whole milk. Bring the liquid up to the boil whilst heating some ghee in a saucepan and adding the following spices:

• 2 green cardamoms

• 1 black cardamom

• 1-2 cloves

• 1 inch of cinnamon stick

• ¼ tsp of fennel seed

• 1 bay leaf

Fry gently for a few minutes and then add the rice with some salt (around 2 tsp). Stir carefully to coat all of the rice in the ghee and spices and then add the boiling liquid. Cover the saucepan and cook on low for around 4-5 minutes, or until half cooked. After 4-5 minutes add the partially cooked rice together with any liquid to the oven dish as the final layer. Cover the oven dish tightly and bake in a preheated oven for around 15-20 minutes at 200°C.

A good dish to accompany the biryani would be a nice cucumber or tomato raita.

I hope this is of help to you!

PS - I'm new to the eGullet Society and I'm pleased to be able to (finally) contribute to the forums!

[Tambong_Glutton]

I dunno which part of India's Ramzan Biryani we're talking about but down south this is what passes as HYDERABAD SPECIAL BIRIYANI and for some reson i prefer it heaps to most northern biriyanis.

Most Important Things here are

1) The rice must be seperate when cooked - stickiness denotes overkill on the oil

2) The final product must be WHITE with just the strands of saffron adding colour

3) NO pastes & no spice powders. Dont worry aboout the chopped onions they melt away later

4) The meat must be halal or kosher or the blood in the meat will ruin the flavour

5) STRICTLY NO HIGH HEAT...nothing must be browned

So here goes

Heat a ladleful of ghee very tenderly and throw in 2 large sticks of cassia (or cinnamon if you dont get cassia) 1 Cinnamon leaf (tej patta) 4 green cardamons 4 cloves and 1 leaf of mace.

when these spices start to gently sizzle add Onions, Ginger & Garlic in the ratio of 3 : 1 : 1. (you can experiment with this, sometimes i omit onions all together) fry till fragrant and the raw smell has almost gone - BUT NOT GONE COMPLETELy

Add 2 chopped tomatoes. Back home we'd add almost greenish tomatoes, but under no circumstances get tempted to add tomato sugo or passata kinda stuff. must be fresh.

crush the chopped tomatoes in while cooking but DO NOt let them dissolve. Now add the chicken or mutton and stir gently till the surface of the meat is sealed.

Now salt to taste, and throw in 1 cup of mint leaves (that is 1 cup after removing them from the stalks) but under no circumstances are we to chop the mint or they impart a bitterness to the biriyani. Add 1 & 1/2 ladlefuls of fresh yoghurt, and stir it in well. and Slit green chillies to taste

Cover and let it simmer till the meat is tender.

Seperately parboil the rice till 3/4 done

gently toast on a tawa and then dissDissolve 1/2 tsp of saffron in 1/2 a cup of warm cream.

ASSEMBLY

Layer the rice and the meat alternatingly. Add more green chillies if you wish at this stage. On th top most level pour over the saffron cream, cover with alu foil and bake bling in a 100 degree preheated over for about 40 - 45 minutes.

Traditional accompaniment is BHAGARA BAIGAN.

I've got a killer recipie for it if you want and no fussy POTLI MASALA's to be bought either

ENJOY!!

Edited September 10, 2006 by Tambong_Glutton (log)