Keralan prawn biryani

As I have said numerous time before, I am a sucker for biryani, good or bad. I can thoroughly enjoy it without an issue. That said, I completely suck at making biryani the proper way and so cant flaunt it when I have guests over. I do experiment with different types of biryani when its just us at home and sometimes it comes out ok, but most of the time, not good.

When the lovely people over at Flora asked me if I wanted to try making the Keralan Prawn Biryani recipe from their new cookbook called 'Let's Get Cooking,' I jumped at it. With around 30 odd recipes contributed by mums (and dads), the cookbook was put together by Jean-Christophe Novelli and has an array of easy recipes you can whip up in no time. You can view all the recipes in the cookbook here. It was also my first time using Flora Cuisine, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with it. Its a much healthier cooking oil which can be used in place of any oil or butter and used for baking, frying, greasing, sauteing and what not. I have been regularly using it for my cooking now and I love it.

Coming to the recipe. One look at it and you will instantly realise its an easy peacy one, with no complications of a biryani. That said, its not the traditional biryani. So scoot if its what you are looking for. The rice here is cooked in a microwave, the prawn masala made separately and then both mixed together and served. Not the authentic biryani flavour you would get with this, but would suffice for one of those days you don't want to slog it out in the kitchen, but want something fancy and tasty. I had never cooked rice in a microwave and was wary about doing so, especially because it involved a huge quantity of ingredients and you definitely don't want to waste it by screwing it up. So I did a couple of Google searches, asked the contributor of the recipe (who btw has her own food blog) and some other friends and they all assured me it would turn out well as they regularly did it. 

I was still too chicken to do it and so tried it out with a small quantity of plain rice the previous day. All I have to say is, I'm hooked. I'm kicking myself for not discovering microwave cooking earlier. Its so easy and convenient and the best part, individual grains of rice which are perfectly cooked and fluffy. I now make different types of pulao and stuff in the microwave, which I shall blog about later. So anyways, the whole thing doesn't take any time to put together especially if you make the prawn masala a day or two ahead. Which is what I did and all I had to do was make the rice, garnish and assemble it on THE day. Taste-wise, I thought it was more like a prawn pulao than a biryani, but who cares, it tasted good nonetheless. 

Recipe adapted from Flora's Let's Get Cooking

To marinate

Tiger prawns- 500 gms, peeled and cleaned

Chilli powder- 1 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Salt- to taste

For the masala

Flora Cuisine- 2 tbsp

Onion- 1 large, thinly sliced

Ginger paste- 2 tbsp

Garlic paste- 2 tbsp

Green chillies- 2, slit

Coriander powder- 2 tsp

Mint leaves- 1/4 cup, cleaned and roughly chopped

Coriander leaves- 1/3rd cup, cleaned and roughly chopped

Garam masala- 1 1/2 tsp

Salt- to taste

Water- 1/2 to 3/4th cup

Lemon juice- 1 tbsp

For the rice

Basmati rice- 2 cups, cleaned and soaked in water for around 15 to 20 minutes and then drained.

Flora Cuisine- 1 tbsp

Onion- 1 large, thinly sliced

Boiling water- 4 1/4 cups

Salt- to taste

Garnish (optional)

Cashewnuts- 3 tbsp

Onion- 1 half, julienned

Raisins- 1 tbsp

 

Marinate the cleaned prawns with all the ingredients under the marinate section and keep aside for about 15 to 20 minutes. This is purely optional. Skip the step if time constrained.

Once the marinating time is over, you can start with the masala.

Place a large pan over medium heat and add the Flora Cuisine. Once hot, saute the onions till they turn soft and a light brown in colour.

Add the ginger, garlic pastes and green chilli and continue sauteing till the raw smell disappears, around 2 to 3 minutes.

Throw in the coriander powder, chopped mint and coriander leaves', garam masala and salt and mix it all in, stirring for about a minute or so.

Add the marinated prawns, water and lemon juice and simmer on medium heat till the prawns are cooked through and the masala is in semi-gravy form. Keep aside.

This can be made the previous day or 2 days in advance and refrigerated.

 

Add the boiling water into a large (big enough to comfortably hold the rice once it expands) microwave safe bowl and add the drained rice.

Season with enough salt, give a stir and cook without a lid in the microwave for about 10 minutes.

Simultaneously, heat 1 tbsp of the Flora Cuisine in a frying pan and sauté the onions for the rice till soft and light brown. 

After 10 minutes, remove the rice from the microwave (carefully, bowl might be hot) and add the sauteed onions to it. Give a thorough mix and continue cooking for about 12 minutes.

Once the time is up, check to see if all the water has been absorbed and if not, microwave for a further 2 to 3 minutes.

Take the bowl out, cover with a lid and leave aside for 10 minutes. You will then notice that the rice is perfectly cooked, and no water remains.

To assemble, fluff the rice gently using a fork and mix it with with the prawn masala. Make sure you don't over do the mixing and break the rice.

If using garnish, then heat 2 tbsp of Flora cuisine in a frying pan and fry the cashew nuts, onions and raisins separately till lightly crisp, drain on paper towels and when ready to serve garnish with the same.

Serve with pappad, pickle and raita.

 

Notes: The original recipe calls for frying the marinated prawns for around 4 minutes on each side and adding that to the masala. I omitted this step because I used pre-cooked prawns and doing so would have made it tough when cooked again in the masala. If using fresh prawns, then this step is highly recommended.

Quantities have been altered a bit to suit our taste.

I cooked the rice on full power (700Watts) for 22 minutes. Times vary according to your microwave power.

You can of course layer the biryani the traditional way and cook in the oven or on the hob top to get the 'dum' effect. But the whole point of this biryani is the simplicity and so I followed the above mentioned procedure

I froze the remaining biryani in an air tight container. Just take it out and let it thaw at room temperature before using and finally warm in a microwave before serving.

With thanks to Flora Cuisine for sending me all the ingredients to make this tasty Prawn Biryani.

Prawn Biryani

Making a biryani is such a tedious job for me....but eating it is something I'd like to do any given time or day. Unfortunately for me, there is no one to serve it on a platter and if I'm craving it, I need to get off my lazy ass and make it on my own. When we were in Chennai we had a tradition of having beer and biryani on Sunday afternoons. Didn't really have to slog it out because we had an awesome cook (Asha) whose speciality was chicken biryani. We used sit out on the balcony glugging down mugs of beer and then dive into the steaming biryani Asha used to make, without any qualms.

Here, the story is different. Sunday lunch is usually left overs from Saturday brunch or when we are so craving a biryani, we both split the job and make a rather biriyani-ish kinda dish while glugging beer or cider simultaneously and then sit down and eat it with half an appetite because you are already famished after all that cleaning, chopping and cooking. It somehow ends up tasting a 100 times better when and if we have it again for dinner :)

I have a standard chicken biryani recipe which I somehow managed to whip up from here and there, and religiously follow. In spite of noting down intricate details, I have still managed to screw it up- more like a biryani sadam a lot of times. Same has happened with prawn biryani too, but this time, even though it almost gave me a scare half way through, it turned out pretty decent. If i had been a bit more patient, I'm sure I could have hit the right spot. Nevertheless, the recipe is a keeper and I had to jot it down before I forgot.

We paired it with a glass of Chianti red wine and loved the outcome.
And before I forget, here's a biiiiiiiiiig thank you to all you guys who sent in those lovely comments about my blog header..I'm thrilled :)

For the rice:

Basmati rice- 1 1/4 cup

Cardamom pods- 3

Cinnamon- 1 inch stick

Cloves- 3

Bay leaf- 1

Lime juice

Ghee- 1 tbsp

Boiling water- 2 cups (approx)

Salt- to taste

To marinate:

Jumbo Prawns- 250 gms, deveined and cleaned

Chilli powder- 1/4 tsp

Garam masala- 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder- a pinch

Lime juice- 1/2 tsp

Salt- to taste

Masala:

Onions- 3, medium size, finely chopped

Tomatoes- 2, finely chopped

Green chillies- 2, slit

Ginger paste- 1 tbsp

Garlic paste- 1 tbsp

Chilli powder- 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder- 1/4 tsp

Garam masala- 3/4 tsp

Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp

Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup + enough to garnish, cleaned and roughly chopped 

Mint leaves- 1/4 cup, cleaned and roughly chopped

Yogurt- 2 tbsp

Salt- to taste

Oil- 2 tbsp

Marinate the prawns with all the ingredients under the 'to marinate' section and keep aside for at least 30 minutes.

Also wash and soak the basmati rice. Keep aside.

(In the mean time you can chop the onions, tomatoes, mint and coriander leaves)

In a heavy bottomed pan (with lid), heat the ghee and splutter the spices- cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and bay leaves till nice and fragrant.

Drain the rice and add to the ghee. Fry on medium heat till they start spluttering a bit.

Add the boiling water to this, add salt and lemon juice and close the lid.

Cook till about 3/4th done...about 8 minutes as per my timing.

Drain using a colander and set aside.

In the same deep pan, heat the oil and add the onions. Sauté till they are translucent..about 6 to 7 minutes.

Throw in the green chillies and the ginger and garlic paste. Mix well and sauté till the raw smell disappears.

Add the tomatoes and sauté again till it all becomes a mushy paste like consistency.

Add the powders- chilli, coriander, garam and pepper powders and salt and mix well. Saute on medium heat till the oil starts separating.

Throw in the marinated prawns at this time and mix well to coat the prawns with the masala.

Add the yogurt, coriander and mint leaves and little water and mix well till they are all combined well.

Close the lid and cook on medium heat till the prawn is cooked through...about 6 to 7 minutes max.

If there is too much gravy, then leave the lid open and cook on high heat for a few more minutes.

Now comes the assembling bit...tip in the entire cooked rice onto the top of the prawn gravy, spread it around well, throw in some coriander leaves on top and cover with a tight lid.

Keep the heat to very low and cook till you see steam rising from the top. I keep it this way for about 15 minutes.

When you are ready to serve, either mix well, or dig right to the bottom and serve a ladle full, garnished with coriander leaves.

Serve with pappad, raita and lime pickle.

Notes: You can do the same in an oven as well...keep it for about 30 minutes or so...

I don't do the proper dum method, because i find this much more convenient

Sending this to the Festive rice event over at Torviewtoronto