Vegetable Dhum Biriyani

I always prefer Dhum method when i make chicken/mutton biriyani,recently i tried making Vegetable dhum biriyani, and it came out very well.Here you go with the recipe.

Ingredients & Instructions:

To Prepare Rice

• Basmati rice- 2cups
• Oil -1 tsp
• Salt-for the rice
• Water-to boil the rice
• Cloves-2
• Cinnamon-small stick
• Cardamom-2
• Bay leaf-1
• food color-a pinch

Boil the water, add all the above ingredients (except food colour)  to the water, once the rice is almost cooked, drain the water,sprinkle food colour and set the rice aside (as shown in the pic below).

For the Gravy:

• Oil-as per need
• Ghee -as per need
• Whole spices(few fennel seeds, cinnamon -small stick, cloves2-3, cardamom-2, bay leaf-1)
• Green Chillies-4(slit open adjust as per your spice level)
• Onion-3 (medium sized, cut length wise)
• Tomato-2(medium size- finely chopped)
• Mint leaves- 4 stalks
• Coriander leaves-4 stalks
• Ginger Garlic Paste-2 tbsp
• Garam masala powder-1 tsp
• Mixed vegetables (carrot, bean,potato,peas,cauliflower)-1 cup
• Curd -half cup
• Salt to  taste
• Chilly powder and coriander powder(together)- 1tbsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp

Take a heavy bottomed pan, add oil followed by ghee, once the oil is hot enough, add the whole spices followed by green chillies,mint leaves, coriander leaves,add onion and saute them well till it turns translucent, now add ginger garlic paste and saute for few minutes till u get a nice aroma, add tomatoes followed by turmeric powder, garam masala powder, chilly& coriander powder and salt.Allow the tomato to cook well, now add the veggies and mix well, add curd and allow them to cook in medium flame.Do not over cook the vegetables.At this point you will see a nice mixed vegetable gravy.

Now take another vessel, add the gravy  and the cooked rice in layers.Now take a tava and place in on the stove and on top of the tava place this vessel and close the lid tightly, this way it helps the steam to stay inside and that is why it is called DHUM biriyani.This should take around 10-15 minutes 

In India we used to have the iron tavas and this kind of DHUM can be easily done , here in Canada i only have a non stick tava and i do not want to do this DHUM  on that , so all i do is place the Vessel directly on the stove with the lowest flame and to make the lid tighter , i place another vessel filled with hot water on top of the lid.This way i maintain DHUM for 20 minutes.

I always mix the layered biriyani carefully and then serve it with onion raitha.

                                                                     A closer view