A flavorful vegetarian biriyani with paneer…
As much as I am finding it difficult to come back to this space, at times I just want to be here and not neglect it. For the past few days, I cleaned up my bookshelf and went through a lot of my cookbooks. It gave me a wave of nostalgia. There were days when I absolutely loved cooking, clicking and posting new recipes. However, for the past few years, I have been scraping through my cooking with half a heart. It has started feeling like a chore. Once in a while, I get excited to try something new, but it kind of fizzles out in the same speed. This explains the lack of new recipes on the blog. Anyway, whenever I am able to come back with something new, I will try to do it more frequently that I have been doing last year, In Sha Allah…
Coming to today’s recipe… Non-vegetarians will never call what vegetarians make a biriyani; they would rather call it a pulao. 😀 Still, I have loved every veg “biriyani” I have made – whether it is the Malabar style or one with just potatoes in it, of course always coupled up with something to bite on, like chicken fry or a beef roast, hehe…
I saw a recipe for paneer biriyani on an Instagram page and decided to try it. Though paneer isn’t exactly a favorite of mine, I still make it once in a while, to have some variety to cook. Now this biriyani does have a few steps – like making the masala, frying the paneer, making the rice and finally putting the whole dish into “dum” so that it locks in the flavors. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was a very mildly spiced biriyani, with chewy bites of well seasoned paneer in between. I served it with simple cucumber raita and pickle, and thankfully, everyone ate it silently without asking for any extras. I count that as a win. 😀 Off to the recipe…
Easy Paneer Biriyani
Ingredients
FOR PANEER
- 200 gm paneer cubes thawed
- 2 tbsp yogurt
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp garam masala powder
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp ghee
FOR BASE
- 1 onion large, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp oil/ ghee
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 green chillies minced
- 1 tomato large, thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- Salt to taste
FOR RICE
- 1/2 cup basmati rice washed and drained
- Whole garam masala cardamom, black pepper, cloves
- Water as needed
- Salt as needed
- A drizzle of ghee
FOR DUM
- 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
- A handful of fried onions
- A handful of cashews and raisins fried in a tsp of ghee
- 2 tbsp milk
- A pinch of saffron
- 1 tsp rose water
- 1 tsp garam masala powder
Instructions
- Toss the paneer in the rest of the ingredients except the ghee under the "for paneer" section and set it aside to marinate as much as possible.
- In a pan, heat oil/ ghee and splutter cumin seeds. Add the onion, ginger garlic paste, crushed chilli and tomato with a little salt and saute till raw smell is gone.
- Add the turmeric and chilli powder and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Switch off and allow the mixture to cool. Blend into a smooth paste with a little water.
- To prepare rice, boil water with the whole spices, salt and ghee. Add the rice and cook till the rice is almost done. Drain and set aside.
- In a pan that is good to assemble, heat the ghee for frying the paneer. Add the marinated paneer and flip just till browned, for a couple of minutes.
- Add in the ground paste and bring to boil. Adjust seasoning.
- Add in half the coriander leaves and garam masala from the "for dum" ingredients and toss.
- Arrange the drained rice on the top. Spread the remaining of the "for dum" ingredients.
- Close the lid tight after covering with foil on top, keep a flat pan below the assembled pan and cook on slow flame for around 20 minutes.
- Switch off and allow it to rest for a few minutes. Open the lid, remove the foil, fluff up the rice and serve hot.