Simple Egg Biryani (My Humble Easter Treat)

If there is a rice dish that I can finish a bowl full in one go then that is biryani! The rice, the texture, the outburst of flavors - there is just nothing this lacks. Whenever I visit my hometown, along with parotta this is something I dare not miss. Each part of Kerala has its own version of biryani but my favorite is the one they sell in Kannur railway station (reason - it has 2 eggs in a pack) and the one we get at Biryani Hut in Kochi. 

Being alone at home, these days I spend more time FB-ing and that's when I came across the actual connotation of Easter. It was an interesting read and of what I remember, it said about a pagan goddess and the connection of Ishtar (how Easter is pronounced) eggs and bunnies to fertility and sex. Just because I learned something interesting, I wanted to make the occasion special and I went ahead with an egg biryani, to celebrate it my way! In fact, this has been something I have been wanting to make for a while and since Pradeep is not a big fan of eggs, I sort of postponed it.

Until now I have been under the impression that I suck at biryani preparation. But, (you may find it on the verge of boasting) I feel I am pretty food at it! Well, this is my 2nd successful attempt and I hope many more will follow.

Not many ingredients, not much time investment, but the results is an absolute treat to your taste-buds.

Ingredients:

For Rice:

Basmati rice - 1/2 cup, cleaned, soaked for 30 min and darined

Whole spices - 1 teaspoon

Ghee (clarified butter) - 1 tablespoon

Salt to tate

Water - 1 cup

For Egg Masala:

Egg - 1 hard boiled and shell removed

Onion - 1 medium, sliced

Tomatoes - 2 small, diced

Ginger garlic paste - 1 1/2 teaspoon

Green chilies - 2, sliced

Yogurt - 2 tablespoon

Garam masala - 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder a pinch

Coriander leaves - 1 tablespoon, chopped

Salt to taste

Olive oil - 2 tablespoon

Biryani masala - 1 teaspoon

For Assembling:

Onion - 1 small, sliced and crispy fried

Lime - 1 small

Coriander leaves - 1 tablespoon, chopped

Mint leaves - 1 teaspoon, chopped

Preparation:

For the Rice:

1. In a pressure cooker, add ghee and saute the whole spices for a few seconds. Add the rice, stir fry until translucent. Pour water followed by salt to taste, stir and cover and pressure cook until done. Let it cool and transfer to a bowl.

For the Egg Masala:

2. Heat oil in a pan. Add sliced onions and saute it until browned. Add the chilies, tomatoes, ginger-garlic paste and saute for a while. Add the turmeric powder and salt; mix well. Let it cook until the tomatoes turn mushy.

3. Add the herbs, followed by yogurt, garam masala and coriander powder and mix well.

4. Cut the boiled egg into half and place yolk-side down on the pan and cover with the masala. Let it cook for a few minutes, turn over. Switch off and keep aside.

Assembling:

5. In the same pressure cooker, add a layer of egg masala, followed by rice, half of biryani masala, half of the fried onions, half of the herbs and a generous squeeze of lime. Again top it up with another layer of egg masala, rice and finish off with the rest. Cover and in very low flame, cook for 10 minutes. Switch off and let it be so until pressure is fully released or it is time to serve.

6. To serve, transfer rice into a bowl, top it with egg halves, sprinkle a bit of pepper powder (optional) and keep a slice of lime by the side. Enjoy! :-)

Vellayappam (Or Aappam)

Super soft and fluffy rice pancakes for breakfast!

So last Saturday was one of the most eventful days, I mean in the recent past. We had invited a few guests over (from Pradeep's work place); I had an elaborate all vegetarian menu ready and went on preparing one by one. I like experimenting and I love to do it for my guests; although not always. Saturday is mostly half day for my husband and I was expecting him to be back home around 2, and he had to buy a few ingredients too. I started with making mushroom filling for wontons, vegetable stew (to pair with appam), mix for kothu paratha, parboiled the potato wedges and cauliflower.  Everything was going well and good until around 12, I received a call from Pradeep saying he would be late, like around 4.30. I panicked, like I always do, because I hate to keep cooking or spend my break thinking that I am not done yet. Well, I didn't lose my cool. I went ahead and experimented with a small batch of dessert, and cooked the rice. At around 5.30, I received another call saying the families who were supposed to come may not be able to because there was one issue at work. I had no comments. At 6, I received another call saying that the guests can still manage to come just that they would be a bit late. I was happy because I didn't want the food to go waste. I took bath thinking that might help cooling me down and it did. Two of my friends dropped by and I gave them wontons to taste; things were back to normal. Now, at around 7, I receive another call from Pradeep saying that the guests will not be able to make it because the men have to stay on-board late. I know it was not our guests fault, neither my hubby's but the thought that my one day effort went waste, did pinch me worse than I imagined! Finally, we called our friends home, we had fun and they were kind enough to stay till 1 AM, cut my birthday cake and click a few snaps. That did mean a lot to me, in fact as they say, all is well that ends well :) So, the next few posts will be from the vegetarian menu that I prepared for my guests, and to start with, it is vellayappam or appam, which is one of the traditional Kerala breakfast dishes. 

So appams and idiyappams (string hoopers) are always in my menu when I call some non-keralites home. Most of them appreciate kerala food and so I keep one in my menu for them. Appams look good and feel tasty only if the batter is well fermented. I have had my own share of failed attempts before I could get this right.  These days we get the readymade powders which makes it quite an easy deal, but again, I have tried that too and nothing can beat the homemade batter. The feeling after seeing the nice little holes when you pour the fermented batter on to the tawa is just beyond words to describe!   Once the batter is made, the dish is pretty simple to make.

Ingredients

Rice - 2 cups

Urad dal (uzhunnu) - 1 tablespoon

Cooked rice - 3/4 cup

Coconut - 1 small, grated

Sugar - 5 to 6 tablespoons

Salt to taste

Yeast - 1 teaspoon

Coconut milk - 50 ml, thick

Preparation

1. Soak rice and urad dal for at least 4 hrs. Grind it along with cooked rice and grated coconut, with enough water to make moderately thick batter. Pour the batter into a big vessel, which has enough space for it to rise when fermented.

2. In about 25 ml lukewarm water, dissolve sugar and yeast. Leave it aside for 10-15 min. Add it to the batter. Cover the vessel and leave it to ferment overnight.

3. The batter will be well fermented by next day morning. About 2 hours before you make the appams, add salt and coconut milk and stir well to combine. 

Cooking

3. Heat the appam chatti (the one that is concave), pour a big spoonful of batter, swirl it around to spread, close with the lid and cook for about 2-3 min. Open the lid and remove the cooked appam to a casserole box. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter. It will make some 30-40 appams.

If you do not have appam chatti, you can make it in normal dosa pan, as you would make pancakes.

Serving

4. Serve with hot stew or sweet milk or coconut milk

I have some left still, which I will be having for today's dinner. Then I will click the picture and post it here.

Mock Spanish Paella with Prawns and Sausages

Why mock, because I did not bake it!

Of all things why Spanish and why paella? Even I am wondering why! I remember having seafood paella from a restaurant in Singapore but then I did not enjoy it much. Now that's even more contradicting! 

I had prawns and sausages and wanted to cook up something different, especially for Sunday lunch as Pradeep was coming back home after a week. Thus I bumped into this Spanish Paella recipe which I have tweaked to my convenience. A decent main course to serve for social gatherings.

Ingredients

Chicken sausages - 4 long ones, sliced

Prawns - 1/2 kg, cleaned, deveined, cooked (specifications given in preparation section)

Onion - 1 medium, chopped

Garlic - 5 cloves, crushed

Dried chilies - 3, chrushed

Tomatoes - 2 medium, diced

Basmati rice - 1 cup

Broth or stock - 1 cup (I did not have any store bough broth so I made my own)

Vegetable soup mix - 1/2 cup

Black pepper - to taste, freshly ground

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Coriander leaves - a few springs

Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Cook the prawns in 2 cups of water with a pinch of turmeric, salt, pepper powder and a few springs of coriander leaves. Once the shrimp is cooked half way through drain about 11/2 cup of the broth and keep it aside. Let the water be absorbed and prawns be cooked completely.

2. Wash rice and soak it in water for about 10-15 min

Cooking

3. In wide mouthed cook and serve pan, put the sliced sausages and dry roast until browned.

4. Add oil to the pan and put onions and cook until golden brown. Add garlic & dried chilies and saute for another 2 min.

5. Add the tomatoes and saute it until well combined, for about 5 min.

6. Drain the soaked rice and add it to the pan. Fry for about 1-2 min, until the rice turns translucent and pour the soup mix. Mix well to combine.

7. Pour in the broth, check salt and adjust as needed. Cover with a lid and cook until most of the water evaporates. Around 10-15 min. 

8. Open the lid, add in the prawns, give it a nice stir to combine. Cook in simmer for about 5 min. Switch off when rice is fully cooked and water has evaporated.

Serving

9. Fluff up the rice with a fork. Serve with side dish of your choice. I serve this with Pan Roasted Pearl Onions in Yogurt Sauce. It tasted yum!