Egg Biryani




Egg Biryani



Biryani, this spectacular rice dish actually originated from Persia. It made its way to India with the Mughal dynasty. I am so glad it did J.




It’s an amazing rice dish and every state in India has its own version of Biryani thus creating a rainbow effect from a single dish. Rice is roasted with choice of spices and the biryani gravy is cooked separately. Rice is half cooked until this point. Finally, these two components are layered along with lime juice, saffron threads etc. and then steam cooked until rice is finally done.  This special way of steam cooking rice and gravy together makes it a food delight. 

I was completely out of the groceries  except that I had few eggs, onions and a lime in the name of groceries. But at the same time, I didn't want to compromise and was in the mood of delicacy. So, no brainer - I went ahead with "Egg Biryani". The best part of this dish is that you can create a masterpiece with just few ingredients. I hope you would enjoy this dish as much as I did. 


Ingredients:
Olive Oil – 3 ½ tbsp.
Eggs – 5
Plain yogurt – 1/3 cup
Basmati rice – 1 ½ cups
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp.
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp.
Onion seeds – ¼ tsp.
Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp.
Clove -1
Bay leaf – 2
1” Cinnamon sticks -2
Ginger – 1 inch
Garlic – 5 pods
Onion – 1 medium sized (chopped)
Lime – 1 (medium)
Turmeric powder – 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp.
Cumin powder – 1 tsp.
Rock salt – to taste



Method:   
  1.  Boil eggs and cut each egg into three pieces. 


  •        Wash and rinse the rice and soak it for 10 mins.



    • In a sauce pan pour ½ tsp. of olive oil and sauté cumin seeds, clove, and a bay leaf for a minute and add the washed rice (Only rice). Sauté the rice for 5 mins with constant stirring.
    • Add 4 cups of water and let it come to boil. Once it comes to boil, let the rice cook on medium heat for 7 mins. After 7 mins of cooking, remove it from heat and cover the sauce pan with a tight fitting lid. Let the rice sit on stove for 3 more minutes. (DO NOT cook the rice completely, it should be only 50-60% done). Strain the rice and put it aside.




    •  On an iron skillet, dry roast ginger, garlic, a bay leaf, onion seeds, fennel seeds, a cinnamon stick and grind this spice mix with ¼ cup of water.



    • On a hot iron skillet, spread 2 tbsp. of olive oil and sauté 1 tsp. of rock salt, 1 tsp. of red chilli powder and 1 tsp. of turmeric powder for few seconds. And shallow fry the eggs on each side for 3 mins.




    •  For the gravy, in a sauce pan heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil and sauté fennel seeds and chopped onions for 3 mins. Add 1 tsp. turmeric powder, 1 tsp. red chilli powder, rock salt to taste and yogurt to sauteed onions. Then fold in this mixture and let it sit on medium heat for 3 more mins. Add ground spice mix prepared in the above mentioned step along with ½ cup of water. Let this mixture boil until the gravy thickens. Then gently fold in the shallow fried eggs and let this mixture cook for 3 more mins.




    • Meanwhile, extract lime juice and add few strands of saffron and put it aside. And preheat the oven at 325 degrees.
    • Completely grease a 9” baking pan with butter (don’t forget the corners), add a layer of the egg gravy and then a layer of cooked rice, sprinkle some of the lime juice with saffron strands on these layers and then repeat the layers until the gravy and rice is completed finished. Finally, sprinkle the lime juice with saffron strands on these layers. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook it in the oven for 20 mins.



    • Take the biryani out of the oven and let it cool with cover on for few minutes. Biryani is ready to be served with plain yogurt or raita.
    Bon appetit

    4 comments:

    1. Thanks Beena. I like ur cooking blog a lot. Keep up the good work.

      ReplyDelete
    2. You are making my heart flutter... I loveeee egg biryani & this biryani is temptingly good..

      ReplyDelete