As I have shared here before; there are many ways of making biriani.It is all about your tastebuds and the time you have to make it. The Instant Pot comes in handy in this, as you do not have to spend hours in the kitchen slaving over this dish. I have shared two biriani recipes here and by now y’all can tell I really love Indian rice dishes 🙂
This dish is so straightforward you can make it for weeknight supper, it is great for a meatless Monday meal as well as a tasty way to load up on those veggies.
You can use the vegetables you have on hand, just chop them into more or less equal sizes so they cook through and evenly.
Ingredients: 2 cups Rice, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, Whole spices (bay leaves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, cloves, 1/2 a star anise, cardamon and black peppercorns), ground spices (1/4 tsp ground turmeric, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp ground Dhana jeera, 1/2 tsp paprika), Vegetables (a cup each of chopped sweet potato, carrots, green pepper, peas and French beans, Coriander and mint leaves, 2 sliced onions, salt to taste, 1 tbsp of raisins and cashew nuts (optional). 2 tbsp ghee for cooking. You can substitute the sweet potato with Irish potato.
Wash and soak your rice for 20 minutes. Then put instant pot on sauté mode.
Heat a bit of the ghee and roast the cashews till brown, add the raisins and let them puff a little then set aside.I always struggle not to snack on them, hahaha.Add your remaining ghee, add the whole spices, mix well then add the onions.
Add the ginger garlic paste and the ground spices.
Mix well to ensure they don’t burn.Add your vegetables and the coriander and mint (you can reserve some for garnishing).Mix well.Add a splash of water to ensure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot otherwise the pot will indicate the food is burning. Add the drained rice and two cups of water.
Do not stir once you add the water. Cover the instant pot, cancel sauté mode and set pressure mode on. Set it to cook for 6 minutes on high pressure. Once done, let it release pressure naturally for about 5 minutes then do a quick pressure release.
Doesn’t it look yummy?
The next step is purely optional but if you want the authentic biri feel, mix a little yellow food colour or saffron if you have in in a tsp of rose water.
Pour over the rice in a kinda cross shape.Add the remaining mint and coriander leaves and the cashews and raisins after the rose water and cover the pot again, for a few minutes until ready to serve.Fluff the rice gently before serving.Serve with a cucumber and tomato raita.
I am enjoying using the Instant pot to make various dishes and was glad with how this turned out. Definitely worth a try!
MY KAMPALA NOTEBOOK 