My Friend Himani makes yummiest Biriyani I have ever had... Inspite of taking the recipe from her and trying many a time, mine never turns out as tasty as hers or I feel so. This Saturday with minimum of the available stuff in this here and some modification to the recipe. I made again and Lo.. it turned out really yummylicious...

Here is the Recipe with my changes in it.
VEGETABLE LAYERED BIRIYANI:

Ingredients
half a cup each of potatoes, green beans, carrots and green peas
1 cup cauliflower florets
Finely chopped Capsicum and
Fried onions and fried cashew nuts. (Cut very fine thin slice of onions longitunidally and deepfry till they are crisp)
Grind together
2-3 cloves of Garlic, one inch ginger, One cup chopped onions and two green chillies,few mintleaves and little coriander.
Ground powder
of
3 cloves
1 inch stick of cinnamon
2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of freshly peeled cardamom
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
2 teaspoons of red chilli powder (or 3-4 whole red chillies)
Basmati rice 2 cups
½ cup yogurt
a small stick of cinnamon
3-4 bay leaves
a pinch of saffron
two spoons of tomato puree
Salt to taste
Sunflower Oil/Vegetable oil

Method
Wash the rice and drain the water.Cook the rice in two batches one plain and another in saffron colour ( which will turn out slightly yellowish)
Keep them covered and hot.
In a Kadai ... add two spoons of oil/ghee,a little turmeric powder, add bayleaves, cinnamon and the ground paste. When the paste turns reddish/brown add the dry ground powder (the masala).add the vegetables (they can be parboiled before hand)
Now add the tomato puree,saffron, yogurt, and salt.Cook till it gives out an aroma.
Now both the masala and rice are ready to be layered. I prefer them layered.. If not you can put the basmati rice into this mixture and cook till the rice is done say for about 15 minutes.

Layering.

In a Deep bottem vessel ( I used the glass one as I heated the Biryani just before dinner in a Oven)Apply some Oil, and spread a layer of coloured rice,then the layer of Masala with vegerables and another layer of rice on top of it.The layering can go on .
Leave it in the preheated oven till the dinner is ready to be served.

Garnish with fresh mintleaves, coraiander leaves , fried onions and Cashewnuts.
While serving.. cut the rice longitunaly and place so that the layers are visible on the plate,

Can be served with Fresh salad or Onion and tomato Raita... or papad and pickle.

I am at loss for good pictures. Please do bear with me...
Enjoy the Biriyani and let me know how yours turned out. Would love to hear from you if you there is any other ingredient which can be added.

TIP: I used the Bombay Biriyani powder instead of the ground powder mentioned above this time , it turned out as good.

The MTR biriyani paste available in India is excellent too.. to my taste it has a too strong garlic smell and that can be overcome by frying it in ghee a bit more.

Gowri Ganesha..... and memories of 'GANPATI KOODSIDDIRA?"

Hello Everybody,,,, It has been a long absence , and I have started missing my blogging a bit too much. I am not able to do it partly because my camera is in trouble and mostly because I am not cooking much at all. Will start my experiments with food soon, I hope.

Hope all of you had a very lovely Ganesh Chaturthi...I have been travelling down the memory since the preparations begun for this festival in my house here in Mysore... (this time fortunately I was in town for the festive season). This particular festival brings the sleepy town of Mysore to life just before the major Attraction the Dasara Mahotsava.I was a bit disappointed to see much was not happening .. Everybody were mostly to their own . But come evening on Wednesday... I was really happy to see many people visitng and we were invited too. Atleast felt it was really the FESTIVE SEASON.

For us Gowri and Ganesh festivals was all about socialising , visiting other peoples houses...
The preparations would begin 15 to 20 days before,..The Ganesh Chaturthi is donned in Mysore by the 'MYSORE SILK GOWRI GANESHA SALE". As far as I remember my mother and aunts would wait for this notice and this marked the beginning of Festive season for me!!!!!!

Then begins the collecting money procedure.Each locality having its own Ganesh murthy... collections would be used to buy the idol, prepare the prasad... BLaring soundsystem which would make lives of many senior citizens miserable... yet was fun!!!! the whole morning it would be devotional songs and come evening.. the place would be full of movie songs the next day.This celebration is lost unfortunately, not to be seen except for in one or two places. ...seems like people int he locality barely know each other.The best thing I noticed was that many people had gone in for the eco friendly GAnesh Moorty made of only Clay.

Going back to my times, the pooja in the house would be finished with sumptuous lunch the list is really tempting..Just close your eyes for a moment and imagine a bustling house.. tempting lunch served on the banana leaves including the wonderful dishes like Karigadubu,Kai Holige , Obbattu and Modaka Not to mention the palya, payasa and chitraanna. After such a lunch... the kids of the street would gather at four in the evening .... on Ganesh chaturthi.. in our best (ofcourse new and usually the Zari langa and blouse) attire..with a huge bowl of Akshate (It is rice coloured red or yellow).
This custom of visiting houses asking "Ganpati koodsiddira??? (Have you had Ganpati in your house ? is the vague translation) and would get Charpu (yummy goodies of different sorts) is really amazing. The children would go to each and every house in almost the whole locality and end up with a bagful of goodies.. mainly of chaklis, sweet dishes and fruits... The idea behind this is to see 101 idols of lord Ganesha and as well as making aquintances. My grandmother always used to say that people would be busy in a normal and this was one way of visiting thier houses and get to know them..I miss those days!!I miss the stressfree and happy childhood. The festive atmosphere and comradiere was not there anymore I felt... very few kids, count of fingers came home... but the spirit remains. I was very happy when my daughters said they would love to do it.I hope the next year they have the same enthusiasm.

Here is the recipe for Karigadubu, I hope to put in the picture as soon as my camera is done with its treatment.. Till then probably it will be only recipes...

KARIGADUBU

INGREDIENTS:
For the outer covering.

1 cup Fine Rava ( fine semolina)

1/4 cup All purpose flour (Maida)

2 spoons of Ghee (clarified butter)

Water enough to mix

Oil for Deep Frying


For the filling

Half a cup of Sugar Powdered

Half a cup Dessicated Coconut or shredded Copra

1 tsp Powdered Elaichi/Cardamom

Dryfruits can be added for extra taste. (Almonds, Cashewnuts and raisans and be finely chopped and roasted in very little ghee)


Method:

Mix all the ingredients for the covering just adding enough water to make a stiff dough; The dough should not be too think and a bit thick. Knead well and let it aside for about 15 mintues.Keep it covered.

In a bowl, mix the ingredients for the filling , add sugar according to the taste...it is optional to mix the dry fruits mixture.


Take the dough meant for covering . Take small balls enough to roll out into one reasonable sized pooris. Place the filling in the middle of poori in a straight line.
Now the tricky part.The sealing of the puris to give the the typical shape.
Seal them with some milk... and twist a bit so that the filling doesnt come out into the oil while deep frying.

Deep fry the karigadubu in hot oil at medium heat till they are golden brown in colour.Do not fry on high heat.It spoils the taste.
Let the kadubus dry and then store them in air tight container... Enjoy with lunch or just as a evening snack..

Jai Ganesh deva...
ciao from me now... hopeful of a picture soon.

Mandalu Oggarane/ Puffed rice Upma...

BYE FOR A FEW WEEKS FRIENDS

My stay in this place coming to an end.. a new place to visit , new people to meet and new life to build. It is not easy but is quite exciting.Every town has its own flavour to offer and who knows what new colour is waiting to be added to my nomadic life ,, which is already as coloured as a rainbow.
I am off for more than 8 weeks ,, so adieu till i settle again and get time to try more food and update the block.. till then enjoy this time tested and tasty recipe.


Mandalu oggarane/Uggani/puffed rice

A few day sago while browsing i came across the name murmure ki biryani.. tempted by the name i read the recipe which was nothing other than what my mother and grandmother made very regularly as breakfast known as Mandalu Oggarani.. dae out of normal puffed rice and definitely tasty and light . In my town ,Yemmiganur,a small town in Kurnool district this is a truly poor man's biriyani.
The dish is easy to make and quite low in fat. This is made a little different in Rayala seema side of Andhra pradesh.. which is served with mirchi bhajji...That is so yummy .. I always make it a point to get some for one of the roadside joints.. it has a unique taste.

Mandalu oggarane

I tried it once or twice but it wasn't the same taste , husband and kids were not delighted.. Last week I tried it out again by asking her again for the recipe ... luckily for me it was great and girls absolutely loved it...
so here's the recipe for you all...

Oggarane/soosala

Ingredients:

Puffed rice (Murmure)- about a cup per person.

One big onion - finely chopped

green chillies - finely chopped

1 tsp of salt

two tsps of oil

Pinch of turmeric

1/2 tsp of jeera(cumin)

1/2 tsp of rai ( mustard seeds)

1 spoon of urad dal (black gram dhal)

1 spoon of chana dal (bengal gram dhal)

A sprig of fresh curry leaves

finely chopped coriander leaves

1 tablespoon of roasted gram dal powder (putani pudi /phutana powder)

two spoons of lemon juice.

freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut (optional, for the variation)

Method:

Soak the Puffed rice in a large pan of water for not more than 6 to 8 minutes. Squeeze and let it stay in a colander.

In the mean time, heat two spoons of oil in a kadai , add rai, cumin, urad dal, chana dal, turmeric powder,curry leaves, green chillies and onions.When the onions are cooked and get soft,add the squeezed puffed rice mix thoroughly. Add the phutana powder, salt and mix well.

Turn the heat off and add lemon juice and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.Serve and eat hot.

It is very tasty with some fresh plain yogurt too.

Variations..

My grandmother was not keen on using onions in this dish she just used freshly grated coconut in the end.. it would turn out as delicious.
I add potaoes and capsicum both finely chopped and peas to the above recipe. It tasts amazing and visually the green peas adds a lot of colour to the dish.

Well hoping to be back in action as soon as possible...

Pofta buna