This Malabar Biryani is a mild and delicately spiced vegetable biryani made with a bevy of fresh veggies, spices, herbs, onions, cashews, raisins and coconut milk. Best served with side of raita and some papadam.
Recipe Snapshot
- Prep time: 30 minutes
- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Total time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Kerala, South Indian
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice (- soaked in 3 cups water, kaima rice or basmati rice)
- 6 cups water (- for cooking rice)
- ¼ or ⅓ cup cashews (- chopped)
- 15 to 20 curry leaves
- ¼ cup raisins
- 1 cup onions (- thinly sliced)
- 5 to 6 tablespoons oil
- 12 to 15 saffron strands
- salt (as required)
- 2 cup chopped vegetables (- I used small eggplants (brinjal), potato, carrots)
- ½ cup green peas (- fresh or frozen)
- 1.5 cups onions (- thinly sliced)
- 2 inches cinnamon stick
- 7 to 8 cloves
- 4 to 5 green cardamoms
- 2 cups Coconut Milk (- thick or canned thick coconut milk)
- 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
- 2 green chilies (- chopped)
- ½ cup water (or as needed)
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder ((ground coriander))
- 1 teaspoon fennel powder ((ground fennel))
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder
- ¼ or ½ teaspoon red chilli powder (or cayenne pepper)
- ¼ or ½ teaspoon turmeric powder ((ground turmeric))
- ½ or 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or ¼ cup curd (yogurt))
- 1 tablespoon mint leaves (- chopped)
- 1 tablespoon coriander leaves ((cilantro), chopped)
- salt (as required)
Method
Preparation
- First, rinse the rice a few times in water. Soak the rice for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Later cook the rice in water until the rice grains are ¾ᵗʰ cooked. Drain the remaining starchy water and set the rice grains aside.
- Heat oil and add the sliced onions.
- Fry till the onions become light golden.
- Add the cashewnuts, raisins and curry leaves.
- Fry till the mixture turns golden on low heat. Don't burn.
- Remove with a slotted spoon and add the fried onions, cashews, raisins and curry leaves to the cooked rice. Do not mix. Simply make a layer of the fried onions mixture on top of the rice.
Making vegetable gravy
- In another pan, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of this oil in which the onions were fried. You can add more oil if required. Heat the oil on a low flame.You can also opt to use fresh oil or use ghee instead.
- Add the whole spices - cinnamon, cloves and green cardamoms.
- On a low heat fry till the oil becomes fragrant and the spices splutter.
- Now, add the 1.5 cups sliced onions and sauté on medium-low heat until light golden, stirring often.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and green chilies. Sauté for a minute on low heat.
- Add the dry ground spice powders and sauté for a few seconds.
- Add the mixed chopped vegetables. Sauté for a minute.
- Add the coconut milk. Stir and then add water along with lemon juice.
- If using yogurt instead of lemon juice, then add at this step. Stir well.
- Add ½ cup of water. Cover the pan and let the vegetables cook on low to medium-low heat. The gravy will reduce a bit.
- Once the vegetables are tender and cooked, we can start layering the biryani.
Layering and making Malabar Biryani
- Grease an oven proof bowl or pan with oil.
- Layer the vegetable gravy first. Then layer the rice.
- Spread the chopped mint and coriander leaves on top.
- Sprinkle the saffron water. Dot with some oil.
- Spread another layer of the vegetable gravy.
- Now spread the fourth layer of rice.
- Sprinkle the chopped mint, coriander leaves and saffron water.
- Dot with some oil again. Cover and seal tightly with an aluminium foil.
- Bake Kerala Biryani in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 25 to 30 minutes.
- You can also cook the layered biryani in a tightly covered pan on stove top for 25 to 30 minutes on low heat.
- Serve Malabar Biryani hot or warm with raita or kachumber.
Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note
Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.