Vegetable Biriyani

My biriyani probably bears no resemblance to a ‘proper’ one but this is the way I do it anyway and I like it!

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice, enough for four
1 tbsp milk
1 onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 cm knob of fresh ginger chopped fine
1 red chilli, chopped fine
3 or 4 whole cardamon seeds
1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine
50g frozen peas
50g frozen sweetcorn
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp korma / mild curry paste or powder
100 ml vegetable or chicken stock
50g uncooked cashew nuts

Wash and drain the rice and place half in one saucepan and half in another. Put 1 tsp of turmeric in one of the pans. Cover both with water, add salt and bring them both to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat a little and set timer for 9 minutes. Drain both well, put into a glass bowl, add milk and gently stir to mix. You should have a nice bowl full of white grain and yellow grain rice.

In a frying pan heat some oil or ghee and gently fry onions, garlic, ginger, chillis for 5 minutes.

Add curry powder/paste and cook gently for 2 or 3 minutes.

Add carrot, peas, sweetcorn and stock. Leave to cook gently for about ten minutes or until it has become quite dry.

In a casserole dish put half of the mixed rice. Then tip the vegetable mixture on top and spread out in a layer so that it covers the rice. Add the remainder of the rice, sprinkle the cashew nuts over the top, put on a lid and put into hot oven (375F) for about 20 minutes until heated through.

Sprinkle some sprigs of fresh coriander on top and also some crispy fried shallots if you can be bothered. Serve.