Spicy Rajma Biriyani

I just got back from a long awaited trip back home to India. Meeting relatives, friends, doing some shopping in my home town and most important of all, eating home cooked food and spending time with family! It was one fun trip. I have to say that I did not step inside the kitchen except for the occasional dosa duty! I am now finally done with all the holidaying 🙂 I know I promised a post on my Puerto Rico trip in my last post. But I haven’t had time to get to it. I will try to do it soon.

My first day back to cooking yesterday was ok that ended with a disastrous dosa episode during dinner! The instant wheat dosa that I made for dinner, just wouldn’t come out of the pan. But I am super excited about the new grinder (Ultra 1.25L) that I got from India, that produced the softest fluffiest idlis I’ve ever made reminding me of the perfect idlis we get back at home 🙂 Happy with the soft idlis that I could whip up for breakfast, I decided to do try my luck with some spicy biryani for lunch. But I did not feel like chopping a whole lot of vegetables and I had soaked rajma last night. I quickly searched for some inspirations online and found this recipe by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. Usually I make changes to the others recipes to suit my taste. But this time I just followed it as it is except for the exclusion of fried onions and I have to say they were delicious! It reminded me of the many good biryanis I had in this India trip, with special mention to my aunt’s biryani on the last day of my trip 🙂 Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup boiled rajma (kidney beans)
• 3 cups rajma stock
• 11/2 cup rice soaked in water
• 1 big onion or 2 medium onions chopped
• 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 2 green chillies slit
• 3-4 cloves
• 2 small green cardamom
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/4 cup thick yogurt
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp or more ghee
• salt to taste

Method:

Heat 1/2 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottom pan and add the chopped onions. Saute the onions until they are nice and slightly brown.

Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add the slit green chillies, cloves, cardamom, red chilly powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, cardamom powder and saute for a minute.

Add the cooked rajma, stock, salt as required and bring to a boil on high heat for a minute. (While cooking the rajma make sure they don’t turn mushy because you will be cooking them again with the rice. You do not want to end up with rajma paste)

Now add yogurt, chopped mint, coriander and lemon juice. Let it cook for a minute in medium low flame.

Add soaked rice to the top and sprinkle some more chopped mint, coriander, a pinch of garam masala and ghee. Do not mix the rice. The rice has to be on the top while the rajma gravy lies in the bottom. Cover and cook on a low flame until the rice is fluffy and done. It took me around 15-20 minutes.

Serve hot with raita and papad:)