Vegetable Biryani

To all the mothers out there, a Very Happy and Blessed Mother's Day!

I've read a very good poem about mothers. So true! Here it is:

"M" is the million things she gave me

"O" means she never grows old

"T" is my tears she wiped away

"H" is for her heart, purest gold!

"E" is her eyes, always filled with love

"R" means right, and right she always be!

put them all together

they spell "MOTHER"

A word that will always be

A word like no other

Mom's cooking! The BEST! For me, I have tweaked mom's recipes over the years to make them low fat(!) obviously but still, there are times when I crave mom's "free hand" cooking! This one fits the bill. It has the same biryani flavour and taste as that of the chicken or meat and it is very rich and full of nutrition. I remember when my cousins would come over to visit, they always asked mom to make this biryani for dinner. The only change I made was to add paneer to it.

Vegetable Biryani

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of good quality Basmati Rice

250 gms. Cauliflower

2 medium sized Potatoes

2 medium sized Onions

50 gms. Green Peas
100 gms. paneer, cubed and fried

A few Cloves,Cinnamon stick, Black Pepper, big Black Cardamom, a Bayleaf or two (everything whole)
Oil for frying

Salt to taste
1 medium Tomato chopped
1/2 cup of Yogurt

Ginger Garlic paste

1.5 tsp Turmeric powder

2 tbsp Cumin-Coriander powder

2 tsp .(or to taste) Red Chili powder

How to:
Wash rice and put them into boiling salted water with the Bay leaf and cinnamon stick for 10 minutes and drain. Keep aside.
Chop the onion and fry with whole garam masala listed in the ingredients until brown.
Cut all the vegetables into big pieces and add to the onion mix.
Add paneer cubes, chopped tomatoes, yogurt, salt, Ginger-Garlic paste, turmeric powder, Red Chili powder and Cumin-Coriander powder.
Stir until all the vegetables are well-coated with spices.
Cook all the vegetables till they are done.
Spread the rice over the vegetables.
Cover with Aluminum foil and cook on very low flame for about 20 minutes.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, fried cashews (if desired) and serve with Raita.