Biryani is rice dish which is often reserved for special occasions as it is a lengthy preparation. A one-pot meal of rice, meat or vegetables, and aromatic spices, it’s rich and deep in flavor. The combination of spices and herbs brings out that distinguish aroma and flavor. It is prepared in three basic steps, first step involves cooking of long-grain rice or basmati rice with whole aromatic spices, second step is cooking vegetables or meat with dry spices, third step is layering rice over vegetables or meat and cooking it with Dum method. Dum method is basically slow cooking in a sealed vessel, where the food is slow cooked in its own juices and steam.
Vegetable biryani and Chicken biryani are amongst the favorites in my family and never thought of using some other options like Mushroom in a biryani. Until last week, when I tried mushroom pulao made by my husband’s collegue. That combination of mushroom with rice became an immediate favorite. I got inspired by that and came up with a Mushroom Biryani recipe. Its exactly the same way I make veg biryani or chicken biryani. But this one is quicker as it does not require any marination and mushrooms cook fast.
Looking at the steps one might feel its too difficult to make. But trust me, the dish is ready in half and hour. The final dish is so flavorful that it will blow your mind and your taste buds making it worth to try. If you are a meat lover, this is to die for recipe. You can skip the dum method and simplify it by cooking rice completely and mixing it with cooked mushrooms. It does not change the flavor of the dish at all. I have added notes in the recipe for variations of cooking Mushroom Biryani.
Mushroom Biryani
Ingredients
For cooking rice
- 1 1/2 cups of basmati rice
- 6 peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 3 green cardamons
- 1 black cardamon
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 8-10 cups of water
- salt to taste
For mushroom biryani
- 15-20 sliced button mushrooms
- 4-5 peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 black cardamom
- 4 cloves
- 2 tsp warm milk
- pinch of saffron
- 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 cup sliced onions
- 1 cup mint leaves
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves
- 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 3-4 slit green chilles
- 1 tbsp coriander-cumin powder
- 1 tbsp garam masala powder
- 1 cup fried onions optional
- 1 cup yogurt
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
To prepare rice
- Wash and soak basmati rice for 30 minutes.
- Heat water in a big pot. Add all the dry spices and salt to it and bring the water to rolling boil. Taste the water, it should be salty.
- Add rice and stir it gently.
- Cook the rice till its 70-80% done or 3/4 cooked. Keep an eye on it and check for the doneness of rice in between. When it is 3/4 cooked, it should look cooked from outside but when u break it should still has a bite to it.
- Remove it from the heat. Strain it in a colander, spread it on a flat plate and set it aside.
To make mushroom biryani
- Add saffron to warm milk and keep it aside.
- In a thick bottom pan(I usually use my cast iron pan), heat 2 tbsp ghee with 2 tbsp oil.
- Add all the dry spices.
- Add sliced onions and slit green chilies to it and cook it for 2-3 minutes or till they turn translucent.
- Add sliced mushrooms and saute them well. Cover the pan and cook it for 8-10 minutes, stirring in between. Note: Do not add salt at this point as mushrooms ooze too much of liquid.
- Mix in cumin-coriander powder, garam masala, salt to taste and roughly chopped mint and coriander leaves to it. Add yogurt and mix it thoroughly.
- Bring down the heat to lowest. Spread the prepared rice over cooked mushroom and onion mixture. Top it with 1 tbsp of ghee, saffron soaked in warm milk, some more mint leaves(optional) and fried onions.
- Cover it with aluminium foil, place the lid on top of it and cook it for 10-15 minutes.
- Turn of the heat and let it sit for additional 15 minutes.
- Serve hot with cucumber raita or just plain yogurt.
Notes
- Alternately, you can also fully cook rice and layer it over mushroom mixture. In that case, cut down the cooking time to 5 minutes after layering rice over mushroom-onion mixture. Also make sure the mushroom-onion mixture is dry otherwise it will overcook the rice and break the long grains of basmati rice.
- To make quick fried onions: Take 1 tbsp oil in same vessel you are going to cook biryani. Add 1 cup of sliced onions to it. Over medium-high heat cook onions, stirring occasionally. Once the onions start turning golden brown, stir continuously till it turns crispy and brown in color. Take it out on a plate and let it cool. This is a non-fried recipe for fried onions.
