Mushroom Biryani

Around one year back if some body told me that they had made mushroom biryani, then my thought flow would have gone something like this... OMG Mushroom Biryani!! Amazing!! What all do people cook? How does some one cook so nicely... When will I get to cook all the dishes that others are cooking.. Well, I can now cross off one item of the dishes to be cooked in my life time. Today morning I saw the mushroom in the refrigerator and decided to cook Mushroom Biryani for lunch. Mushroom was another dish never prepared at my home. I am not sure why... May be because my mom was not aware of cooking it or may be it wasnt available locally in the markets... Even when went out to restaurants, we never seemed to order any mushroom items... I remember the first time I had mushrooms... I was staying with my friends and we used to have a cook prepare lunch for us every day... One Saturday he prepared chicken curry for non vegetarians and mushroom curry for vegetarians... I didnt care much for the taste of mushrooms then.. May be because our cook didnt prepare it that well I guess... Anyway I recently I tried mushroom roast and it came out well... I had prepared mushroom gravy as well which came out nice.. But didnt get the time to take pics and post the recipe.. Need to do that soon Hmm.. 


Usually every morning I am in a rush preparing lunch. Typically I prepare one gravy and one side dish... And I try to do that in an hour.. And I make sure to prepare one familiar dish, if I am experimenting any new dish so that I dont get crazy trying to do too much.. But some times it does become crazy trying to take pics and mostly running out of time before my hubby arrives home for lunch... Today once I decided to prepare Mushroom Biryani, I took things calmly and did everything slowly taking step by step pics as much as I could and finally ending up with a delicious Mushroom Biryani... Here comes the recipe with the step by step pics...

One thing I would like to mention is that you can prepare the mushroom biryani by adding just the mushrooms and onions in it. But I like to add vegetables as much as I can when I prepare any biryani. So I added carrots and beans to the biryani. But that is purely optional. 

Mushroom Biryani :

Prep Time: 20 min 
Cook Time: 30 min
Total Time: 50 - 60 min

Ingredients: For 2 people

1 cup Basmati Rice 
1 cup mushrooms
1 cup of veggies - carrots, beans (optional)
1 onion
1 tomato
1/2 green chilly
1 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste
Few Coriander leaves
Few Mint (Puthina) leaves
1/4 tbsp Turmeric
1/2 Tbsp chilly powder
1/2 Tbsp Garam Masala
2 tbsp Curd or Yogurt
2 Tbsp Oil
1 clove
1 elaichi(Cardamom)
1 small cinnamon stick
1 Bayleaf
Salt
Few Cashews

Prepping:

Step 1: Soak Basmati Rice for atleast 1hr.
Step 2: Cut onions(half long sliced and half into dices), green chilly, tomato and veggies if you are using them.
Step 3: Clean mushrooms and cut them as you like.

Step 4: Boil rice till its 3/4 cooked. Keep aside.
Step 5: Heat oil in a pan and fry long slices onions till they are golden brown. Roast cashews as well and keep aside. 

Step 6: Boil veggies if you are using them in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles. You can microwave them as well. See my microwaved carrots and beans. 

Step 7: Preparing the gravy

• Heat oil in the same pan used to fry onions and when the oil becomes hot, add the onions cut into dices. Fry till they are brown.

• Add ginger garlic paste. Fry for 2 min.

• Add green chillies and fry for a min.
• Add Tomatoes and fry till they are mushy. ( I forgot and added the spices first) 
• Add turmeric, chilly powder and garam masala. Mix well.

• Add few coriander and mint leaves. 

• Add mushrooms and stir well. Cover and cook for 3 min. 

• Add the veggies now if you are using them along with salt and mix well.

• Add curd and mix well. Switch off. The gravy should be of thick consistency. 

Method of Preparing:

Step 1: 

Grease the bottom of a pressure cooker with oil or ghee. Add one layer of the 3/4 cooked rice. 

Step 2:

Now add half of the golden brown long sliced onions and cashews. 

Step 3:

Add the gravy on top of onions and cashews. 

Step 4:

Add the remaining rice. 

Step 5:

Now add the remaining half of the golden brown long sliced onions and cashews on top of the rice. 

Step 6:

Sprinkle some water on top of the rice and cover and cook with whistle for 5 - 8 min. Switch off after 5 - 8 min and open after half an hour and serve with Raitha.