Prawn Biryani

Today I wanted to make something, that I had not eaten for a long time. So, I decided to try out making Prawn Biryani.

Prawn biryani is a rich rice dish cooked with fresh prawns and is one of the most popular of all the biryanies.

Prawn or shrimp biryani ...yummy! That's just about it you can say about this dish!! This dish can be made in a jiffy and can still taste heavenly!!! You can make any occasion even more special by serving this one-dish meal. This biryani goes very well with any green salad or any raita. I made pomegranate raita to go with it.

So here goes the recipe:

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Serves : 4

Ingredients :

3 cups of basmati rice = rice cooker cup measure

30 fresh prawns de-veined

3 big onions finely cut lengthwise

2 big tomatoes chopped finely

1 tbsp tomato paste

5 green chillies

1/2 bunch of coriander leaves

1 inch ginger

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp coconut milk

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

2 tbsp of patak's biryani curry paste or

2 tbsp of any biryani masala

5 peppercorns

4 cinnamon sticks

8 cloves

3 black cardamom

3 pods green cardamom

4 bay leaves

salt to taste

2 tbsp ghee

1 tsp sugar

Method:

• Marinate the prawns with turmeric and salt and keep aside
• Make a paste of green chillies, coriander leaves, ginger, garlic, salt, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and coconut milk in the blender
• Bring 2 litres of water to a boil in a vessel. Add the basmati rice, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves and 3 cloves and cook till the rice in done. Strain the water and keep aside.
• Take a non-stick pan. Add some ghee to it. When the ghee starts melting, add 3 cinnamon sticks, 3 cloves, 3 black cardamom, 5 black pepper corns, 3 pods green cardamom, 2 bay leaves and fry it for a minute. Then add the finely cut onions and fry till golden brown.
• While frying the onions, add 1 tsp sugar to it.
• Then add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste and stir well.
• Then add the green chilli and coriander paste and fry for about 5 minutes.
• Then add the biryani curry paste, salt, red chilli powder and mix well. To this add the marinated prawns and cover and cook for 5 minutes.
• Then carefully blend the cooked basmati rice with the above prawn masala.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve hot with any green salad or raita.