Baby Potato Biryani

I love baby potato and I love biryani, so pairing these two is like a match made in heaven ;). In my initial cooking days, most of my one pot meals used to pretty much taste the same, maybe just a little change in flavor, veggies etc but nothing too drastically. I am very pleased with my variety rice trials off-late as no two of them taste the same.

This baby potato biryani is quite an elaborate procedure, but don't get thrown away by it, because its absolutely worth it for a weekend lunch and would completely put you in good spirits afterwards. So go ahead, do it and let me know how you liked it :).

Ingredients

Recipe Source - Easy Cooking

Serves - 2
Spice Level - High
Prep Time - 45 minutes
Cook time - 15 minutes

For the Rice
Basmati Rice - 1 cup [heaped]
Ghee - 1 Tsp
Tomato - 2 medium , pureed [3/4 cup]
Salt - 2 tsp

Paste 1
Coriander leaves - 1 cup loosely packed
Curd - 1/4 cup

Paste 2
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 2
Grated dry coconut -  2 tbsp
Green chillies - 2
Fresh Ginger - 1 inch piece
Oil - 1/2 tsp

Other spices and necessary items
Onion - 2, sliced thinly
Baby Potato - 200 gm [ 13-15 nos.]
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Chopped coriander leaves - for garnish
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Chilli powder - 1/2 Tsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - as per need
Oil - 2 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp

How do you do it

1. Preparing the rice - Soak basmati rice in water for 15 minutes. Drain and cook it in 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup tomato puree with 2 tsp salt. I use my electric pressure cooker and cooked it for 12 minutes. Once done, you will get a mildly red colored rice, add a tsp of ghee mix well with a spoon and spread on a plate.

2. Preparing Paste 1 - Blend coriander leaves with some water into a smooth puree. Beat the 1/4 cup curd well and mix it with this coriander puree. Keep aside.

3. Preparing Paste 2 - Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a kadai. Add coriander seeds,red chillies and fry until they change their color. Add grated coconut and fry slightly. Cool these ingredients and grind along with green chillies and chopped ginger with some water to a fine paste. Keep aside.

4. Preparing the baby potatoes - Wash and Pressure cook the baby potatoes for 1 whistle or microwave for 5 minutes. Cool and peel them. The baby potatoes should be cooked but firm. It should not get mashed when finally added to rice. Add 2 Tbsp of oil in a pan and add the baby potatoes , 1/2 Tsp salt, 1/2 Tsp chilli powder, a pinch of turmeric and saute/shallow fry them until they form a crispy golden outer layer. Drain on tissue paper and keep aside.

5. Preparing the crispy onions - In the remaining oil from previous step, add the onions and keep sauteing them in medium heat until they are crispy and brown in color. Remove and keep aside.

6. Assembling the rice - Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wide kadai. Add the ground paste 2 and saute till the raw smell completely vanishes - about 4-5 minutes.Add the baby potatoes and half of the fried onions and mix well until they are coated well with the masala. Simmer flame, add paste 1, cooked rice , mix well and close the kadai with a lid. Let it cook like this for 5-6 minutes giving a dum to the rice to take in all the flavors. Remove the lid, add garam masala powder and more salt if needed and mix well and switch off the flame.

In the serving bowl, add the prepared biryani, mix in the lemon juice well and top with remaining fried onions and coriander leaves. Serve with onion raitha and your favorite chilled drink. Heaven ! :)

Notes

The red chillies that I got this time around seem to be super spicy, and for me 2 red + 2 green chilli seemed perfect. This recipe leans towards the more spicy side, if you like it to be less hot, use 1 red chilli instead of two.

Make sure you cook the rice perfectly, it should not stick to each other. The ratio that works for basmathi rice is 1 cup rice for 1.5 cups of water. Once the rice is cooked, remove the cooker lid to let the steam out, after a couple of minutes trasnfer the rice on to a plate, spread and mix well. If you leave the rice in the rice cooker vessel , it will clog and will take ages to separate later.



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