biriyani variety Archives - MyEdibleCravings

Coimbatore is a southern city in my home state of Tamilnadu. It is popularly known as Manchester of the south due to its textile industry. When you think of Coimbatore, the first that comes to your mind is the lilting Tamil (Kongu Tamil) accent spoken by the people there. I have had the fortune to hear that from friends at college. Thanks dears. Since mine is a food blog and I do know of a popular dish from Coimbatore, I would like to share that here. The dish is the famous Coimbatore Anganan Biriyani.Anganan Briyani is a very light biriyani in the sense that you won’t feel that usual heaviness that you have after eating biriyani. That is because of the less masala that you use in this variety. I have never had Anganan Biriyani back in India but seems that my HB had had (of course he did since it is ‘BIRIYANI’ ;)) It has been a while since I had made this variety of Biryani. I was going through my recipe collection the other day and came across it and here I am posting the recipe. The recipe below is for chicken biriyani and you can modify it other types like mutton or fish as desired.Try this Coimbatore specialty Anganan Biriyani at your home and experience the lightness that I talked about earlier. And yes, my HB did say that my version of Anganan biriyani tasted similar to the original! As always share your comments and experience below. Now, I am off to make Anganan Biriyani and until then, ciao 🙂

Anganan Biriyani

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 3 or 4

Ingredients

To grind and marinate:

Shallots – 6 nos
Green chillies – 4 nos
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Cinnamon stick – 1”
Cardamom – 2 nos
Cloves – 3 nos
Mace or javetri – ½
Star anise – 1 no
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Yogurt – 2 tbsp

Other ingredients:

Oil – 3 to 4 tbsp
Cinnamon stick – 1”
Cardamom – 2 nos
Cloves -2 nos
Green chillies, slits – 5 nos
Mint, finely chopped – 1 cup
Onion, big, slits – 1 no
Chicken – 750 grams
Salt as required
Water – 3 cups (1:1/2 ratio, for 1 cup of rice add 1½ cups of water)
Seeraga samba rice – 2 cups (I used basmati)

Instructions

Wash and soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. Drain and save the water.
Grind all the given ingredients under ‘to grind’ and make a fine paste – marinade.
Make few deep slits until the bone on either side of the chicken and marinate with the above paste.
Heat a pressure cooker with enough oil. Add in the whole garam masalas and allow them to sizzle. Add green chillies, mint and onions. Sauté until the onions turn translucent.
Add the marinated chicken. Stir to mix and sauté for a couple of minutes.
Add enough salt and water. Cook for 15 minutes until the chicken is ¾th cooked.
Check for saltiness and add the rice, carefully mixing it and bring it to boil. When the water is ¾th absorbed or you see the rice on top, lower the flame and garnish with chopped cilantro and ghee.
Close the lid and dum cook (without whistle) for 10 minutes and switch off the flame. After 10 minutes, serve it hot with any raitha and gravy on the side. Enjoy! 

Notes

You don’t have to soak samba rice in water before you cook. And here the water ratio is 1:2, i.e for 1 cup of rice add 2 cups of water.

Biriyani in general is a wonderful dish and is one of the most famous dishes from India. As many of you know, there are many varieties of biriyani like thalappakatti, anjappar, mughalai, hyderabadi, ambur etc. Today I have given you the recipe of a biriyani variety from Kerala called as the Thalasseri biriyani.

There is a story behind me making Thalasseri biriyani. To be frank, I had not even thought about this variety. When we went for Indian grocery shopping recently, I came across a rice variety called the Kalajeera rice. It closely resembled Seeraga Sambha rice variety from my state in India, Tamilnadu. Biriyani prepared in Tamilnadu use this rice variety and it literally adds an amazing taste to biriyani. So when I saw this rice variety I assumed kalajeera must be the name of Seeraga Sambha in Kerala and I was eager to try it out. But when I open the rice bag, I did not smell that distinct aroma that emanates from Seeraga Sambha rice and realized that I made a mistake. Still I did not want to waste a bag of rice just because it was not the variety that I want. Then I came across Thalasseri biriyani recipe. It is a very popular biriyani variety in Kerala and kalajeera rice is used to prepare it.

Thalasseri biriyani is a little bit similar to Hyderabadi biriyani except that we use tomatoes here. Also, if making a chicken variant of this biriyani, we need to cook the chicken first in tomato based gravy and then use that gravy with chicken to do the layering. Don’t get anxious by the number of steps given below; it is easy to prepare Thalasseri biriyani.

Thalasseri Biriyani

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

To marinate :

Chicken - 500 grams or ½ kg
Red chilli powder – 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp (optional)

To make rice:

Ghee – 2 tbsp
Bay leaf – 1 no
Cloves - 3 nos
Cinnamon – 1”
Cardamom – 2 nos
Fennel seeds – ¼ tsp
Onion, big, sliced – 1 no
Kala jeera rice or Basmati rice – 1½ cups (soaked in water for 20 minutes)
Water – 2 ¼ cup ( 1 : 1 ½ )
Salt as required

To make gravy:

Ghee – 2 tbsp
Onion, big, sliced – 1 no
Green chillies, slits – 4 nos
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Tomato, big, chopped – 1 ½ nos (if medium – 2 nos)
Cilantro & mint leaves, chopped – a handful
Garam masala – ½ tbsp
Sakthi biriyani masala – ½ tbsp (optional)
Yogurt – 2 to 3 tbsp
Salt as required
Fried chicken

For the toppings:

Cilantro, finely chopped – 1 to 2 tbsp
Onions, medium, sliced, deep fried – ½ to 1 no
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Garam masala – a generous pinch
Saffron, soaked in warm milk – a pinch
Food color – a pinch (optional)

Instructions

Step 1:

Make a paste of the given ingredients ‘to marinate’. - Try to extract excess water in ginger garlic paste before adding to the marinated paste. Marinate the chicken with the paste and leave it for at least an hour.
Heat enough oil in a deep flat pan and shallow fry the marinated chicken.

Step 2:

Heat ghee in a deep flat sauce pan (which has a tight lid) and all the whole garam masalas (bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and fennel seeds).
When they start to sizzle, add sliced onions and sauté well. Cook until the onion turns slight brown.
Add the rice, enough water and salt. Close the lid, simmer and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the rice is ¾ th done – do not add excess water in this stage, or else you will not get the right texture.
When the rice is done, transfer them carefully to another container and keep it aside.

Step 3:

Heat ghee in the same thick bottomed sauce pan (which you used to cook rice), add onions and sauté well. When the onions turn translucent, add ginger garlic paste and cook until the raw smell disappears. Add green chilli slits and stir well.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they turn mushy.
When the tomatoes are well cooked, add freshly chopped coriander and mint leaves.
Add yogurt, garam masala powder, biriyani masala and salt. Stir well and finally add the chicken. Mix well, cover and cook for another five minutes until the gravy is well blended with the chicken and forms the semi gravy.
Check salt and switch off the flame.

Step 4:

Heat a dosa pan and keep it ready.
Meanwhile layer the cooked rice on top of the gravy.
Sprinkle the freshly chopped cilantro and lemon juice on top.
Layer the remaining rice and sprinkle the remaining cilantro, garam masala(optional), fried onions, saffron milk and food color.
Cover the lid- the lid has to be really tight.
Place the sauce pan on top of the dosa pan, simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Notes

1. I used the same sauce pan to cook the rice (step 2) as well as to make gravy (step 3) and to dum the biriyani (step 4) as my pan was very thick. You could also cook the rice in pressure cooker. But make sure the rice is ¾th cooked.
2. Try not to use store bought fried onions instead deep fry the onions at home. This will enhance the flavor to the biriyani.