Vegetable Dum Biriyani

Ingredients
Basmathi Rice - 1 cup (250 ml cup)
Water - 1 cup
Onion - 2
Tomato - 2
Green  chilly - 2
Home made chilly powder - 1 tblsp
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tblsp
Mint leaves - fist full
Coriander leaves - fist full
Carrot - 1
Potato - 1
Peas - 1/2 cup
Oil - 3 tblsp
Bay leaf - 1
Cloves - 2
Pattai  - 1 inch piece
Elachi - 1
Curd - 3 tblsp
Salt


Preparation
1. Cut onion and tomato to thin slices length wise.Slit green chilly. Finely chop mint and coriander leaves. Cut carrot and potato to cubes. Place potato in water or cut just before adding to biriyani.
2. Soak rice in water for 30 min and pressure cook for 1 whistle with 1 cup of water and salt. Add salt for rice alone.
3. Soak peas in water for overnight. Remove water and then pressure cook for 3 whistle.
4. Heat oil in heavy bottom pan and temper with pattai, elachi, cloves and bay leaves. Add green chilly and onion. Fry onion until brown and then add ginger garlic paste. Fry until raw smell goes off. Add tomato and fry until mushy. Add mint and coriander leaves. Fry until leaves shrinks. Add chilly powder and curd. Mix well. Add peas, carrot and potato. Cook in slow flame for 10 min or until all blends well and oil separates.Add salt for gravy alone.
5. Remove half gravy and set aside. Spread half of the cooked basmathi rice over gravy in heavy bottom pan. Then spread the reserved gravy over rice. Again spread the remaining rice over gravy. Basically we are layering the gravy and rice in the pan.
6. Now place a fry pan on stove and fill half with water. Place your heavy bottom pan with layered rice and gravy on fry pan. Close the rice pan with plate and over it keep any vessel with hot water or hot content in it. I used the pressure pan I used to cook the basmathi rice. keep flame in low and cook for 30 min to 40 min. Switch off and keep it for 5 more min and then open. Mix well. Serve hot !

Note
1. Instead of pressure cook the basmathi rice you can also do boiling method. Boil water and then add rice and cook until 90% done. Add salt. Take out rice and then use for layering.
2. You can also add other veggies like beans, cauliflower etc.

Cooking Tips II

Tips
1. Never skip ingredients like jeera, sombu, garlic, ginger and hing. These items are added to nullify gastric troubles.
2. Prefer gingerly oil for spicy recipes and fish recipes.
3. Always prefer hot water to knead chapathi dough.
4. While tempering ensure oil is hot enough so that when you add tempering items it should splutter well. You will hear sound as well as you can smell the nice aroma of the item you temper. Let it be mustard, jeera or sombu , curry leaves .. what ever .. you can hear it and smell it as well. Also make sure you dont burn ingredients while tempering!
5. After kneading dough for chappathi, puri, idiyappam etc. always cover it with wet cloth or just coat with oil to avoid dough outer portion getting dry.
6. Always soak basmathi rice in water before you cook. The ratio of rice is to water depends on how long you soak in water. I always use 1:1.5 if the soak time is 15 min. If more then its always 1:1.
7. While you prepare curd at home do add some tblsp of curd to warm milk (Milk should not be cold or hot!). If we prepare with slightly warm milk then the curd we get is thick and creamy!
8. When you are mixing rice always use wooden spoon or ladle like dosa flipper. So that rice does not breaks much.
9. Place 2 or 3 cloves in sugar bottle to keep ants away from sugar.
10. Before storing dal, flour, rava etc store the packets in fridge (You can use side doors)  for 2 to 3 days. Then unpack and store in air tight containers. You get longer shelf life.
11. Remove stems of green chilly, roots of coriander leaves and stems of curry leaves. Pat dry if there is any wetness. Then store them in fridge. You get longer shelf life.
12. If you want to retain good color of veggies in poriyal then keep pan open and cook. Dont close the pan and cook.
13. For vatha kuzhambu and kara kuzhambu be generous with sesame oil to balance heat. You can also add small piece of jaggary towards end to enhance taste.
14. To pressure cook dal the ratio of dal to water is 1:2. Pressure cook for 3 whistle.
15. For variety rice , after cooking rice spread it over large plate or bowl. Add 1 tblsp of sesame oil. Dont mix while rice is hot. Adding oil helps to keep grains separate.

Kozhi Kari Varuval

Ingredients
Chicken - 500 gms
Onion - 2
Tomato - 2
Ginger garlic paste - 3 tblsp
Home made chilly powder - 2 tblsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Oil - 3 tblsp
Sombu - 1 tsp
Pattai - 1 inch piece
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Salt

Preparation
1. Finely chop onion and tomato. Cut chicken to bite size pieces.
2. Heat oil in pan and temper with sombu, pattai and curry leaves. Add onion and fry until golden brown in color. Add ginger garlic paste and fry until raw smell goes off. Add tomato and fry until it turns mushy. Add chilly powder, turmeric powder and chicken. Mix well. Add 1 cup water and salt. Close pan and cook for 15 min in low to medium flame or until chicken is cooked and oil separates. Serve hot!

Note
You can also add chopped coriander leaves and pepper powder towards end.

Channa dal fry

Ingredients
Channa dal , oil , salt and chilly powder

Preparation
1. Soak channa dal in water for 4 hrs. Remove water and spread over cloth or paper for 1 hr.
2. Heat oil in pan and deep fry dal until bubbles disappear. No need to wait for golden brown color change.
3. Sprinkle chilly powder and salt over fried dal and mix well.

Vazhaikkai Varuval / Raw Banana Fry

Ingredients
Raw banana - 1
Oil - 2 tblsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urud dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Turmeric powder - 1/3 tsp
Hing - generous pinch
Home made chilly powder - 1 tsp heaped
Salt

Preparation
1. Peel skin of raw banana and cut to cubes. Put in water preferably in rice washed water.
2. Heat oil in pan and temper with mustard, urud dal, curry leaves and hing. Add raw banana pieces, turmeric powder, chilly powder and salt. Sprinkle fist full of water.Mix well. Close pan and cook in slow flame for 5 min or until it turns dry. Fry until golden brown and crisp. Serve hot!

Note
You can also cut raw banana to rings instead of cubes. Instead of chilly powder, you can also try with pepper and jeera powder.