So, its a day of Triple Lockdown and turns out there was some cooked Basmati Rice leftover at home and my mom and I were thinking of how to use it… I found that we have some eggs as well in the fridge and I thought of reviving some of my cooking skills and make an Egg Biriyani out of it… Of-course recipe based on the Chicken Biriyani that I have made before and let me make is absolutely clear that this is not your “authentic” dum biriyani recipe but rather a quick and easy one that I improvised myself thru trial and error that I believe anyone can use 🙂
So, heres the recipe… As Marco Pierre White says, the recipe is just a guideline (especially when accurate measurements are not available ??)… Feel free to tweak it to your liking… 🙂
Ingredients
- Boiled Eggs: 4 nos (sliced into two – optional)
- Cooked Basmati Rice: 2-3 Soup Bowls full approx
- Chopped Onions: 2 cups
- Sliced Onions: 3/4 cup
- Chopped Tomato: 1 cup
- Chopped Vegetables: 2 cups (Carrots + Beans + Cabbage) approx
- Chopped Green Chillies: 4-5 chillies (to taste)
- Crushed Black Pepper: 1 tsp (I used my pepper mill)
- Cashews and Raisins: A handful each approx
- Fresh Mint Leaves: 3-4 sprigs (to taste)
- Biriyani Masala Powder: 1/2 tsp (or 1 tsp if your biriyani masala is mild flavoured)
- Chicken Curry Masala Powder: 1/4 tsp (or 1/2 tsp if yours is mild flavoured)
- Ginger-Garlic Paste: 1 tbsp approx
- Fresh Yogurt: 1/3 cup approx
- Lemon Juice: 1/2 tsp (to taste)
- Ghee: 1/4 cup (to taste)
- Saffron Spice Drops: 2-3 drops
- Salt: To taste
Procedure
- Heat the Ghee in a big enough kadai and fry the Cashews, Raisins and the Sliced Onions till they are caramelised and brown and keep aside…
- In the same Ghee or add more if needed add the chopped onions and tomatoes along with a pinch of salt and fry them till the onions become golden brown…
- Add the vegetables, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, black pepper and the mint leaves and sauté them for a bit…
- Add both the masala powders and as soon as the raw smell of the masala fades away, add the yogurt and lemon juice and mix well to form the masala base…
- Check the taste of the masala and add more salt, lemon juice, ghee, etc if needed and mix well…
- Add the eggs and the saffron drops and mix well till everything gets cooked… You can eat this on its own as a delicious and rich Egg Roast / Masala or with plane rice but I recommend going further to make the biriyani 🙂
- At this point, reduce the heat to low and add the cooked rice and mix the whole thing well while being careful not to damage the eggs…
- Once mixed, cover the pot and let it simmer for about 3-4 mins (you don’t need much time cause everything is already cooked and we just need the flavours / fragrances to mix and for the whole thing to settle down with the masala reduced)…
- The Biriyani is done and can be transferred to the serving dish of your choice and then can be garnished with the fried cashews, raisins and onions that was kept aside in step 1 along with some fresh mint leaves as shown in the pics below…
Thats it – a nice Egg Biriyani that can be shared by 2-3 people at most… It can be served with a raita and/or pickle of your choice… Here, I had a raita made with onions, tomatoes and green chillies and the pickle was the Sweet Lime pickle I had bought from Square One Homemade Treats that I always find to be a great accompaniment to Biriyanis…
So, that was the attempt… One ingredient I wish I had when doing this was fresh Coriander Leaves which unfortunately, I didn’t have… Hopefully, I’ll be able to have that when trying this next time… It has been a very long time since I made a Biriyani myself and to be frank, I felt that it turned out to be better than what I expected… Feel free to try the same…
