Hyderabadi Shrimp Biryani

Before going into the recipe i will make those people convenient who are searching for Hyderabadi chicken biriyani or Hyderabadi Lamb biriyani by telling that you can proceed with the same recipe except the meat you choose.

Ingredients:- for 4 servings(Preparation time : 2hrs)

 Shrimp- 1 pound

For marination:

 Turmeric powder- 1/2 tspn
 Chilli powder- 1 tspn
 Garam masala- 1/2 tspn
 Ginger garlic paste- 1 heaped tspn
 Coriander leaves chopped 3 tbspn
 Mint leaves- 4 leaves
 Salt- 3/4 tspn

For  masala :


 Onions sliced-2
 Tomato- 3
 Green chilli-5 medium sized
 Ghee 4tspn

For rice :
 Basmati Rice- 4cups
 Water- 10cups
 Bay leaves- 2 big
 Cloves- 4
 Ghee-1 tspn
 Salt- 2tspn only( since we drain water doesnt matter if it is excess. )

For garnishing :


 Onions sliced-2
 Garam masala-1 tspn
 Cashews- 10
 Raisins- 15
 Egg-1 or 2
 Saffron one pinch soaked in 1/2 cup milk

Preparation :


 1. Marinate the Shrimp(/meat) with the spice levels stated for about 45 min
 2. Wash the Basmati rice and soak in water for half an hr.
 3.(This step ll take almost half an hr or more.And this time is good enough for the shrimp to marinate and soak the rice)( pls note that your stove heat should be adjusted to the medium  low in this step.)
     After slicing the 2 onions spread it over a tissue or a thin cotton cloth, then wrap it and squeeze lightly so that the moisture is absorbed by the material. Meanwhile heat a wide shallow pan and lets go to the long process of frying onions untill brown and crispy for garnishing.U can do this in one or two batches depending on the size of the pan.
     The secret to get sweet, crispy and easily fried onions is to add about half a tspn of sugar and 2-3 pinches of salt while frying it.
And after that just fry the cashews and raisins in the leftover ghee.
 4. Now lets cook the rice. Bring the 10 cups of water to boil in a deep thick bottomed vessel with salt, cloves, bay leaves & ghee in it. Add the rice and boil it untill cooked and drain the excess water. (I opt this method of draining water rather than adding exact the double amount of  water to the rice because this is more precise to get a fruition of each rice lying separate and looks great. The only difficulty is to check often if its rightly cooked and not overcooked. This doesnt take more than fifteen min. U r always near the stove and just keep an eye on it. That all u have to do).
 5.Now the masala. We may have some left over ghee in the pan after the garnishing step. Cook the onions in this ghee (u can even add more ghee). Its upto u. (Dont burn the onions which will spoil the taste of ur biriyani. So watch the flame is at medium always.)
 Add the tomatoes and the 5 chilli and marinated shrimp(/meat) and cook for about 20 -25 minutes till the shrimp(/meat) is done.

 6. Final step is DUM. This is very important. Level some rice at the bottom of a oven proof dish or a stove top dish . Toss the garam masala with the fried onions. Spread some fried brown onions  and some chopped coriander leaves over the rice. Then drop some ghee, say about half to one tspn. Then level with some shrimp(/meat) masala. Then level with some rice and then onions and coriander and drops of ghee and shrimp masala so on until u get rice on the top. ( U may go through 3 levels.)

And finally u should have the fried onions and drops of ghee and fried cashews and raisins on the top.

 U can add some salted scrambled egg on the top.

 Pour the saffron milk through out the top and close the dish. And bake it for 20 min at 200degree F.(At sim flame for 20 min on stove top)

 Serve hot ..
BON APETITE :)