Tilapia Biryani

Ingredients:-(Serves: 4, Preparation time: 2hrs)


Tilapia fillet- 6


To marinate:( half an hr)


Turmeric-3/4 tspn
Pepper- 1 tspn
Salt- 3/4 tspn
Ginger garlic- 1tspn
Green chillis-3 pasted with ginger garlic
Lemon juice- 1 tspn
Ghee for frying fish 4 tblspn( i suggest ghee because you can use this while DUM)




For rice:(45min)
 Basmati rice- 4 cups
 Water to soak
 Water to cook- 10 cups
 Salt- 1 tspn
 Bay leaves- 2
 Cloves- 5
 Cardomom-4
 Cinnamon stick- 2 inch long
 Mace- 4 leaves
( If you do not have these spices u can substitute with a tablespoon of garam masala powder.)


For masala:(15 min)
Ghee- 1 tblspn
Onions sliced- 2
Greenchilli sliced diagonally- 4 medium sized
Ground fennels seeds- 1 tspn
Ginger garlic paste- 1 tspn
Tomato- 3
Turmeric pwdr- half tspn
Garam masala-1 1/2 tspn
Coriander powder- 1 tspn
Coriander leaves chopped- 2+3 tblspn


Garnishing:
Onions thinly sliced-2 small
Salt-1/2 tspn
Sugar- 1/2 tspn
Ghee- 3 tspn heaped
Garam masala- 1/2 tspn
Saffron one pinch soaked in half cup milk




Procedure:-

• First of all Marinate the fish for 45 min .For that blend in  turmeric, pepper, salt, ginger garlic paste and greenchilli in the blender with some lemon juice. And apply the paste over the fish with hand. Set aside.
•  Next soak the rice in water for half an hr.
• (This step ll take almost half an hr or more.And this time is good enough for the fish to marinate and soak the rice)( pls note that your stove heat should be adjusted to the medium  low in this step.) (This needs special attention. But u can go for cutting the vegetables meanwhile and not cooking something else simultaneously.)
• After slicing the 2 onions( for garnishing) 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.
• ( After 15 min while doing this u can step off the stove for 2 min to take some water in a deep vessel to cook the rice.  Bring the 10 cups of water to boil in a deep thick bottomed vessel with salt, cloves, cardomom, cinnamon, mace,& bay leaves  in it.)
• And go  frying the onions while the water is getting boiled .After 15 min u can slightly increase the flame for onions to get brown, but not too high. May be at medium.Then fry the cashews and raisins in the leftover ghee.
•  Now lets cook the rice. Add the rice and boil it untill cooked and drain the excess water using a colander. ( dont wash the vessel in which u cooked the rice. Save it for final dum)*(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. You are always near the stove and just keep an eye on it. That is all you have to do).*
• Next is to fry the fish. Take the shallow pan in which you prepared the fried onions. If u have the left-over ghee its ok. Add little more ghee /oil into it. And spread the fish over the pan to fit in the maximum space. Flame should me at medium. After frying, place it over a tissue to remove the excess  oil.
• Now if u have too much left-over oil pour it into a small cup. And take 1 tblspn in the same pan.
• Now saute the onions, green chillis and fennel seeds in this ghee until it becomes transparent at medium flame. 
• After it is cooked and soft, add the ginger garlic paste and increase the flame to high and fry for 2 min. This enables to cook the ginger-garlic . Add tomato and turmeric, garam masala, and coriander pwdr and 2 spoons coriander leaves and cook for another 10 min at medium flame with the lid on.  Switch off the stove.
• Next is dum.
• Before that toss the  caramelized onions with garam masala.
• Layer the rice at the bottom of the thick bottomed pan in which u had cooked the rice.  Then sprinkle some one spoon coriander leaves chopped and fried brown onions. Then drop some ghee, say about half to one tspn. Then layer 2 fried fish fillet. Spread the masala over.  Then again rice over it and so on until u get rice on the top. Finally on top garnish with onions,cashews and raisins.
• 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 with Salad(Kheer), pickle and thick coconut chutney.

BON APETITE:)