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Veg. Biryani

This recipe comes from vahrevah.com with a few modifications.

Soak rice for about half an hour. Soak saffron in water. Chop veggies in big chunks (green beans, carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms. Make chunky chips of the potatoes. Slice onions (horizontally to get fine slices). In a pot, heat oil+ghee, add small ilaichi, big ilaichi, bay leaf, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon (and shahee jeera, which I forgot). Add ginger + garlic paste and add the vegetables. Saute for a long time, till the veggies are slightly underdone, and browned on the outside. Add some green peas right at the end. Then, add turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder and garam masala and saute for a few seconds. Then add salt and yoghurt and cook for a bit. Remove half the vegetables and then add more yoghurt.

In the mean time, in a big pot, boil water with oil, salt, bay leaf, green ilaichi and cloves. Add the rice and cook till slightly underdone, then drain out. Brown onion slices on a slow flame till dark brown in a little bit of oil. Chop nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios, raisin, etc). Finely chop coriander and mint (which I didn't have). Add the saffron to some yogurt and add some rose water to it.

Now, start with the vegetable layer (the one with extra yogurt). Then add the layer of half the rice. Spread the saffron yogurt, sprinkle the nuts, half the brown onions, coriander and mint, Then later the rest of the vegetables, and repeat. Cover and cook on a low flame for about half an hour. Serve hot.

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