Coimbatore to Srinagar - Seventh Stop - Jaipur - Rajathani Layered Veg Biryani - Jodhpuri Kabuli Recipe

The next stop on the virtual journey was in the beautiful city of Jaipur. Rajasthan - the culture, the foods, the architecture, the harsh conditions in which people live all make the place utterly fascinating. I am so glad that DH set out on this journey. The Indian culinary portfolio is so vast that is almost impossible to cover everything in one life time.

While I have barely scratched the surface of Kongu Foods and Tamilnadu foods so it is absolutely impossible to travel around India and even begin to master the recipes from the rest of India. But I think we are fortunate to have this array of delicacies - from the rustic to the sophisticated to enjoy from various parts of India.

The ingredients are all familiar but the manner in which they are combined and cooked is what makes them specialities of a region. Take this recipe for example, all familiar ingredients but the way it is put together is very different making it familiar but yet different tasting.

DH cooked the dish from this blog VegeCravings here. The recipe consists of cooking the rice, shallow frying the vegetables followed by cooking them in a yogurt based gravy and then layering and cooking it. Makes it a meal fit for the maharajahs :)

Recipe in pictures,

Vegetables that are used in the recipe.
Spices and shallow frying the vegetables.
Steam the rice and complete the shallow frying of the vegetables.
Steam the rice and complete the shallow frying of the vegetables.
Prepare the gravy for the vegetables and start layering.
Finish the layering.

There are several different steps to making this recipe, some of these can be done side by side. Although the ingredient list looks very elaborate, it is fairly straight forward.

Rajasthani Layered Veg Biryani
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients

1. 2 cups of rice
2. 1 cup of yogurt
3. 1 cup of sliced onions
4. 1/2 cup of tomatoes
5. 4 garlic cloves
6. 2 inch piece of ginger
7. 2-3 green chilies
8. salt to taste
9. 2-3 tbsp of oil
10. 2 tbsp ghee
11. 2 potatoes
12. 2-3 carrots
13. 1/2 medium cauliflower
14. 1/2 cup of peas
15. 2 slices of bread - diced into cubes
16. 1/4 cup of cashews
17. seasonings: bay leaves and 1 tsp cumin seeds
Whole Spices
18. 1 tsp pepper corns
19. 2-3 cardamoms
20. 3-4 cloves
21. a small 1 inch piece of cinnamon
Spice Powders
22. 1 tsp of turmeric powder
23. 2 tsp coriander powder
24. 2 tsp red chili powder

Method

1. Wash and cook the rice till it is almost cooked, fluff it up and set it aside.
2. Cut and prepare the vegetables, slice the potatoes into rounds, dice the carrots and chop the cauliflower.
3. Slice the onions, peel and mince the ginger, garlic and green chilies.
4. Coarsely grind the whole spices and set aside.
5. Heat a pan with the ghee and roast the cashews and set aside.
6. Add a bit of oil to the ghee, roast the potatoes till it starts to turn brown and set aside. (control the instinct to eat all the roasted potatoes)
7. Add the diced carrots and roast them and set aside, followed by the cauliflower, roast it and set aside.
8. Add the diced bread and roast it and set aside.
9. In the same pan add the bay leaves, cumin seeds and when browned add the onions and saute till they are browned.
10. Add the minced ginger, garlic and green chilies and saute them for 2-3 minutes.
11. Add the spice powders,salt and the coarsely ground spices and mix it well.
12. Add the whisked yogurt and add it to the spices and mix it well.
13. Add the roasted vegetables and mix it into the yogurt sauce. Cook for 2-3 minutes and set aside.
14. Now on to layering the dish,
15. Add a layer of cooked rice to a baked dish, followed by a layer of the yogurt gravy with vegetables.
16. Add another layer of rice and gravy. Now top the gravy with coriander leaves, choppe onions, tomatoes and cashews.
17. Preheat the oven to 325F, and bake for about 10 minutes till heated through.
Mix and serve.

A fantasitc dish if you ask me. Serve with some raita. Like what you are reading? Subscribe!