MUSHROOM BRIYANI

Mushrooms - I have never tried or tasted mushrooms before my marriage. But Mr.Husband loves them and Mushroom Briyani is one of his favorite. Recently, I wanted to make a quick one pot meal for the family on a lazy Sunday morning. And I knew I had some mushrooms. This is a very easy method of doing the Mushroom Briyani. There could be a lot of variations with this dish but I kept it as simple as possible.

You can even do this on a working day if you are in a hurry for your work. I usually keep a paste of Mint+Coriander+chili in my freezer. I have used it on my recipe here. All you need to do is take equal quantities of Coriander leaves and Mint leaves, and add some green chilies (depending on your taste) to it. Grind them nicely in a mixer and put it in the ice cube trays in your freezer. Thats it you can freeze them and use it for 3 months. I use this mixture for a variety of dishes - right from Sandwiches, Oats to Briyani or curries which need mint. Just  defreeze them in the microwave and you have the paste. I have used a cube in my Briyani here.

Time to make: 40 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 1 cup (my cup measurement shows 250ml, so 250ml of rice taken)

Mint-coriander- chili paste - 1 cube (2 tbsp)

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Onions sliced- 1 big

Tomato - 1

Mushrooms: 200 g

Green chili - 1

Cashews - 5-6

Red chili powder - 1 tbsp

Garam masala - 1 tsp

salt - as per taste

Cinnamon - size of cashew

Coriander leaves - as per taste

Curd - 5-6 tbsp

Bay leaf - 1

Cardamom - 3

Clove - 3

Butter - 1 tbsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

How to do:

1. First wash the rice and keep it aside with 2 cups of water (2 times the rice taken). In a mixer, put in the tomatoes, mint-coriander-chili cube, cashews, 1 clove, 1 cardamom, green chili and blend together.

2. Wash the mushrooms and put them in boiling water for 2 minutes. Take them out and show it in cold water. You may skip this step and directly put it in the Briyani as well once washed.

3.Heat a pressure cooker and add in the oil+butter. 

4. Add in the bay leaf, cardamom, clove and cinnamon once the oil is heated.

5. Add in the onions and fry till translucent.

6. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the smell goes off for 30 seconds.

7. Next, add the mixed masala, Saute it for 2-3 minutes

8. Add in the Red chili masala and garam masala. Mix well. 

9. Add the mushrooms and mix it well with the masala. Add salt for taste.

10. Finally add the curd to the masala and give it a quick stir. Put the rice and water. Mix well but make sure not to stir very hard and break the rice grains.

11. Cook the rice for 2 whistles. You may add some coriander leaves once the rice is ready.

Your Mushroom Briyani is ready to be served. I served it with some red cabbage-onion raita. I wanted something crunchy and red cabbage served it perfect for this raita. Perfect one pot meal.

Note: 

* You may use any kind of rice but I prefer to use Basmathi rice.

* You may add more chili powder as per your taste to make it more spicy. Just taste it before you put the cooker whistle to cook the rice.