Introduction – About this Recipe

One of the most popular Biryani recipes, Hyderabadi Dum Biryani is a dish from down the south but spread all across the country and even abroad. Biryani is an everlasting relic of the Mughal era that continues to live and breathe in innumerable restaurants and kitchens across the globe. This biryani is an authentic Indian recipe packed full of your favorite rice, veggies, spices, and aromatic saffron mixture. I must warn you tho… It’s a pretty time-consuming recipe but the aroma & burst of flavor in this dish are well worth the time and effort spent in the kitchen. My husband makes the best biryani and I have seen him cook the biryani with lots of love. This recipe is usually made by my husband, I only help him with the pre-prep work. He just loves cooking this recipe like on a weekend or when friends are going to come over for a house party. So Cook it at home to make a mark at your dinner party!

Equipment’s:

• Colander
• Deep Stockpot

Ingredients:

Pre Prep Procedure:

1. Parboiled rice: In a large stockpot put about 3-5 liters of water for boiling. Add half piece of cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, and 1-star anise to the stockpot. Once the water reaches a roaring boil add 1 cup of Long Grain Basmati Rice and put the flame on low. We will not be completely cooking the rice, it should be parboiled(semi-cooked). In 5-7 mins the rice should be parboiled. Strain the rice in a colander but do not discard the water. Cool the parboiled rice under some cold running water and then spread them out on a large surface to let them dry out for about 1 hour.
2. Saffron: Soak a pinch of saffron in 3-4 tbsp of warm water and let it rest for 1 hour.
3. Boiling Potatoes & Spinach: In the same water that we saved earlier we shall put it on high flame to reach a roaring boil again. If you remember we had flavored the water with spices like cinnamon, cloves, and star anise; remove them from the rice made earlier and add them back to the same stockpot. Once the water reaches a nice roaring boil add peeled whole potatoes and spinach to the stockpot and lower the flame to medium-low. In 5 mins the spinach will be ready. Strain the spinach out and let the potatoes cook in that stock for another 10 mins. Once cooked let the potatoes cool and then cut them into thick slices. (Again Do not Discard the Water – That’s the flavor you don’t want to lose).
4. Frying Onions: Peel and slice about 7 large onions as thin as you can. Now heat some oil in a wok for deep frying these onions. I would say about 250-300ml of oil should be sufficient for frying them. On medium-low flame fry the onions till they look dark golden to almost brown color. This kind of frying the onions will caramelize the onions and give a good depth to the overall flavor of the biryani. (It takes up to 15-20mins for onions to become golden-brown) When it’s done and remove them on tissue paper so that all the excess oil gets soaked by the tissue. Don’t worry if the onions are too soft, once it cools down it will become hard.
5. Food Processor: In the Mixture Grinder jar, add the boiled spinach, 5 green onions with leaves, and 100gms of coriander. Blend it into a fine paste.
6. Veggie Cutting: Cut 1 onion, 1 tomato, 100gms carrot, 100gms french beans, 100gms capsicum, and 100gms cauliflower into equal sizes.
7. Garnishing: Separately take 3 green onions leaves, 150gms of coriander, and 100gms of mint leaves(Pudina) and finely chop all these 3 ingredients. Take 3 tomatoes and cut them into large round medium-thick slices.

Step By Step Procedure:

1. The Gravy: In a kadhai, heat ghee, add Caraway Seeds(Shahjeera), Cloves(laung), Cinnamon stick(Dalchini), Pepper(Kali Mirch), Cardamom(Elaichi), Bay leaf(Tej Patta), and Star anise(Chakra Phool) in it. Let it sauté for 1 min. Now add salt, sugar, garlic paste, and green chilly ginger paste and mix it well. Once Mixed well add all the chopped vegetables we kept ready during pre-prep (Onion, tomato, carrots, french beans, capsicum & cauliflower). Sauté for 5 mins. Now add all of the spinach, onion, and coriander paste we made. Mix well and let it cook for another 5 mins on medium flame. Keep stirring the gravy mix now and then. After 5 mins switch off the flame and keep it aside to cool.
2. Smoking the Rice (Dum Pukht): This is the most important part. In a large wok or any vessel with a good surface area spread all the parboiled rice evenly leaving a small gap in the center. Make sure you have something to completely cover this vessel, to make sure smoke does not escape. Now heat a medium piece of natural charcoal, make sure it becomes red hot. Take a small-sized cup or any kind of metal saucer which is small enough to fit in the center of the rice but large enough to place the charcoal on it. Now using some tongs take the red hot charcoal and place it in the metal saucer you kept in the center of the rice. Keep the lid ready in one hand with you, the other hand take a teaspoon of ghee and pour it over the charcoal, you will see that the coal immediately starts smoking. Wasting no time here take the lid and close it trying to make the best seal possible so that the smoke stays inside the vessel and does not escape. The rice sits there and absorbs all that beautiful smoke for at least 15 minutes. No Peaking!
3. Flavoring Rice: This is the easy part we shall divide this into 2 other parts for easy understanding. After the smoking process is done, Equally divide the rice into 2 parts:
   1. Green Rice: In a mixing bowl, take 1 part of the cooked smoked rice and simply mix it well with the gravy we made earlier. Just make sure you do the mixing gently so that the rice grain does not break. Also, the gravy must be cool to touch, do not mix hot gravy with rice. Green rice is ready, keep it aside.
   2. Saffron Rice: In another mixing bowl, Take the 2nd part of rice we divided earlier and add saffron water with the saffron strands. Mix it well. Now the rice will look beautiful yellow and you can already smell the fragrance of saffron. Once saffron is properly mixed and well incorporated in the rice add 50% of the coriander green onion and mint leaves mixture and 50% of fried onions that we made earlier. Toss it well again making sure to do it gently to not break the long grain of basmati rice. Saffron rice is ready, keep it aside.
4. Layering: This is the fun part and will be something the kids would love to do.
   1. Coat the bottom and sides of the cooking pot with some ghee, Add the sliced thick-cut potatoes.
   2. Add the Green Rice. Do not push or press the rice at all. You should just gently spoon the rice mixture in the pot and avoid compaction at all costs.
   3. Add the Saffron Rice and gently smoothen the surface.
   4. Take the sliced tomatoes and spread them over the saffron rice.
   5. Add all the garnishing on top.
5. Cooking: Close the lid and place the pot over a low flame and allow it to cook for about 20 mins. Remember to have your pot well sealed from the top so that the steam will not escape and that steam will evenly cook the parboiled rice to perfection. After 20 mins Switch off the flame and allow the biryani to rest for 5-10 mins before opening the lid. After opening the lid immediately your entire house will be filled with an amazingly wonderful aroma. There you go it is ready! Enjoy!

Serving & Plating:

Hyderabadi Dum Biryani should be served from the cooking pot in such a way that all layers are plated well while serving. Ideally, the entire cooking pot should be served on the dining table.

Accompaniments:

Hyderabadi Dum Biryani is a dish that needs nothing else but a plate and spoon. It also goes well with some Sliced Onions, Plain Yogurt, Raita of your choice, Pickle, Papad, Chaas, or a squeeze of lime for some added freshness.

Key Pointers:

• Make sure the rice is not completely cooked during the pre-prep phase.
• If you have a small kitchen then it is ideal to do the smoking process outdoors or someplace with good ventilation.
• The bottom layer of potato is added so that rice does not get overcooked and charred at the bottom.
• PRO TIP: After finishing the biryani from the pot, the bottom-most layer of potato would be flavorful and crispy. Make sure to serve the crispy bits to serve along with the biryani.

Storing:

Leftovers can be refrigerated for about 1-2 days in any container with a lid. It need not be an airtight container. I usually prefer a microwave-safe container (for easy reheating). Ideally, this is a dish that should be eaten as fresh as possible. After a day you will find that the flavor of the biryani is changing.

Reheating:

Thaw for 10-15 mins or when it comes to room temperature. Once thawed, microwave for 2-3 mins with lid. (Sprinkling little water will help to keep it moist, as refrigeration and reheating tend to dry up food). If you don’t have a microwave, you can reheat it in a steamer for 15 mins or a nonstick pan for 5 mins. Remember the rice in the biryani is already very well cooked, so while reheating if your temperature is too high then the biryani will lose some texture and can even become soggy. By all means, try to avoid reheating more than once.

Nutrition Facts:

Resources:

Dum Pukht

Stockpot

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