Fish Biriyani

Here you go with another Biriyani special for this week, yeah its “Fish Biriyani”. It is a combination of spicy Biriyani rice with fried fish. Especially, making of this “Kerala style Fish Biriyani” is a unique process and served better with pickle and pappad (Pappadam). This Biriyani will be tastier when made with King Fish (Nei Meen) or Tilapia (Jilabi). I tried this for the first time and it made a real wonder at “My Kitchen”

Ingredients:

• Fish pieces cut into small pieces – 1.5 Lbs or 1 Kg
• Basmati Rice – 2 cups
• Bay leaves – 3
• Cinnamon -2
• Cloves – 1 Tspn
• Star Anise- 2 Nos
• Cardamom – half Tspn
• Large Onions (Chopped) – 3
• Tomatoes (Chopped)– 2
• Ginger Pieces
• Garlic Pieces
• Green Chillies chopped – 7
• Cashew nuts – one handful
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 tspn
• Raisins – 2 tspn
• Coriander powder – 3 tspn
• Yogurt – 3/4 cup
• Garam Masala powder- 1 tspn
• Kashmiri Chilly powder (optional) or normal chilly powder– 2 tspn
• Mint leaves chopped-1 cup
• Cilantro chopped-1/2 cup
• Salt – to taste
• Oil/ghee – as needed
• Lime Juice- 4 Tspn

To marinade:

• Pepper powder – 1/2 tspn
• Kasmiri Chilly powder or normal chilly powder– 1 tspn
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 tspn
• Salt – to taste

To Grind (As powder without adding water):

• Poppy seeds– 1 tspn
• Fennel seeds 1/2 tspn

Method:
Separate Frying and grinding:

• Clean and soak the rice at least for 20 minutes and set drain.
• Powder the poppy seeds and fennel seeds and keep aside.
• Heat oil/ghee in a separate pan and fry the cashew nuts, raisins and keep aside

Fish Frying:

• Grind all the ingredients for the marinade adding little water and marinate the fish pieces with the grinded ingredient at least for 30 minutes, after 30 minutes fry the marinated fish pieces for shallow fry (with less oil) and keep aside.

Cooking Rice:

• Heat little ghee in a pan and lightly fry the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and bay leaves for few minutes. Now add the drained rice and again fry for few minutes, then add 3 and 3/4 cup of water, salt and lime juice and cook for 2 whistles and keep aside.

For Fish Gravy:

• Add oil in a separate pan fry the onion until translucent, add ginger,garlic and green chillies and saute it .Add coriander ,turmeric, kashmiri chilly powder or normal chilly powder and sauté again. Add grounded poppy seed-fennel seed powder, now add yogurt, garam masala powder,salt, tomatoes. Now add the fried fish pieces to this and donot stir for long time as fish pieces may broke. add chopped coriander and mint leaves and remove from heat.

Layering:

• In a large heavy bottomed pan, pour a little ghee and spread the rice. Then, layer the prepared fish gravy on top of it and spread the rice once again over the gravy. Add the fried cashew nuts, raisins on it, followed by rice again.

Repeat the layering process and keep the pan covered with the Lid in the stove in low heat and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the flame and transfer to a bowl without stirring as fish pieces may broke.

Tips:

"You can replace oil with ghee in all the process.

Adjust the chilly powder how much ever you need it as spicy.

While layering if you put a wet cloth on top of the lid will give you good taste and aroma however it’s purely optional.

Adding curd is also optional but it gives a good taste.

Since no water is added while layering process, keep the flame as low as it may burn at the base."