Hyderabadi Egg Dum Biryani

Some days demand nothing but slow cooked biryani, something which we absolutely love. One pot hyderabadi egg dum biryani, with loads of caramelized onions, fried potatoes, saffron, lotsa green chillies, fresh mint and coriander leaves.

So let’s pull up a chair as life is endlessly delicious!!

My love affair with biryani started when I was small and dad used to cook out of the world biryani for us over the weekends, the aroma and the taste still elevates my senses. For us biryani was a weekly affair. I remember that was a very famous joint which served biryani and I can say it was the best I had eaten till date and we have had a lot take outs from that place. At any point it would be over crowded. Now you can imagine the standard I’m talking
about.

This egg biryani happened on one afternoon when I seriously wanted some good biryani. Here in the US there are a lot of Indian restaurants serving biryani but not even one matches my expectations. Most of them serve biryani but its way too spicy, you get to taste only spices and nothing else. And my level of biryani is very different. So my desire ended up in the kitchen cooking up scrumptious egg dum biryani and it is much quicker than the chicken one which usually takes up a lot of time. The egg version tastes equally delicious but there is nothing likes a well cooked Chicken dum biryani seriously. I shall share the recipe sometime.

My another experimentation with with biryani sometime back, with chickpeas. It was explosion of flavors!!

The result you can see beautifully cooked biryani, each grain is separate, perfect balance of spices, fried potatoes give it a new meaning altogether. So be ready to satiate your senses with this one pot meal. As you take a bite, the richness of the spices coating grains of perfectly cooked rice, caramelized onions, mint, fried potatoes, eggs all hit you at the right spot. Bang on flavors make it way difficult to stop, you just tend to go on and on. You have to make it, I’ve tempted you enough isn’t it!!

Biryani as we know is the most loved rice dish in Indian cuisine though there are a wide variety of other rice dishes in from of pulao’s, steamed rice served with daal or curries, khichdi, jeera rice, stir fried rice. Then we make rice pudding or kheer as you know. Have you tried my famous kheer?? It is one delicious and creamy rice pudding you must check out and make it today. There are many biryani options for vegetarians as well, you can cook it with mushrooms, chickpeas, soyabean, jackfruit or just anything your heart desires.

Hyderabadi dum biryani is believed to have originated from the kitchen of Nizams and is a blend of Mughlai and Iranian cuisine. So I’m talking about slow cooking, Mughlai food be ready to go into gastronomic heaven.

Recipe liked by The Quilon (London’s Michelin starrer restaurant serving the best of Indian cuisine to the elite) and featured by Food Talk India.

Hyderabadi Egg Dum Biryani

Ingredients For rice :

· 2 cups long grained basmati rice (I used Dawat) soaked for an hour

· 1 bay leaf

· 3 green cardamom

· 4 cloves

· 1 tsp jeera (cumin)

· 1 star anise

· 1 tsp salt

· 1 tsp oil

For gravy
6 hard boiled eggs

· 2 medium potatoes, quartered

· 11/2 cup thinly sliced onion

· 2 tsp ginger garlic paste

· 1 cup thick yogurt

· 4 green chilies sliced

· ½ cup of freshly chopped mint and coriander leaves

· 1 black cardamom

· 1inch cimmamon stick

· ½ tsp jeera

· 2 tsp biryani masala

· 1 tsp red chilli powder

· 1 tsp garam masala

· Salt to taste

· 4 tbsp oil

For layering :

· ¼ cup warm milk

· A large pinch saffron

· ½ cup caramelized onion

· 2 tbsp ghee for layering

· Handful fresh mint and coriander leaves, chopped

Instructions

· Add saffron to the warm milk and set aside.

· Take a large pot and boil the soaked rice in sufficient water along with bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, star anise, cumin, salt and oil. Cook till 90 % done, drain.

· Make slits on boiled egg and marinate with ½ tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp red chili powder and ¼ tsp garam masala. Set aside for 10 minutes.

· Take a heavy bottomed pan with lid, add oil and fry one large thinly sliced onion till golden and caramelized and set aside, this we will be using for layering.

· In the same pan fry, shallow fry the quartered potatoes and the marinated eggs. Once crisp keep them aside till needed.

· Add a little more oil, whole spices and sauté till they begin to sizzle. Add the thinly sliced onions and fry till translucent, add the ginger garlic paste and sauté till raw smell disappears. Add the sliced green chilies and sauté for about a minute.

· Add the biryani masala, garam masala and red chili powder, sauté for a minute. Add the fried eggs and potatoes, give a good mix.

· Add the mint and coriander leaves, mix well.

· Take the pan off the flame and add the yogurt and mix, return the pan back to heat. Add salt and continue to cook until the masala begins to thicken and the oil starts to separate.

· The masala should not be too dry, remove the egg mixture in a bowl.

· We will layer in the same pan. Add half of the cooked rice at the bottom then layer with the entire egg masala, sprinkle half of caramelized onions, mint & coriander leaves, 1 tbsp ghee and ¼ tsp garam masala.

· Top with remaining cooked rice and sprinkle the remaining caramelized onions, mint coriander leaves, ghee and pour the saffron milk all over.

· Cover with aluminum foil and close the lid.

· Heat the tawa or griddle and place the pot on the heated tawa.

· Allow to cook on high heat for 2 minutes.

· Turn the heat on low and allow for simmer for 20 minutes. Further rest for 10 minutes.

· Open the pan and gently fluff up the rice.

· Serve with mix veg raita.

Thanks so much

Xo,