The easiest way to make a tasty biryani – let’s see how to prepare 1kg of fish biryani.
Ingredients
- Unity Basmati rice – 1kg
- Fish – 1/2 kg
- Oil – 250ml
- Chilli powder – 1.5 tablespoon
- Salt – 2 tablespoon
- Cinnamon – 2 gm
- Clove – 2 gm
- Cardamom – 2 gm
- Star anise – 2 piece
- Curd – 200 ml
- Onion – 400 gm
- Tomato – 300 gm
- Lemon – 1
- Coriander leaves – 1/2 hand
- Mint leaves – 1/2 hand
- Green chilli – 3
- Ginger paste – 100 gm
- Garlic paste – 50 gm
- Water – 1.5 litre
Which fish will suit best for making fish biryani?
Option 1 – We can buy the “Trevally” fish – in Tamil we call it as “Paarai Meen”. This variety has less thorns (bones) and hence will suit for biryani.
Option 2 – We can buy the “Sea Bass” fish – in Tamil we call it as “Koduva Meen”. In Malayalam it’s called “Kalanji”.
Option 3 – We can buy “Seer Fish”– in Tamil it’s called “Vanjaram Meen”. In Malayalam – Neymeen and In Telugu – Konema
But this seer fish pieces will break off easily while cooking.
So, we can prefer options 1 or 2 more than seer fish.
Things to do before we start cooking
- Rinse 1 kg of basmati rice softly in clean water. Repeat it again to clean fully and then soak it in a bowl with fresh water.
- Take half litre of water in a bowl. Then add the below in it –
- Turmeric powder – 1 tablespoon.
- Salt – 1 tablespoon.
- Green chilli – 4 (put a slice from top to bottom)
- Squeeze Lemon juice – 1 fruit full
- Stir the water to mix all contents well.
- Cut half kg of Fish into thick pieces and dip the pieces in the bowl. Let the fish soak in this masala water till we add it in biryani.
- Chop onions and tomatoes into small pieces.
- Take 100g of peeled ginger and 50g of garlic, grind them to make a fine paste.
Steps to Prepare
Place a 5 litre vessel on the small burner. Keep flame in HIGH.
Put the below in the vessel –
- Onion – 400 gm
- Star anise – 2 pieces
- Cinnamon – 2 grams (4 piece)
- Cardamom – 2 grams (4 piece)
- Cloves – 2 grams (4 piece)
- Oil – 250 ml
Stir continuously in high flame.
Fry the onions till they become brownish red in colour.
Once the onions turn brownish red – turn the flame to LOW – then add the below one after the other –
- Coriander leaves – little (1/4 bunch)
- Ginger garlic paste – all that was prepared
- Mint leaves – little (1/4 bunch)
- Green chilli – 3
- Red chilli powder – 1.5 tablespoon
- Stir well for 10 to 15 seconds after adding red chilli powder.
- Salt – 1.5 tablespoon (stir for another 10 seconds)
- Curd – 200 ml (stir for 10 seconds)
- Tomato – 300 gm (limit tomato usage as this would overcome fish taste)
After adding tomato – turn the flame to HIGH – stir well for 3 to 4 minutes till tomatoes get cooked well.
Next, pour 1.5 litres of water.
Place a lid on the vessel.
Let the water boil in high flame for 2 or 3 minutes.
- Once steam starts coming from the sides of lid – turn the flame to LOW
- Let water and contents boil for another 10 minutes.
Now, remove lid, take a drop or two of the water and taste for spiciness and saltness.
If needed, we can add a little of chilli powder and salt.
Now we can add the fish pieces. Turn the flame to HIGH.
Immediately after adding fish we need to put the rice.
Stir very gently – so that fish doesn’t break – handle with care.
Close the lid – let the water boil in high flame for 2 minutes.
Open the lid, again stir gently for 5 seconds. Keep the flame in LOW.
Close the lid – let the contents boil for 10 minutes in low flame.
Keep a weight on the lid so that no steam escapes (for DUM process to happen fully)
After 10 minutes, open the lid – turn off the flame. Check if water completely drained at bottom.
Our fish biryani is ready and can be tasted now.
