Kathal ki Dum Biryani!!

Do you struggle with the word Biryani? Do you think that you need to buy the ready made Biryani Masala to make a proper biryani? For me both these answers are a straight No. Read on if you wanna join my club.

Kachche Kathal ki Biryani

Almost 400 gms of cut and cleaned Echor / Kachcha Kathal / unripe Jack fruit. Boil it in water along with some salt and turmeric, till its 50 % done. Using a pressure cooker may not be a good idea.

7 onions chopped and fried till brown

About 300 gms good long grain rice, soaked for 1 hour

Masala For the Rice

2 tbsp Oil

A nice mix of whole Garam Masala-

·       1 star Anise

·       1 cinnamon Stick

·       2 to 3 cloves

·       3 to 4 Green cardamom

·       ½ black cardamom

·       2 big leaves of tez patta (bay leaf)

·       1 tsp of Shah jeera

A lot of water and salt to taste.

Masala for the Jackfruit

2 heaped tbsp curd

3 tbsp oil

All the Whole Garam masala as mentioned up for the rice preparation.

3 tbsp Ginger and garlic paste

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp Coriander powder

½ tsp Cumin powder

½ tsp Chilly powder

A few shakes of freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon separately.

2 big pinches of cashew nuts and 2 more of raisins

A big handful each of chopped mint and coriander leaves

3 slit green chillies, or to taste

For Assembling

2 tbsp ghee                                                                    

2 steel containers with lid

1 small pinch of real kesar and warm milk

Procedure-

During biryani making, its best to keep all ingredients out and handy. Also this same process could be used for any other Dum cooked Meat or veggie biryani.

First in a kettle boil a litre of water.

Get a big sauce pot and put it on heat. We would make the whole spice tadka for the rice first, before proceeding for other stuff.

Pour in a few tbsp of oil. Once it heats up, drop in all the whole spices; and on low flame cook till it is fragrant.

Carefully pour in the hot water on the tadka and salt it generously. Add some more cold water and bring it up to a rolling boil before adding the soaked rice. Cook the soaked rice on a rolling boil for 5 to 7 minutes. It should be about 50 to 60 percent done. Drain it out on a plate and let it air dry. I mostly just take my spider ladle and drain out the rice from the starchy water onto a bowl. Then I quickly topple it out on a flat plate and let the rice air dry for a few minutes. Repeat with the remaining rice. The second batch of rice should be kept to air dry on a separate plate.

So by now, you have fried onion kept in one corner . Rice half cooked and air drying in another.

Lets start making the jackfruit masal now.

In a wok/kadhai heat some oil. Once hot, temper in the whole spices along with a sole red chilly. Wait for it to get fragrant.

Add in the cashew nuts and raisins and fry them lightly in this flavour ful oil on low to medim heat.

Now beat the curd with all the dry masala powder, and set it aside.

Now one after another, we would add different elements to the wok and get it frying.

·       The first to go would be a big pinch of fried onion along with the ginger garlic paste. Fry till we get rid of the raw smell of ginger and garlic.

·       The next would be the curd mix along with all dry spices. Cook it till oil separates out of the masala.

·       Now would be perfect to add 2 big pinches each of mint and coriander. Add in the green chilies too for an added kick. 

·       Adjust salt and sugar and this stage. And, add in our already cooked jackfruit to pan fry in the masala and absorb its flavour.

Taste again for salt and sugar, and adjust accordingly. 2 big pinches of sugar was good enough for me. you can even omit sugar, but I highly recommend adding it to lessen the tang of homemade curd.

Now its time for the assembly.

·       You have the jack fruit prepared.

·       You have onions fried.

·       You have half cooked rice

·       You have chopped coriander and mint ready.

·       This would be the right time to create the saffron mix. Just warm up a few tbsp of milk in microwave and drop in a few strands of kesar on to it. Let it bloom and get flavourful.

Now all you need is to set up a steaming station- gas or electric. 

Generously put ghee on the steel containers you choose to steam the biryani in. Put a thin layer of the most uncooked rice of the lot you have made earlier, in the bottom of the pan. Top it all with jackfruit masala. Now an even layer of onions needs to be followed with an even layer of chopped herbs. Top it all with rice once again.

This is where you need to be creative. Get a proper layer of fried onion on top. Now another generous sprinkle of herbs. Now get that saffron milk and spoon it all over the while rice. 

Close the lid, and let it steam for 30 minutes.

And when you open that lid once done, you will be transported to another world it self. Biryani is a soul food, which is made and perfected with love. Make it to believe it.

Cheers!!

Lets talk vegetarianism today...

What is vegetables to you judgmental vegetarian? Its just food, right? Then why so judgemental about other’s kind of food?

And you Non-vegetarian lover, no one asked you to smile away. You too are as judgmental to the vegetarian crowd as they are to you. 

Basically, I am not here to solve this tussle. But I am here to understand humanity from a different angle all together. Before all my gyaan pours in, note that I have an amazing recipe of Kachche Kathal ki Dum Biryani down after the post. Do make it a point to read that at least.

Now food is what we need to survive. Yes, survival makes us selfish. Yes, humans were created to be socially selfish. What we didn’t understand was the fine line in the middle which was defined as responsibility. Today, its easier to bombard your judgement on others about their choices, just because its different from yours. I have personally felt it from many vegetarians across communities who were so unreceptive to other’s choice. And by no means am I here to praise non-vegetarian sentiments. I am only here to talk about a choice of lifestyle and the fact that people need to respect it even if it is different than others’.

Vegetarians, you are killing too-

Yes, you read it right. The day you stop buying things with roots to your house, you may absolve from calling yourself a killer. But while chewing on a carrot stick and digging into a spinach salad; you are killing too. And at times, you even make sprouts, to kill it the very next day. How insensitive, you killed an infant which would have become a full-blown plant if you gave it that chance.

See, I get it. You feel we are butchers. But is it too much to ask that we are different and what you think may not be what I am thinking. I like meat and I have it. Doesn’t mean I don’t like carrots or tomatoes. I like myself and I nourish myself to the best of my ability. This is all we need to understand. As every ‘I’ is different, every ‘ability’ would also be different. All we need is to keep a responsibility tab on our ability and we are good to go. I request you to be just a bit more receptive. Yes, animals are animals, but the one you are speaking to is a human with feelings. Be truly responsible to his or her feelings first.  

Non-vegetarians, stop being wasteful-

I have noticed that most of the lavish households in this world don’t feel a thing when they toss out that perfectly edible offal down in the trash can. Please respect the food. Understand your need, and buy only what you need. Don’t stock up just for a good discount. Instead donate it to a needy right then and there. In our supermarket culture, discounts speak. But just respect it enough to not waste.

In early days, sausages and dry fish were invented to keep wastage at the minimal level, and to stock up for the winter which was harsh. These were pure sentiments designed to pay homage to the life of that animal who was sacrificed to keep humans healthy. Sin is not killing, but being unrespectful to the purpose of the kill. Today, those pure sentiments are lost upon a flimsy coat of civilization. When you get something so easily, its much easier to forget the real cost behind that.

Cow Vigilantism… Really??

Don’t even get me started on this point. I mean what was the government thinking while banning cow slaughter is beyond my understanding of un-discriminatory India. ‘Gaay hamari Mata Hai’ – ‘Cows are our mother’- a direct translation of the phrase. And upon asking a reason for this phrase, pat comes the answer- ‘because it gives us milk.’ But did you forget how much you grew up on buffalo milk? Or the pristine white clarified butter that was added to your vegetables? You know whose milk that came from- our humble buffalo. And still so discriminatory towards that big black beauty? I feel this is to do with India’s obsession with anything white. Too much I say!!!!

And even the fact about the milk production. Don’t you feel the only one supposed to drink that milk is the calf? Why are you bottling and selling it? When your mother, sister, wife birthed; was the milk extracted to feed a population? I am just asking the question without meaning harm. Don't you feel its time that you questioned this ban too?

Respect greenery-

The bigger issue to solve in today’s India is that every Indian needs to respect the green trees that surrounds us. I am educated enough to understand cutting trees for development is needed. I mean wider roads would solve many traffic jams. Or an extra residential complex may help lower the sky rocketing prices of flats. But all I am saying is for every Indian to rise up to this pollution with a solution that is as simple as can be. All we need to do is plant 15 plants in and outside our houses. That's all. Just plant flowers or herbs or vegetables, and keep them alive. Don’t be afraid of the mosquitoes or earth worm that they might get into your house. Yes, to start with they would; but eventually it is only going to better the situation that we are in right now. Imagine if all the four flats in every floor of a 12 floored society, planted 15 plants for every bedroom they had. Do the maths and then you would know. We would be able to purify our air much faster than an electronic air purifier. Plant more, grow more and buy less veggies should be the new urban mantra. 

And the most controversial for the last – Understand Halal before passing a judgement over it.

Yes I am Hindu, and yet I am telling you that I love to buy Halal as far as my meat and poultry needs go. Halal doesn’t mean an inhuman way to cut. It means that we are making sure that impurities run out and the meat is fit for consumption. Scientifically it is a better process for storage and safer to eat too. Ideologically too, these days most of the supermarkets make sure that the butchers stun the animals before the halal process begins. Understand the origin of this process. It has stemmed from a pure emotion of survival in a hot sunny dessert area. Survival of healthy humans in a far flung dessert area with limited water supply was tough. And yet, they survived. Truly, Necessity is the mother of all inventions!!

This article is written with a pure intention to ask relevant questions about our choices. In no way am I to favor one to another forms of eating habit. Both these eating habits (veg and non-veg) makes for a balanced country. So literally a balance is all we should crave for.

Kachchi Kathal ki Dum Biryani-

Recipe and ingredients on a click here.

Cheers!!