How do you do the biryani? (sorry - do you hate when people ask for recipes - it's a bit of typing, I know).

I am myself a grammar mangler of the little French I know, so I'm impressed by your proficiency. My little cousin spent some of last year in France on a language exchange program. Had a blast, by all accounts.

muso wrote on Feb 26^th, 2012 at 12:51pm:


There's no such thing as an English Haggis or a Vegetarian haggis. Ask any true Scotsman.

Grey wrote on Feb 27^th, 2012 at 1:56pm:



I've been told it's more flattering than pointing and laughing   

Annie Anthrax wrote on Feb 26^th, 2012 at 5:17pm:


I usually find something on the net that's close, then modfy it. Here's what I usually do.  For rice add 2 parts water for 1 part rice. For buryani, the vegetables release water, so use  1 3/4 parts of water.

You can vary this recipe if you don't have a pressure cooker:

Ingredients:

2 cups Basmati Rice
1 cup Mixed Vegetables (cauliflower, potato, carrot, french beans)
150 gms Green Peas
3 Finely Sliced red (Indian) onions or one large red salad onion.
2 Finely Sliced Green Chillies
Salt to taste
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
2 tsp Cinnamon(dalchini),
Optional : Caraway Seeds(zeera)
4 Cloves (laung)
1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder
4 Tomatoes chopped
1/2 cup Yogurt (curd)
4 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds (prefer black)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 heaped tsp garlic paste
1 heaped tsp ginger paste
1 tblsp cashew nuts

How to make vegetable biryani :

Wash the basmati rice well before cooking. Then take drained rice with 3-3/4 cup water and a little salt added to it. Cook it in pressure cooker (or in a pan or microwave).

Cut all the vegetables into small thin pieces and fry each of them in oil. Fry the green peas also.

Take 1 tblsp oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, green chilli, cinnamon , cloves, black pepper powder and stir for about half minute. Then add onions and salt and saute them for a minute or till they get pink in color.  Then add red chilli powder and stir.

Add fine chopped tomatoes and fry till they are properly cooked.

Add all the fried vegetables.
Add the cooked rice and mix well lightly so that the rice grain doesn't break. Cook for a further 3 minutes.

Take this vegetable biryani out in a rice serving dish.
Garnish as required:

Serve the vegetable (veg ) biryani hot with raita or yoghurt and pickle. (plus coriander or whatever)

Some people add the yoghurt while it is cooking. I prefer it not to look gluggy when served, so I serve the yoghurt separately with the dish. It's definitely nice to add the yoghurt to taste. I like heaps of it, but not everybody does.

An easy and quick alternative which is almost as good:

Buy some biryiani masala spice mix from the Indian grocer. Use that instead of the spices above. Add the rice and water to the pressure cooker. Fry the onions, garlic and ginger (Plus cumin and mustard seeds if you want - better fresh) in oil. Then add the whole lot to the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes.

Serve as before.

Interesting points:

Biryiani is a staple  food eaten mainly by Muslims in India and Pakistan. If you use the pre-mix, it's a very easy dish to prepare. There are various varieties of biryiani pre-mix but I prefer biryiani masala.

"Masala" originally  comes from the same Indo-European word as "salt". It originally meant powder, however masala now means "spiced".  Biryiani comes from a word meaning "fried".

I don't actually need them because as I said before, I'm a pescatarian to be more accurate.

That means that I have fish roughly once per week. Now despite that, I was taking multivitamins until my doctor sternly told me to stop taking them because they were not necessary given my diet.

FWIW, you're absolutely right. If you want to say something, Google will find somebody else that says the same. Let's try cats are dogs:

http://historicmysteries.com/scotlands-mystery-cats

Quote:


White is really black:
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/saint_ignatius_of_loyola/
Quote:

Yes, that makes sense.

All men are women? .....

All men are women with beards (interview with Claude Lelouch ....etc

Quite amusing, but it has to be applied with some discrimination.

Quote:


Yes I know, Google tells me that they're the dernier cri at the Castle Inn in Suffolk:
http://www.thecastleinn.net/

Quote:


Actually there is a dish that's basically chicken wrapped in bacon and stuffed with haggis. It's growing in popularity throughout the UK. It's called Balmoral Chicken. I remember seeing it on a menu in Aberdeen, and I was told of its popularity then. 

Frances wrote on Mar 1^st, 2012 at 8:43pm:


No I was just being sarcastic Frances. It's the Scottish who are revolting (again). It seems they want 'independence' from Britain. They think they'll get bigger handouts from Europe, failing to take into account the imminent collapse of Europe, after having given away all the money to the corrupt elites of Greece and Italy.

Ahhh to be canny like the Scots*  (* sorry, that's me being sarcastic again)

Bad vegetable: