Prawns / Shrimp / Chemeen Biriyani

By: Satheesh Thomas

Ingredients

For the rice:

1. Basmati rice – 3 cups
2. Water – 6 cups
3. Cardamom & clove – 6 each
4. Cinnamon – 1 medium size stick
5. Ghee – 3 tbsp
6. Lemon Juice – 3-4tbsp
7. Salt

For the masala:

1. Prawns – ½ kg (cleaned & deviened)
2. Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
3. Chilli powder – ½ tbsp
4. Pepper powder – ½ tsp
5. Onions – 3, chopped finely
6. Green chilli -5-6
7. Tomato – 2-3, chopped finely
8. Coconut – 1 handful
9. Coriander leaves – 1 handful
10. Curd – ½ cup
11. Cashews – 6-8 (soaked in 2 tbsp water), optional (refer notes)
12. Garam masala – 1 tsp

For garnishing:

1. Cashews & raisins – 1 handful each
2. Onion – 1 medium, sliced finely
3. Coriander leaves
4. Ghee – 1 tbsp

Instructions

Rice preparation:

1. Wash and soak the rice in water for 25 minutes. Drain the water completely. Boil 6 cups water with half the quantity of whole masala & keep it aside. Heat ghee in a vessel/pan, splutter the remaining whole masala and add the rice. Fry the rice for around 5-7 minutes or until the rice starts cracking. Add the boiled water, lemon juice & salt. Cook till the rice is done and water is completely dried. Spread the rice in a tray & keep aside.
Masala preparation:
1. Marinate the prawns with 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, pepper powder and salt and keep it for 2-3 hours in the fridge. Meanwhile grind together a handful of coconut & coriander leaves with a little water & keep it aside. Also grind the soaked cashews into a smooth paste.
2. Shallow fry the marinated prawns after the specified time. Once the prawns are fried, keep it aside and use the same oil to cook onions, remaining ginger garlic paste (1 tbsp) and green chilli. Once onions are fried well, add chopped tomatoes. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add curd, coconut, coriander leaves paste. Once it boils add fried prawns and cook in low flame for 5-6 minutes. Add the cashew paste & 1 tsp of garam masala. Mix well. Cook for 2 more minutes & remove from fire.
Garnishing:
1. Heat ghee in a pan and fry the cashews & raisins. Remove them from the pan & in the remaining ghee fry the onions till it becomes golden brown. Drain the excess ghee in a paper towel & keep it aside.
2. Layering the Biriyani:
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degree 10 minutes before baking the biriyani. Apply some ghee to a baking dish. Put one layer of masala in the dish. On top of that spread some rice and make another layer. Again spread another layer of masala on top of the rice. Repeat the process until the masala and rice is finished. The top layer should be of rice. You can drizzle ghee & sprinkle coriander leaves in between the layers. Cover the dish with a wet cloth. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.Refer notes for Stove top method.
4. Garnish the baked biriyani with fried cashew, raisins, onions & coriander leaves. Serve hot with pickle, raita & pappad.

Notes:

Stove Top Method:

1. If you dont have an oven to bake the biriyani, do the following method.
2. Layer the rice and masala in a greased heavy bottomed vessel/non stick pan & cover it with a tight lid.
3. Heat a thava/dosa kallu, when it is really hot, place the biriyani vessel on top of that. Reduce the heat to the lowest flame & cook for 20-25 mins. Keep the heat at the lowest flame throughout, otherwise it might get burnt.
4. Also place a pan of boiling water on top of the biriyani vessel at the same time.