Hi all..today im gonna take you to the malabar coast, a region highly influenced by British, French and Arab cuisine apart from the local cuisine. Now we shall look how to prepare the famous malabar fish biryani. Very different from other biryanis, here we dont use any biryani masalas except garam masala. We can go for each step sequentially without any waiting time and complex marination. You can use either basmati rice or short grained rice (zeera samba or kaima rice).

INGREDIENTS:

4 to 5 slices of seer fish/ king fish

2½ cups basmati rice

Whole spices

FOR MARINATION:

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon red chilly powder

½ teaspoon garam masala

Salt to taste

FOR GRAVY:

2 onions sliced

1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste

10 to 15 green chilies crushed

1 tomato sliced (medium size)

1 teaspoon garam masala

Small bunch of coriander leaves

Small bunch of mint leaves

3 tablespoons thick curd

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Salt

FOR LAYERING:

Handful of fried cashew nuts

Handful of fried dry grapes

Handful of chopped coriander leaves

Few saffron strands dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm milk

Golden fried onion

INSTRUCTIONS:

Wash and soak the rice for 30 min.

Marinate the fish for 15 min with the ingredients given in “for marination”. Then shallow fry the fish for few minutes on both sides. Keep aside.

In a pan, add 1 tablespoon of oil and add 4 sliced onions. Saute the onion till they turn golden brown. Keep aside.

In a cooker, add 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of ghee. When heated, add 2 cloves, 1 cardamom, small cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, 1 star anise. Then add in the pre-soaked basmati rice. Add 3½cups of water and cook the rice. Once done, keep it aside.

In another wide pan, add 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of ghee. Then add in 2 sliced onions and saute well till they turn translucent. Then add in ginger-garlic paste and crushed green chilies. Saute till the raw smell goes off. Then add 1 teaspoon of of garam masala and 1 chopped tomato.

Cook till the tomato mashes well. Then add in and saute the chopped mint and coriander leaves. Then add curd and lemon juice.

Now add the shallow fried fish, cover the pan and cook for few min. Then flip the fish and cook on other sides too.

When they are done, remove it from heat.

LAYERING:

On top of the prepared fish gravy, spread half of the cooked rice. On the rice, sprinkle garam masala

Few teaspoons of saffron milk

golden fried onions, fried cashews, fried dry grapes, chopped coriander leaves, one by one. Then repeat the same procedure for one more layer.

Cover the pan with a lid tightly. Keep this pan on a tava and place the tava on low flame. Cook it for 15 to 20 min. Make sure the steam does not escapes. Once done, remove from fire. Keep it closed for few more min.

Serve immediately with boiled eggs and onion raita.