Indian food can be expensive and time consuming for a home cook (me) that does not have a lot of experience with the cooking techniques and the spices. Not so with Biryanis. Biryanis are like Indian rice casserole. They can be amazingly simple or very complex. They all follow the same cooking pattern, and require similar ingredients. If you have rice, an onion, an egg, oil, half a stick of butter, and some spices, you can make a Biryani:
1.) Make a paste of about a teaspoon each ginger and garlic, or garlic and peppers or just garlic. (I used chopped ginger, garlic and serrano peppers and a hand blender.)
2.) Wash two cups of rice.
3.) Chop an onion into large chunks.
4.) Put some spices and oil in an oven safe pan that has a lid, and saute them for several minutes over medium heat. (You can just use garam masala, which is a combination of Indian spices, or you can use bay leaves, cardomom pods, and pepper.)
5.) Put the onion in the pan with the spices, and saute until it starts to turn brown, for about twelve minutes. (more…)