Prawns Dum Biriyani

Biriyani is our all time favourite and we make it occasionally. This prawns biriyani is delicious ,and flavorful Kerala style one pot meal recipe with step by step images. Prawns is marinated in spices and then layered with Ghee Rice and dum cooked. It takes about an hour for cooking but its all worth it at the end. Do try it out and let us know how it turned out for you. Lets get straight to the recipe 

Ingredients:

For the prawns masala:

• Prawns- 1 kilogram
• Onion-5-6 medium sized ( sliced thin)
• Tomato-3 ( chopped )
• Green Chilly- 5
• Ginger-2 -3 one inch pieces
• Garlic – 10-15 cloves
• Red Chilly Powder- 2 tablespoon
• Turmeric Powder- 1 tablespoon
• Coriander powder-1/2 tablespoon
• Garam masala powder-1/2 teaspoon (optional)
• Coriander leaves- a small bunch (finely chopped)
• Mint leaves- a small bunch ( finely chopped )
• Lemon juice-  1 lemon
• Yogurt- 3 tablespoon
• Oil- 6 tablespoon
• Ghee- 1 tablespoon

For ghee rice: Recipe Here

• Basmati Rice-2 Cups
• Water- 4 cups
• Oil-2 tablespoon
• Ghee- 2 tablespoon
• Onion- 1 ( sliced )
• whole garam masala (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds, bay-leaves ) 
• Onion- 1 (thinly sliced and roasted to golden brown in oil or ghee)
• Cashew nuts- a handful ( roasted in ghee )
• Raisins- a handful ( roasted in ghee) 
• Ghee-as per required or 2 tablespoon
• Cilantro leaves- a small bunch ( chopped )

Method: 

1. Mix half the quantity of the spice powders (from the above listed ingredients for prawns masala along with lemon juice) to make a marinade . 
2. Apply this marinade to the prawns and let it sit for at least an hour or so.
3. Now heat a pan or wok(take the utensil in which you are going to make the masala), pour oil and then shallow fry the marinated prawns in medium flame. 
4. Don’t overcook the prawns as it will become rubbery. Remove fried prawns from the pan and keep it aside. 
5. Now to the same pan pour ghee and more oil if required. Sauté onion along with some salt. Cook it in medium flame with the lid closed for around 10 minutes. 
6. Stir it in between to prevent the onion from sticking to the pan.
7. Meanwhile, make a thick paste of green chilly, garlic and ginger without water. I do prefer using my wooden mortar and pestle to make the ginger- garlic paste. This gives a nice and different taste. 
8. Once the onion is soft and tender, add ginger- garlic- green chilly paste to the pan. Mix all together and cook for another 10 minutes with the lid closed.
9. Now add chopped tomatoes to the onion mixture along with some salt. Give a nice stir and cook this for another 10 minutes with the lid closed.
10. Mash the tomatoes with the spatula and mix all the ingredients together. Cook it for another 6-8 minutes on medium flame.
11. Add more salt and the rest of spice powders to this mixture.
12. Pour yogurt/Curd (whisk it first) to the masala and blend it well with the rest of the masala. Cook it for 5 minutes.
13. Add chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves to the Prawns masala.
14. Later add the fried prawns to the masala and stir well.
15. Now cook this with the lid closed for 10 minutes in medium flame. You can add about 1/2 cup hot water to it if you think the masala is little dry and might burn. 
16. Now it’s time to make the ghee rice. Recipe of ghee rice is there in another post. Check recipe of Ghee Rice Here with step by step images.
17. Also, fry sliced onion, raisins and cashews one by one and keep aside. We will use these while layering
18. Once the rice is ready prepare a big pot for dum process. 
19. Pour a tablespoon of ghee to this and add half of the ghee rice. 
20. Layer it evenly and spread the prepared prawns masala over this bed of rice. 
21. Layer with half  Fried onion slices, raisins and cashews
22. Then add the leftover ghee rice to the pot and layer it gently.
23. Then sprinkle chopped coriander leaves, fried onion slices, roasted raisins and cashew nuts all over the top layer .
24. Pour the leftover ghee everywhere and close the lid
25. Cook this on extremely low flame (simmer) with the lid closed for 15 minutes. 
26. Try and keep something heavy over the lid to avoid the steam going out. This process is called dum. It allows the biriyani to cook in the steam and pack in all the flavors.
27. Switch off the flame and let it sit for few minutes, about 10 minutes or so. 
28. Serve it hot along with raita , pickle and pappadam :). If you like boiled egg in biriyani, you can add that too. 

Notes: 

• Do not overcook the prawns. 
• You can use the same recipe for chicken biriyani also 
• Do not avoid garlic-ginger paste and mint- corriander as it gives flavour. 
• I fry the sliced onions, raisins and toast the cashews in ghee before I start with the masala making. And then use the same pan for masala. 
• For more thick masala, you can grind 1 onion, coriander, mint along with 1 cinnamon stick, star anise, pepper and 2 clove. You can add ground garam masala also

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