Savitha's Kitchen: Dhum - Hyderabadi (Shrimp) Biriyani

Whenever I see recipes ,titling dhum biriyani, I used to think that it will be a heactic job.today I planned to cook shrimp biriyani as a one pot dish.My friend Ayesha called me and when she was speaking askd abt my lunch.she told me to prepare it as dhum biriyani and she gave me the guidelines.I took her guidelines and vah-chef's tip of marinating shrimp,and prepared this dish.It was awsome.My Hubby will not talk much.I have to understand ,by his deeds.He was asking more and more and we finished off the biriyani within minutes.My son loved the juicy prawns and he too had well.I was so satisfied . This dhum biriyani,makes the shrimp juicy.Give it a try, u will love it a lot....

Ingredients:

For Marination:
1.Prawns                 -       1 lb
2.G&G paste           -        1 tsp
3.Red chilli pwdr    -        1 tsp
4.Lemon Juice          -        half

For Cooking Rice:
1.Basmati rice         -        2 1/2 cup
2.Oil                        -        1 tsp
3.Whole garam masala ( 2 cloves,1/2 inch cinnamom,2 bay leaves)
4.Salt                       -         1/2 tsp

For Gravy:
1.Whole Garam masala   -       4 cloves.1/2 inch cinnamom,2 bay leaves
2.Ghee                             -       2 tbsp
3.Oil                                -       2 tbsp
4.Onion                            -       1 1/2
5.Tomato                          -       2 1/2
6.Green chillies                -       5
7.G&G paste                     -       2 tsp
8.Mint                                -       1 cup
9.Cilantro                          -        1 cup
10.Orange color                 -        1 tsp

Method:

Marination:
* Marinate shrimp with all other items under marination for 15 to 20 mins.
* This will make the shrimp to absorb the masalas well.

Cooking Rice:
* Take a rice cooker and cook basmati rice with oil,salt and whole garam masalas ,up to 90%.
* Take it out and transfer it to another container and close it tightly,as rice shud be hot for biriyani.
* We can also cook it on stove top and drain the water .

For Gravy:
* Gravy shud be prepared simultaneously.
* Slice onions finely,chop tomatoes and slit green chillies.The amount of onion and tomatoes must be little bit higher than chicken and mutton biriyani.Bcoz shrimp will not give out much water.So in order to have a thick gravy, we are using much higher amt.
* Take a pan ,add oil,ghee and splutter with whole garam masalas.
* Saute onion and green chillies well with little salt.
* Add G&G paste and saute well.
* When onion leaves out oil, add tomatoes and sprinkle some salt.
* The tomatoes shud disintergrate into the gravy.
* Now dump in the marination and saute well, till shrimp is cooked 95 %.
* Add mint, cilantro and cover it and cook for 2 more minutes.

For keeping in dhum:
* Now take a wide- heavy bottomed,container and add 1 tbsp of ghee .
* Transfer the prawn gravy to the container .
* Pour the cooked rice on top of the gravy and spread it well ,without any lumps.
* dilute the orange color in a tbsp of water and pour it over the rice.

* Take a wet towel and spread it on top of the container .
* Place some weight on top of the towel.Here I have kept 5 plates (dinnerware set) on top.
* Place a tava over the stove and keep this covered container on top.
* Place it in dhum for 10 to 15 mins.
* Take it out carefully, and mix the rice and gravy using a fork as shown in last pic.
* Now ur shrimp biriyani is ready.Serve hot with raitha.

Dhum biriyanis have more flavour than one pot biriyanis.We enjoyed our lunch.The prawns tasted heavenly,as it was marinated well with masalas.Planning to do chicken and mutton biriyanis in the same manner.

Note:
We can also add curd instead of lemon juice.Dont add water while making the gravy.The water content in the gravy shud be contributed by onion,tomatoe and shrimp.
For more biriyani recipes, chk my previous postings...