Soya Chunks Biryani

Soya Chunks Biryani

Soya is very heathy, full of nutrients and almost zero fat. Include soya chunks in your daily food and see the difference.

To prepare the Soya Chunks Masala : 

Boil 4-5 cups of water in a wide vessel add a tsp of salt and 20-25 pieces of soya chunks and let soak for 30 minutes. The chunks will be swollen. Squeeze out the water, wash it well and again squeeze out the water and keep this ready.

Take a broad vessel add in the following powders ½ tsp haldi powder, 1 tsp red chilli pd, ½ tsp garam masala, ½ tsp coriander powder, ¼ tsp jeera powder, ¼ tsp fennel seeds powder, 1 tsp salt to taste and 1 cup of curds (the curds should not be sour). Mix well. Add the soya chunks mix well and let soak in the marinate for at least 25-30 minutes.

Heat 1 cup oil in a kadai. Squeeze out the soya so that all the marinate is removed, retain the marinade for later use. Put the soya chunks in the hot oil and fry till golden brown, once the soya chunks are evenly browned add in the marinade that was squeezed out of the soya chunks and fry the chunks in the masala well. There will be a thick masala coating to the soya chunks. The Soya chunk masala is ready.

For the Soya Chunks Biryani

Wash and soak 2 cups of Basmati Rice in water for at least 30 minutes. Drain in a colander.

Heat 1 cup of oil in a kadai add a few cashew nuts and fry till brown remove and keep aside for garnishing. In the same oil fry one onion sliced lengthwise till brown and drain and keep aside.

Now in the same oil add add in the whole Garam masala one by one in the following steps.

1/2 tsp jeea, ½ tsp pepper, 1” x 2 pieces of cinnamon, 6-5 cloves, 2-3 Black cardamom slit lengthwise, 4-5 green cardamom slit lengthwise, pinch of jaivitri, 2 Star anise, 2 Bay leaf and fry well. Add 2 medium sized onions cut lengthwise and fry till translucent.

Now add the soaked and strained Basmati rice to the above ingredients and fry for a minute of two. Now add in a pinch of each of the following masalas, garam masala-coriander powder-jeera powder-fennel powder and mix well.

Add in 3-1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste, mix well, lower the heat to minium, cover and cook till 80 % done.

Now for the final preparation : 

Take a thick bottomed kadai, apply some ghee on the surface of the kadai. Now make a layer of half of the browned onions kept aside for garnishing, top it with a layer of rice, garnish with some grated carrots and beetroot, sprinkle some saffron milk on this.

Add some blobs of pure ghee on top of this. Spread some pudina and coriander leaves chopped finely over this and spread the soya chunks masala in a thick layer, top it with some coriander and pudina leaves then rice layer, again spread some grated carrots and beetroot and sprinkle some saffron milk over this top it with the remaining half of browned onions and now add in the browned cashews also. Again add in some blobs of ghee. Sprinkle some last left over rice and coriander and pudina leaves. 

  

Cover with a tight lid and cook it on slow fire for some 5-10 minutes. You can add a tawa below the kadai if the kadai is not thick. The heat should be kept even. Remove and serve hot with Raita or curds.

Note : I prepared the final preparation in a big micro wave safe vessel and micro waved it on high heat for 3 minutes twice with gap of 1 minute. It turned out superb.