Fish Biryani

My Mother's special recipe

Sharing my mother's masterpiece recipe.. A really delicious Fish Biryani. I am not a big fan of fish, nor do I like biryani, but, still I love this particular fish biryani a lot.. While in college, we were a gang of seven really close friends - Jaleesa, Gayathri, Divya, Jisha, Devi, Rinu and me.. Whenever our mothers made anything special, they'd pack it up for all seven of us. We were a bunch of foodies, and would sit together and one among us would feed the rest. Though today we are all married and settled in different parts of the world, that bond is still intact. :) Well, this Fish biryani was an all time favourite of my friends.. On weekends, a big gang of my relatives would come home and this was their favourite lunch too.. When I got married, my husband, turned out to be a brand ambassador of this biryani :) Well, you must give this recipe a try!!

My mother is very health conscious and therefore she makes sure that she minimizes the use of fats and very hot spices in all her recipes and that's what makes this biryani unique. Less fat, less spice, no artificial colour, no artificial flavouring, no rich ingredients and yet, no compromise on taste.. Come, follow me to her kitchen for a change, today :)

Ingredients :
King Fish	-		1/2 kg
Oil	-		4-5 tablespoons
Marinade for frying Fish :
Kashmiri Chilli powder	-		1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	-		1/2 teaspoon
Salt	-		To taste
For the Masala :
Onion (thinly sliced)	-		5 medium
Ginger/Garlic (coarsely ground)	-		2 tablespoons each
Green chilli (coarsely ground)	-		8-10 numbers
Tomatoes (diced)	-		3 medium
Salt	-		To taste
Coriander leaves (chopped)	-		1/2 cup
Mint leaves (chopped)	-		2 tablespoons (Optional)
For final Garnish :
Pure ghee	-		2 tablespoon
Oil	-		3 tablespoons
Onion	-		1 large
For Rice :
Basmati rice	-		3 cups
Boiling water	-		6 cups
Onion, finely sliced	-		1 small
Cardamom pods	-		6 nos.
Cloves	-		8 nos.
Cinnamon sticks, 1 inch pieces	-		3-4 pieces
Salt	-		To taste
For Dum :
Garam masala	-		1 teaspoon

Note : The masala is prepared in the same oil in which the fish is fried and the rice is prepared in the same ghee and oil in which the onion for the garnish is fried.

Preparation Method :

Wash the fish pieces and marinate with the chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Then fry the fish pieces and drain onto a kitchen towel. Oops! by the time I reached my mother's kitchen with my camera, she had finished frying the fish. So no images..

Into the same oil, throw in the sliced onions, add some salt and sauté. Then, add the ground garlic, ginger and green chillies and sauté. Continue to sauté onion until it begins to slightly brown and all the ingredients looses its raw smell. Then, add the diced tomatoes and sauté until tomatoes softens and blends well into the onion masala. Then add the fried fish pieces and gently without breaking, cover the fish with the masala. Bring down the flame to low and cover with a lid. Allow to cook on low for 5 minutes. Then add the coriander leaves and mint leaves and gently combine. Be careful not to break the fish pieces. Then turn off the flame and allow the fish to sit in the masala for another 5 minutes.

Next, in a heavy bottom shallow pot, heat the ghee and coconut oil. Into it add half the sliced onion until it begins to brown. Remove it from the ghee and drain them onto a kitchen paper towel and keep aside for the final garnish. Go through the Malabar Ghee Rice recipe for better understanding. Therefore cutting short pictures of the whole rice preparation process.

Into the same ghee, throw in the whole spices. Throw in the sliced onions and sauté until onion begins to brown slightly. Add the drained rice, add salt and fry for a minute or two on medium-high. Pour in the boiling water and gently mix the rice in the water. Note : Never make the mistake of adding cold or just warm water. It will ruin the rice. Use boiling water straight from the kettle. Soon as you add the water the rice should bubble in the pot of hot water. Allow to boil on medium-high heat. Once the rice starts absorbing water and the rice plumps up and water level drops down, reduce the heat and cover the pot with a lid and allow the rice to simmer and cook slowly in the rest of the water.  But, for the biryani, we only require 80% cooked rice. So as soon as the rice is 80% cooked turn off the heat and fluff up the rice to avoid it from sticking together. Finally for the Dum -  In a heavy bottom shallow pot gently cover the bottom with half of the fish masala. Then add half of the rice. Then sprinkle on some garam masala. Then layer the rest of the fish masala on top of the rice and sprinkle some more garam masala.  Then layer the rest of the rice on top of the fish masala and garnish with the fried onion. Cover with a tight lid and allow to gradually cook on very low heat for 10 minutes. If you do not have a heavy bottom shallow pot, then place a frying pan below the pot.

While serving the biryani, make sure not to break the fish pieces. Make sure every serving has enough rice, fish and masala in it. Serve with raita, some pickle and paapad (pappadam).

Serves 6 people or more. Try it, and let me know how it worked for you! :)