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This meal was not part of the plan until a few days ago. The originally scheduled post was the first thaali I cooked for this event, a simple lunch from Andhra. I realized while drafting that there was not really color contrast in the images and the thaali looked drab. This is what happens with me when I prepare posts in advance and have the extra time to mull over. 😉Then I thought of replacing it with a Kerala breakfast platter I cooked last month as I had two more thaalis from Andhra. And over weekend I decided that it is going to be a north Indian meal on the spur of the moment when I was cooking our lunch since I already posted one meal this week from southern part of India. I did not spend much time in deciding the menu as I was going to randomly cook from the northern region of India rather than picking one particular state which would have needed some planning.
My thali doesn't contain the ubiquitous chole, dal makhani, or any paneer dish - the kind of Punjabi dishes popular all over the world (or where ever the presence of an Indian eatery is) and has become equivalent to north Indian cuisine. There are more states packed in northern India compared to other regions and so obviously there is a wide variety in cooking techniques and recipes across the region. The Indian food that has become popular worldwide in restaurants like the tandoor dishes, breads, curries all come from this region. I am not going into detail here because it is beyond the scope of this post.
This platter is a balanced and nutritious meal just like the Tamil Nadu meal I posted. North Indian meals in general include rotis and rice for their carbs. The roti served may vary regionally and I included jeera rice, phulkas and tikar in my platter. The protein part in a north Indian meal comes from dal, a lentil based side dish to go with the rice and rotis. I included a subtly spicy dal from Uttar Pradesh and a raita as I had made my tikar spicier. A bowl of yogurt / raita or even buttermilk aka chaas served at the end of the meal is protein packed too. The vegetable dish aka subzi is a side dish as well. And if the subzi happens to be a paneer (Indian cheese) based one which is common in some of the northern states, one would get an extra dose of protein. If I had paneer, I would have gone with it though it would have been a stereotypical choice. I went instead with aloo matar making my paneer detesting husband happy. I served dahi baingan too since I wanted to include a Kashmiri dish as well. I had jalebi in the platter as I had some homemade ones though a sweet dish is not eaten by everyone for every day meals. Simple vegetable based salad and chutney / pickle is a common part of the meal. We had carrot and cucumber salad and a mixed vegetable achaar.
My north Indian lunch platter had
Salad and pickle (Not pictured.)
Jeera rice
Phulkas - Wheat flour flat breads
Tikar - Rotis from Rajathan, made using maize and wheat flours, onion and spices.
Aloo matar - Potato and peas curry from Punjab
Dahi baingan - Kashmiri dish of fried brinjals in yogurt base
Lucknawi dal - A lentil dish from Uttar Pradesh that is lightly spiced and cooked adding milk.
Raita - A yogurt dip
Homemade jalebi - Dessert
I am today posting the recipe for Lucknawi dal which is a simple flavored one that I found online. What makes this dal unique is that here toor dal aka pigeon peas are initially cooked until done and further boiled in milk and then given a flavorful tempering of with cumin, chillies and asafoetida. One can add some garlic cloves as well in the seasoning. There is another version from Lucknow or Awadh cuisine called Sultani dal where the dal is cooked in a mixture of milk, yogurt and cream. Sure that sounds like a dish fit for the king. Lucknawi dal would be thinner than what it looks like in the above image. I had made it slightly thicker so that my seasoning doesn't sink and disappear.
Ingredients for dal:
1 cup toor dal / pigeon peas
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1/8 tsp. turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 cup milk
1 tbsp. ghee / oil
1 tsp. cumin seeds
4 red chillies, broken to bits (or to taste)
A pinch of asafoetida powder
Minced cilantro to garnish
Directions:
* Rinse and pressure cook toor dal along with 2 cups of water, green chillies and turmeric until soft. (The number of whistles depend upon the pressure cooker used and the quality of dal being used.)
* When the valve pressure is gone, remove the lid and add salt. Slightly mash the dal with the back of the ladle.
* Heat ghee / oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and red chillies. When the cumin starts to turn brown, add asafoetida. Immediately add the cooked dal to the pan.
* Next add a cup of milk and about a cup of water to the dal and simmer the mixture for about five minutes.
* Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.
Biryanis with an intricate blend of exotic spices, complex flavors, and tantalizing aromas have been mesmerizing the Indian culinary field for centuries now. They have become an integral part of the local cuisine so much that we forget that their origin lies in faraway lands, in the western parts of Asia. Biryani seems to have derived from the Persian word 'Birian' meaning ‘fried before cooking’. Though origins of the biryani is up for debates, according to one of the legends, the Turk - Mongol conqueror Taimur is believed to have brought biryani to India. Other story credits Mumtaz Mahal, the woman behind Taj Mahal for it's origins. The Mughals however are credited to spread it far and wide, with innovations that no longer resemble the original version where the meat was marinated overnight and grilled on tandoor.
The authentic and traditional, non-vegetarian varieties of biryanis which are regarded as gems in today's culinary world, were concocted by the royal chefs of Mughal kitchens and other regional Muslim rulers. Among them, the Nawabs of Lucknow along with the Hyderabdi Nizams were great patrons of biryanis. Awadhi biryani aka Lucknowi biryani which is considered a mild and delicately flavored biryani is a gift from Nawabi kitchens of Oudh aka Awadh.
Lucknowi biryani is a delicately spiced biryani and is most commonly paired with burrani, a garlic based raita. The original version is a meat based one where initially a yakhni stock from meat is prepared. It is slowly boiled along with spices for an hour or two so that the water used to cook the rice is well infused with the flavors. The biryani is then cooked in a dum pukhth method. It is a layered biryani that is done in three steps. Lucknowi biryani is a form of 'pukki birysni', 'pukki' meaning cooked. The meat (or vegetables here) and rice here are seperately cooked, then layered and the final cooking is done in a sealed handi, a huge cooking pot. The use of fragrant flavorings like gulab jal or the rose water, kewra water and edible ittar as the final touches to biryanis was / is a common practice, one prevalent since the medieval era in Persian cuisine, where the roots of biryani are believed to be in. I also need to mention that I saw some bloggers using yellow chili powder in the recipe. I however also went through recipes of chefs who have supposedly learnt it from Lucknow cooks who are masters of the art and didn't notice any chili powder additions in their recipes and so skipped it.
I made a vegetable based biryani that was mildly flavored. I have to admit this was one dish I failed miserably at my first attempt. This was not my first layered biryani but the first one I cooked for this marathon. I followed the original recipe to a T and ended up adding water at the end going against my instincts. Oh boy, the final dish was a such mushy one and the rice was all broken into bits which was only fit to trash. I got so mad at the failure of the recipe that instead of giving up, I surprisingly ended up cooking another batch immediately. I did a layered biryani but didn't realize that I spread the plain rice layer over top in the platter and the coloful part of rice is hiding underneath until it was time to edit images. Seems like that I didn't mix the rice enough and that's why it is looking like a white biryani.
Recipe source: Here
Ingredients for rice:
1 cup basmati rice
1 tsp. caraway seeds / shahjeera
2 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 black cardamom
1 green cardamom
1 bay leaf
Ingredients for the vegetable gravy:
3 to 4 tbsp. ghee (divided)
1 tsp. shahjeera / caraway seeds
2 cloves
1 star anise
1 mace
1 inch cinnamon stick
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. pepper corns
1 tbsp. ginger paste
1 tbsp. garlic paste
About 2.5 cups diced, mixed vegetables*
Salt to taste
1/2 to 3/4 cup yogurt
* I added peeled and diced carrots and potatoes, green beans cut into 1 inch pieces and green peas. Cauliflowers are an usual addition.
Ingredients for garnishing:
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. coarsely chopped mint leaves
Rose water as needed
Kewra water as needed
1 tbsp. unsalted butter / ghee
2 tbsp. warm milk + 2 pinches of saffron milk
Other Ingredients:
Wheat dough as needed if using to seal.
Prep work:
* Wash and soak rice in water for about 30 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
* Soak milk and saffron together in a small bowl and keep aside.
* Heat 2 tbsp. ghee in a pan and add sliced onions. Shallow fry them until golden brown and drain on absorbent towels. (One can add more oil and fry them.)
Part 1 - Cooking vegetable gravy:
* To the same pan, add caraway seeds and when they start to sizzle, add 2 cloves, star anise, mace, 1 inch cinnamon stick, nutmeg and peppercorns. Saute them.
* Next add ginger and garlic paste and saute until the raw smell leaves.
* Add vegetables and salt to the pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Lower the heat and add yogurt. Stir for few seconds, cover and cook until the vegetables are tender.
Part 2 - Cooking rice:
* While the vegetables are being done, prepare the yakhni to cook rice. Heat about 6 cups of water in a pot. Tie a tsp. of caraway seeds, 2 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 1 black cardamom, 1 green cardamom in a piece of muslin cloth and tie in a bundle. Add the bundle and bay leaves to the water. Let the water simmer for about 20 minutes so that spices infuse their flavor to the water.
* Bring water to a rolling boil and add salt. (When you taste water, it should feel a little salty.)
* Add the soaked and drained rice to the water and gently mix once. Do not cover and continue to cook on high flame, until the rice is 80% cooked. The rice should be almost done with a slight bite at the center of the grain when tasted. (It takes about 6 to 7 minutes.)
* Discard the spices in the cloth bundle and the bay leaves. Save some of the cooked water and transfer the rice to a colander. Rinse rice immediately with cold running water to avoid the rice from further cooking. Drain completely and stir the remaining ghee into the rice. Keep it aside.
Part 3 - Assembling the rice:
* Heat a iron griddle / tawa while assembling the layers.
(I was lazy to get my griddle out and used a old pressure pan instead.)
* Take a heavy bottomed pot, preferably a non stick one to assemble the biryani. Spread half of the fried onions at the base. Spread half the rice over onions. (I did the rice first and spread the onions over it.) Sprinkle half of the saffron milk.
* Then spread a layer of cooked vegetables and chopped mint.
* Then repeat the layers one more time. Rice would be the last layer, (I had some extra fried onions and so, sprinkled on top as well.) Sprinkle saffron water. Sprinkle rose water and kewra water over the rice evenly.
* Dot the rice with unsalted butter / ghee. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup saved water. (I did not use water and sprinkled only some to avoid the rice becoming mushy. The remaining 20% of the rice cooking is supposed to be done in dum style, cook in it's own steam.)
* Tightly wrap the pot with aluminium foil sheet and cover with a lid. Or just cover with a lid and seal the circumference of the pot and the lid with wheat flour dough.
* Set the stove to the lowest setting or to the lowest flame and place the covered pot on the griddle. Cook until the rice is cooked, about 20 to 25 minutes.
* Remove from heat and set aside for 5 minutes. Open the lid, fluff the rice and serve with burrani or any other spicy gravy.
So far in my Biryani / Pulao / Khichdi series,
A for Ambur Biryani
B for Basanti Pulao / Misthi Pulao
C for Corn - Fenugreek Greens Pulao
D for Donne Biryani
E for Ek Toap na Dal Bhaat
F for Fada ni Khichdi
G for Gutti Vankaya Biryani
H for Hyderabadi Vegetable Dum Biryani
I for Iyengar Puliyogare
J for Jaipuri Mewa Pulao
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#99.
