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Ruchik Randhap

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Egg Dum Biryani


On a boring weekday when I can’t think of anything interesting to cook & my meal plan has gone for a toss, this is egg-jactly what I love to prepare! Eggs! Love them or hate them, they are probably the most versatile among all edible things. Cook them in savouries or use them in baking – there’s an unending list of things you can do with eggs to make sure you get your dose of protein. 
When I was working, my colleague who is a pure vegetarian Tam Brahm once told me that when she was travelling to the Far East she asked for a vegetarian breakfast on board the flight. Well, what appeared on her plate wasn’t exactly vegetarian – she was served eggs sunny side up! This was because in certain flight zones eggs & seafood are actually considered vegetarian. Strange but true. In India, while strict vegetarianism is still practised by many, there are a lot of ovo-vegetarians who take eggs as part of their otherwise vegetarian diet.
While we can still debate endlessly about what came first, the Chicken or the Egg, there’s no denying that Eggs taste delicious in whatever form they are eaten – hard boiled, soft boiled, fried, poached, baked or scrambled! (they say there are 101 ways to cook eggs! They are a simple and no-fuss form of eating your food. 

I think my blog would be incomplete if I didn’t have an Egg Biryani recipe added to my collection. R simply loves Egg Biryanis and since I love to try out new Biryani & Pulao recipes, I ventured out to hunt for a good recipe online. We were quite pleased with the outcome as it was a very satisfying meal. It was the goodness of Eggs combined with the goodness of Rice and both R & I reminisced about the our favourite restaurants in Mangalore where Egg Biryanis used to be served. 
While Eggs figure out on our weekly menu usually in the form of hard boiled eggs cooked in a curry or as scrambled/fried eggs for breakfast, I have decided to make the biryani at least once a month from now onwards – Biryanis as you know are a complete meal by themselves, it’s just that you need to spend a little extra time and effort preparing them, but the outcome is always worth it!




Egg Dum Biryani
Serves 4

You Need:

  • 6 eggs
  • 1-1/2 cups basmati rice
  • olive oil as required (or ghee)

For the masala

  • 2 medium onions sliced
  • 1 large tomato chopped fine
  • 1/4 cup mint leaves
  • 1/4 cup coriander leaves
  • 1 level tsp chilli pwd (adjust as per taste)
  • 2 green chillies slit
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
  • 1 level tsp biryani masala (I used Shaan Biryani masala)
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
  • 1/2 cup curds (yogurt) beaten to creamy consistency
  • 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
  • 2 tsp lime juice

For the rice

  • 2 cardamoms
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 inch cinnamon
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • salt to taste
  • oil or ghee
  • 2-3 coriander stalks

For garnishing during the layering

  • 1/4 cup raisins & cashew nuts
  • 2-3 sprigs mint leaves roughly chopped
  • 1 large onion sliced fine
  • a few strands of saffron
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • oil or ghee
Method:

Boiling the eggs:
Place the eggs in a wide, deep pan filled with enough water to cover them and bring the water to a rolling boil. Continue to boil  for 12 minutes. Turn off the flame, transfer to cold water & peel off the shells. Slit each egg vertically halfway. Keep aside. 
Preparing the garnishing for the layering
In a thick bottomed pan heat the oil or ghee & fry the sliced onion till golden brown. Take care not to burn it as it will taste bitter. Remove & keep aside. In the same oil/ghee fry the raisins & cashewnuts. Remove & keep aside.
Prepare the saffron milk by dissolving the saffron strands in 2 tbsp warm milk. Keep aside for at least 10minutes before layering

Preparing the masala:
In a large pan heat the oil and fry the sliced onions till they turn pale pink. Toss in the roughly chopped mint & coriander leaves, slit green chillies, chopped tomatoes one by one and fry for about 30 seconds each. Add in the ginger garlic paste, garam masala, biryani masala and fry for another 2 minutes till it is well blended. 
Add the boiled eggs and continue to saute till the eggs are well coated with the masala. Add the beaten curds and mix well and continue to saute till the oil separates. Do this on a medium low flame. Add the lime juice and turn off the heat.
Preparing the rice:
Wash & soak the rice for about 10-12 minutes, drain & keep aside. In a deep pan, heat some oil/ghee and toss in the slightly crushed cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, star anise & bay leaf. Fry for a few seconds and add the drained rice. Fry for a couple of minutes and add freshly boiled water in the ratio of 1:1-1/2 (for every one cup of rice use one & half cups of water). So for 1-1/2 cups of rice as per this recipe, you need to use 2-1/2 cups of water, this results in rice that is 90% cooked and that is ideal for ‘dum’ style of cooking where the rice will get completely cooked in its own steam while it is placed on ‘dum’. Add the crumbled stock cube and stir to dissolve it. add the lime juice and check salt to taste. Toss in the chopped coriander stalks.
When the water comes to a full boil, reduce to sim, cover the pan with a tightly fitting lid, place a weight on it so no steam escapes and cook on very slow flame for 8 minutes. Do not open the lid in between. After 8 minutes, open the lid, gently fluff up the rice with a fork and cover for another minute or two.
Layering the rice & eggs – The grand finale:
Preferably grease a large deep pan with a little ghee and place half the number of eggs & the masala at the base. Spread half the cooked rice on top of it. Sprinkle the chopped coriander, fried onions, raisins & cashew nuts. Repeat with the remaining egg mixture, rice and garnishing.
Sprinkle the surface with the saffron milk. Cover the pan with a well fitting lid. You can also cover the pan first with aluminium foil so that no steam escapes. 
Place the biryani vessel on a tawa and cook on dum for 15-20 minutes. Let the flame be very low.

Serving:
While serving dig in all the way down and remove the layers of rice & egg mixture onto a serving dish. Garnish if desired with any leftover mint leaves, nuts, raisins or fried onions. Serve hot with a simple raitha

Adapted from: Padma’s Kitchen

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Comments

  2. Anonymous says

    Hello Shireen,

    Your recipes are just amazingly authentic. I have downloaded quite a few of your recipes and I must say most of them have produced dishes that have been comparable to those tasted by me in Mangalore, made by the elders who were reputedly very good cooks of their time. Quite a culinary voyage.

    Keep up the fabulous work. You should bring out a book. I for one would definitely buy it.

    Cheers!

    Vincent

    Reply

  7. Bharathy says

    One of the authentic Biriyani recipes I am seeing after a while! the long grain and the caramelised onions itself is a treat!
    Wonderful detailed recipe, girl! 🙂

    Reply

  14. Michelle Peters - Jones says

    Shireen, this biriyani looks too good! So simple and elegant, and I can only imagine that the flavours must be just stunning. We all love biriyani in this house, and I make it all the time too… but I must admit I've never tried just simple egg biriyani before… how weird is that? Now that you have tantalised me (imagine, its 9.30 PM here and I had dinner, but now I am hungry again after looking at this biriyani :-))

    Reply

  19. Manju says

    This reminds me that I have pics for a biryani post in my drafts and I better get to it before I forget the recipe 😀

    This looks soo good that I wanna make some right now

    Reply

  23. San says

    Lip smacking egg dum biryani shireen. Glad to follow your beautiful space. An egg a day keeps my craving away, love to try your version very soon.

    Reply

  25. Anonymous says

    Shireen, I actually tried it yesterday and it exactly came out the way it has been clicked by you. Thou it is Lent season rite now My hubby and his friend relished it lovingly. They simply appreciated me for it. aqnd i know that the credit goes to you.

    Thanks for this recipe Will send you the pictures of the biriyani prepared by me soon.

    Reply

  26. Shireen Sequeira says

    @ Anonymous: So glad to hear that!! I am so happy that the biryani turned out good & fetched you compliments – which are solely the result of your effort and following the recipe properly. Will wait for your pictures! Thanks so much!!

    Reply

  27. Shireen Sequeira says

    @ Sonia: Sorry I missed your comment. There is no real substitute for biryani masala as it is usually a mix of several spices. You can use a concoction of red chilli powder+pepper powder+coriander+cumin powders and a dash of garam masala powder or skip it altogether. Good luck!

    Reply

  28. Anonymous says

    Hi Ruchik,

    This is the first recipe I tried from your site and it was lovely.

    thanks for sharing ur recipies with us.

    Samara

    Reply

  31. its jus me says

    Made this today. I made the lazy version. Skipped layering and dum. Once the egg mixture was ready jus added it to the rice while it was cooking on sim (adjusting water level accordingly). Also skipped the garnishing but was still really yummy. The chicken stock gives a nic chicken biryani flavour

    Reply
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