Vegetable Biryani

I guess Vegetable Biryani is a favorite dish to most of us. It's good taste and aroma is driven from its ingredients which includes most of the spices. There are many methods for preparing Veg biryani. Here I present a simple method which is best suited for amateurs.

Ingredients:



Rice - 1.5 cup

Carrot -1 no

Beans - 7 nos

Potato - 2 no

Peas - 1/4 cup

Onion - 1 medium size, sliced

Tomato - 1 medium size, chopped

Coconut milk - 1 cup

Ginger - 1 inch

Garlic - 3 cloves

Coriander leaves - 4 string

Curry leaves - 1 string

Butter/Oil - 2 tablespoon

Poppy seeds - 1 teaspoon

Fennel seeds - 1 teaspoon

Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon

Bay leaves - 1/2 leaf

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon stick - 1 inch

Green chilli - 1

Cardamon - 3

Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Water - 3 cups



Method:



1) Wash carrot, beans, potato and peas well. Cut them along in an inch length slices.

2) Grind ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, poppy seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1 clove, 1/2 Cinnamon stick, green chilli and cardamon together in a mixer / food processor and make a paste out of them. While grinding don't add water. If required add only a tablespoon of water. Keep this paste aside.

3) Wash the basmati rice twice or thrice till the water used for washing becomes clear.

4) Take a pan and add 1/2 tablespoon of oil in it.  Add the washed rice and gently fry the rice for a minute. Keep aside the fried rice.

5) Take a steam cooker and add the remaining oil in it.

6) Add the remaining ingredients namely fennel seeds, cumin seeds, clove,1/2 Cinnamon stick and curry leaves. Add the mustard seeds and allow them to splutter.

7) Add onion and saute them till they turn translucent.

8) Add tomato and saute them till they are mashed completely.

9) Add the well ground masala paste (as said in step 2) with this and saute them again for few minutes. Make sure the flame is in medium / low level.Otherwise the masala paste might get burnt.

10) Add vegetables and sprinkle handful of water. Allow the vegetables to cook for sometime. It is enough if the vegetables are even half-cooked.

11) Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Mix it well.

12) Add roasted rice (as said in step 4) and then add 1 and 3/4 cups of water and a cup of coconut milk to it.

13) Mix well. Now it is the apt time to taste and see if anything is missing or gone wrong. Adjust salt or extra spice as it suits your taste.

14) Close the steam cooker using its lid and wait until it produces three whistles or less according to your rice type. (I usually wait for 3 whistles for the basmati rice).

15) When pressure releases from the cooker, open the lid and mix the rice gently.

16) Serve the vegetable biryani with raitha.

Note:

1) You can add any vegetable of your choice for Biryani.

2) I would suggest to follow the Basmathi rice and water ratio as instructed in the rice pack to get proper results. I usually follow 1:1 for rice and water for biryani for the rice what I use.

Energy Saving Ideas for Hotels & Resort & How Hotels can Go Green

Ways Hotels & Resorts are Saving Money on Utility Expenses 

Since starting our Energy Saving Home Improvement blog, we have added a few of the commercial uses of Spray Foam Insulation, Solar Powered Hot Water Heaters, Energy Monitoring Systems, Energy Efficient Roofing and other "Green" Building Materials that save on energy consumption.  In this blog we want to directly target hotel and resort owners in North Carolina & South Carolina specifically however, any other hotel or resort in areas of climate with extreme weather conditions, like the heat in the southeast, should read this blog post as well.  What we are going to talk about are "Green" Building Solutions for existing hotel/resort owners.  Most hotel/resort owners pay huge electricity bills, which is often one of the highest operating expenses a hotel will occur each year.  For example, in order to offer quality hotel service, many hotels offer controllable temperature rooms as a ammenity for customers, and to attract more business.  As we all know, when a guest is using the A/C in the summer on your bill, there probably running it full blast.  In order to offset these cost, hotel owners will raise the A/C temperature to 84 or more degrees, to keep the unit from running when vacant.   What Retro-Solutions Construction Company of Myrtle Beach, SC, & other "Green" Building construction advocates, offer to hotel and resort owners, is retrofitted energy saving solutions that can lower utility cost extremely.  Though installation price can be a big initial investment, energy savings will offset these cost within a short period of time, depending on what products you are interested in using.  If your looking for long term cost savings solution for your hotel or business, please read on.

Retrofitted Foam Insulation Systems

The first "green" building product we are going to talk about is retrofitted foam insulation systems.  With increase competition in the foam industry in the past decade, prices for retrofitting foam insulation have fallen dramatically.  With more commercial real estate developers incorporating foam insulation into new buildings, many existing commercial real estate owners, like hotels and resorts, have started to show interest in using retrofit foam technology as a way to reduce operating cost in hotels.  Spray foam insulation & boarded foam insulation are the most popular, other solutions such as wall foam insulation, blow foam insulation, and other expanding foam products have saved hotel owners big on heating and cooling bills. The same benefits retrofitted foam insulation offers homeowners, is also transferred to commercial building owners as well.  Foam Insulation can be installed in wood, and metal studded walls with little or no aesthetic damage.  Hotels & Resorts are constantly remodelling and updating hotel rooms, foam insulation has started to be included into budgets, and paying off tremendously, with return on investment being less than 10 years in energy savings. Here are some of the advantages that hotel and resort owners are seeing from installing retrofitted foam insulation during remodelling projects:

• Energy Savings - 20% or more energy savings
• Soundproofing - foam insulated walls reduce sound & a great ammenity to offer customers.
• Pest Control - tight fitting foam seals reduce areas of entries for pest.
• Sustainable Living Conditions - improves air quality in hotel rooms.
• Comfortability - more comfortable temperatures for customers in hotel rooms.
• Enviroment Friendly - Let customers know your concerned about the planet.

Solar Energy Powered Appliances - Solar Powered Water Heating

Another big cost that many hotel and resort owners incur are hot water heating cost, providing hot water for laundry services, hotel customer showers and needs, kithcens, pools, hot tubs, cleaning and many other uses.  Heating water uses a lot of energy, and is a big part of utility cost for hotel and resort owners in North Carolina and South Carolina.  With rising prices in gas and electricity, many hotel owners are looking to "Green" Building Products for solutions to lower hot water heating cost in their hotel or resort.  With the development of solar energy products, their has been a variety of development in solar energy powered hot water heaters, and solar energy powered pool heaters.  With great sunshine in the Carolina's hotel owners are seeing tremendous energy savings by installing hybrid Solar Energy Powered appliances like hot water heaters and pool heaters.  With most hotel building having flat roofing systems, solar panels for heaters can be installed out of the general view of the public.  Commercial buildings also generally have accessible conduits and ways to transfer any kind of wiring that is required for installation, that also helps improve overall installation cost of installing solar energy powered appliances to save on utility bills.  Here are some of the most popular Solar Powered Appliance product hotels and resorts are using to save on utility cost:

• Solar Energy Powered Hot Water Heaters - saves $300 or more per unit
• Solar Energy Powered Pool Heaters - saves up to 80% on pool heating in some cases.
• Solar Energy Powered Fans
• Solar Powered Lighting
• many other solar energy solutions for hotels.

Energy Efficient Roofing Systems - Solar Integration

With many hotels and resorts experiencing the extreme heat conditions of the southeast, technology in energy efficient roofing systems can save hotel owners big on energy bills as well.  Roofing product manufacturer's are investing more and more money into research & development for commercial roofing systems that offer energy saving to building owners.  With a variety of products from spray foam, plastic, rubbers, and solar inegration into existing roofing materials, offering commercial building owners a variety of solutions for reducing energy cost.  With clear skies most of the year, sun can heat up buildings thru the roofing systems tremendously thru a process called convection.  Roofing product manufacturer's have developed ways to reduce energy loss thru convection in a number of different ways.  One of the most popular ways of reducing convection of heat into the building thru the roof is, the more frequent use of roofing products with whiter surfaces to improve reflectivity of heat coming from the sun.  With nearly every commercial roofing system being insulated in one form or another, improvements in roof insulation materials and coatings has also offered tremendous energy savings to hotel and resort owners in the Carolina's.  Here is a list of some of the most popular roofing systems being used today in re-roofs and new construction in hotels and resorts:

• Spray Foam Roofs - Spray Foam Insulated, variety of coatings, durability, huge energy savings.
• White TPO - white coatings offer reflectivity to the sun's heat reducing convection
• White PVC - better fitting systems similar to TPO, but offer a higher performance.
• Elastometric Coatings - Coatings are being used on existing systems to improve reflectivity.
• Solar Integrated Flat Roofing Systems - Solar cells integrated into TPO, PVC, and others. High Investment Cost, High Return on Savings.
• Other High Performance Roofing Systems that offer overall improved energy efficiency.

Becoming A More Enviromentally Friendly Hotel or Resort

As you can see, there are a variety of options for hotel and resort owners looking to improve energy efficiency in their hotels and buildings.  With not much new commercial construction going on in 2011, many hotel owners are looking at improving existing properties, versus building new.  The great thing about the "Green" Building Industry is that everyone is striving to reach the same goal, and that is reducing energy consumption, thus lowering utility & power cost to the consumer.  If your reducing energy consumption in any way as a business, your part of the "Green" building solution, to be more enviormentally friendly businesses. If you are a hotel owner in the North or South Carolina area, please call us at 706-951-0158 for more information, more contact information is listed below.  Thanks for reading our blog, and please comment to let us know what other "Green" builing materials you want to read about.

Retro-Solutions Construction Company Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 706-951-0158 http://www.scroofingcontractors.com Energy Efficient Roofing Systems | Spray Foam Insulation | Wall Foam Insulation | Crawl Space Encapsulations | Solar Energy Powered Hot Water Heaters | Solar Energy | Energy Monitoring | Standing Seam Metal Roofs | Tile Roofs | Slate Roofs | Historic Home Retrofits |

Paper flowers update

Here are some pictures of the flowers that i have made so far