Chicken Biryani using Coconut Milk

Yummmm!!! What an aroma? Who doesn't like biryani's delightful aroma? It makes ourselves to feel more and more hungry. A one pot meal 100% satisfy our taste buds. I was curiously waiting for blogging this recipe when I got wonderful feedback from my husband. He said this is the wonderful biryani prepared by me ever. I am very much pleased. :-)

When We (Me and My husband) visited Selvi aunty's home, she treated us with this delicious biryani. Many thanks to her for sharing this recipe.



Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves - 3

Ingredients:



Chicken Drumsticks - 6 pieces / 1/2 kg

Rice - 1.5 cups

Thick Coconut Milk - 1.5 cup (fresh/can)

Water -1.5 cup

Mint leaves - 1/4 cup

Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Ginger -1 inch piece

Garlic - 2 big cloves

Green chillies - 2 nos

Onion - 1 large

Tomato - 1 large

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoon

Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 4

Bay leaves - 1

Cinnamon - 2 inch slice

Oil - 1 - 2 tablespoon



To Marinate Chicken:



Curd - 3 tablespoon

Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon / to taste

Method:



1) Wash chicken pieces well and marinate them with the given ingredients for marinate.

2) Keep in fridge for 30 minutes.

3) Mean while wash and soak basmathi rice for 30 minutes.

4) Grind ginger, garlic and green chilli to a paste and keepit  aside.

5) Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in wide pan / cooker.

6) Add cinnamon, crushed cloves, cardamom and bay leaves when the oil is hot. Allow the ingredients to get brown.

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

8) Add ginger, garlic and green chilli paste and saute for 1 minute.

9) Add tomatoes and stir till the tomato completely mashes.

10) Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, mint leaves , coriander leaves and salt.

11) Saute till the raw smell of everything goes well.

12) Add the chicken drumsticks to this and without adding water, stir in high heat for 4 minutes.

13) Again reduce the flame to low and cook till the chicken is well cooked.

14) Add coconut milk and water. Give a stir and then add rice.

15) Mix well and cover using a lid.

16) Cook till rice is boiled well by stirring occasionally. If you are keeping rice in Pressure cooker cover and wait for 2 whistles.

17) Serve hot with any raita.

Note:

1) Adjust the water quantity according to your rice type.

2) The yogurt/curd added with chicken reduces the spice level. so make sure to add more red chilli powder than the usual quantity.



Sending this rice to Rice Recipes Event by Sameena.

Godhumai halwa/ Thirunelveli Halwa

For the month of July, the Indian Cooking Challenge is visiting the halwa town of South India - Thirunelveli.  The Thirunelveli halwa is very soft, loaded with ghee, which will slide down your tongue, so effortlessly, that will leave you asking for more.  The halwa is truly irresistible that you will forget all the calories loaded in each spoon fulls that you consume.

Srivalli gave various recipes from fellow bloggers to try from. I chose to do from Latakka. For me, Thirunelveli halwa is always the scoop able type and not in the form of pieces.  It took  a solid one hour to get the glossy, soft halwa. The effort was worth it.

You need


Whole wheat grains - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups ( I used 2 1/2 cups)
Water - 3 cup +1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
Cashew- 10 nos
Food Color - a pinch

Method


Preparing the wheat milk

Wash and soak the wheat grains in enough water for around 20 hours or a day. Grind the wheat in a mixer grinder or wet grinder. Strain the ground wheat to extract the milk.  If you are grinding in the mixer, add some water and grind again to extract the milk. You can repeat this once more if you feel there is some milk left. I ground in the wet grinder. So it was ground to almost fine paste. So got all the milk at once. 

Leave the milk to stand for a minimum of 5 hours. Drain the water which floats on top of the milk so that you are left with the thick milk which gets collected at the bottom. I got 1 cup of  milk.

Making the halwa

Add 3 cups of water to the 1 cup of milk. Take a heavy bottom vessel or kadai. Take 3 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water. Bring the syrup to one string consistency. Add a pinch of color to the syrup. Then add the diluted milk to the sugar syrup. Mix well. From this stage, its non stop stirring for 45 minutes. Another pair of 

helping hands will be good too.  When the mixture thickens, you can start adding the ghee at intervals.

When the ghee is added, it will float initially. Later, it will be absorbed. 

As it gets cooked, it will turn glossy and thick. It will not stick to the bottom of the pan. When you tilt the vessel, the halwa would come together and slide easily.  Add the cardamom powder and roasted cashews to it.

 Scoop and enjoy hot halwa. On cooling the halwa will turn thick but will be soft. 

I added 2 1/2 cups of sugar. It was sweet enough for us. If you want it it be really sweet, I will suggest adding 3 cups. I am sure if my Dad tasted it, he would have told its not sweet enough.  If you want to make into pieces, transfer the halwa to a greased plate. Smooth the top and leave it to cool and slice it. I added very little color to make it look close to the Thirunelveli halwa, which has a brown color. 

Wheat Halwa / Tirunelveli Halwa for Indian Cooking Challenge (ICC) / Godhuma Halwa step by step | Diwali Sweets Recipes

The chosen dish for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge is Wheat Halwa/Tirunelveli Halwa. This is my first month of participation and I am truly excited about the challenge. ICC is all about traditional cooking and trying out Indian cultural recipes. In this fast moving world, we all have traditional cooking mostly only in our memories. Every month a traditional recipe from different regions