Easy Nawabi Style Shrimp Biryani! Mom’s secret recipes

This delicious Prawn Biryani, prepared in the traditional South Indian Nawabi style, is a quick one-pot dish full of aroma and flavor that is unique and loved by everyone.

Biryani, a one-pot dish
Biryani is not a complicated dish that involves putting together a whole bunch of countless spices and other ingredients and requires an elaborate process as some people might think. . But it is a one-pot dish that requires a special technique, a certain ratio, and some specific spices that enhance the flavor rather than overpowering the dish’s main ingredient.

How is biryani made?
Biryani is a rice dish prepared with meat, chicken, shrimp or vegetables. Biryani prepared in Chennai/Madras is known in the South Indian Muslim community for its great unique taste and taste. It is the city that lies in the southernmost part of India, the city where the Nawabs once lived and ruled and was famous for its lavish eating habits and its royal kitchens where many delicious dishes were prepared……. Therefore it must have originated from here.

Biryani’s unique taste and subtle taste
It has that unique taste and subtle flavor because it is not overloaded with spices and uses minimal ingredients but in the right proportion to preserve and preserve the flavor of meat, whether it is chicken, lamb, veal, fish, shrimp or vegetables.

Why is Chennai Biryani so unique and delicious?
We don’t mix up flavors by adding chicken broth to prawns or vegetable biryani etc. The idea is to retain the flavor of the meat you’re cooking with and let the rice cook in its juices so it absorbs the flavor of the meat. It is this underlying concept of cooking technique that gives our biryani a remarkable flavor and taste. We keep it simple but delicious!

How to make Chennai style prawn biryani?
For this shrimp biryani, we simmer the shrimp in the curry for a few minutes to release all of their shrimp flavor. There is no need to marinate the shrimp by hand beforehand or to fry them and take them out only to add them at the end before serving, otherwise all the flavor will be lost. That’s why the shrimp should cook in the curry in its own juice. When the rice is layered on top of the prawn curry, it absorbs all the prawn flavor and tastes divine. And something else important is a clear “no” to adding chicken broth to shrimp curry. It doesn’t help at all and just destroys the taste and aroma. Check out the video below and try the following recipe carefully step by step and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Ingredients:
25 raw jumbo shrimp
1 1/2 cups Tilda basmati rice
1 x 2″ cinnamon stick
6 cloves
6 cardamom
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 1/2 large onions sliced
6-8 green chili peppers
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 medium-sized ripe plum tomatoes
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
a pinch of saffron
1 sprig of coriander
a few fresh mint leaves
Salt as needed

Instructions:

1. De-seed, clean and wash the shrimp three or four times in clean water. Set them aside. Lightly wash the basmati rice four or five times until the water runs clear and let it soak for at least 20 minutes. Do not break the rice when washing.
2. Heat oil in a pot. Add the whole spices followed by the sliced ​​onions. Fry the onions until golden brown.
3. Add ginger garlic paste and turmeric powder. Fry, stirring gently to get rid of the raw smell. Add tomatoes and salt. Cover and cook for 2 minutes to soften slightly.
4. Moisten the onion and tomato masala with a little water if it is too dry. Then add yogurt, followed by green chilies, shrimps, salt, a few fresh mint leaves and chopped coriander. Stir gently to mix well.
5. Cover and simmer. After 2 minutes, stir carefully again so that the masala does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Then cover and simmer for another 4 minutes until the oil has risen to the top.
6. Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil in another pot. Add the soaked basmati rice, season with salt and mix well.
7. Check the rice after one or two cooks. When the rice is 75% cooked, turn off the heat and drain the rice in a colander or colander.
8. Immediately pour the rice over the shrimp curry in the pot. Top the rice with some fresh mint leaves and chopped coriander. Drizzle some *saffron water over the rice.
9. Then cover the pot and place it in the oven preheated to 200°C for 10 minutes.
10. When ready, place the biryani pot on the counter for 5 minutes to allow all the juice to be absorbed by the rice. Then gently mix the rice by pushing the flat spatula in from the sides and turning it over so that the curry at the bottom mixes with the rice.
11. You can also place it in the hot oven (which is turned off) for 5 minutes before serving to keep it hot.
12. Enjoy the prawn biryani with yogurt and mint chutney.

*Saffron Water – Crush a few strands of saffron in a mortar and pestle. Pour 1 tablespoon of hot water over it, then mash the saffron with the pestle and mix it well with the water. This will give you a nice orange saffron solution that you can use in the biryani.

Notes:

1. If you follow all the steps carefully you will get the best results.
2. Using fresh ginger garlic paste and ripe plum tomatoes gives the best flavor.
3. You can also steam it on the stove, but we recommend using a thick-bottomed pan.
4. Do not add water after adding shrimp. This makes the curry runny, and cooking the shrimp for a long time to reduce the curry content actually makes them tougher.
5. Using fresh and large prawns enhances the taste of the biryani.

Recipe