28 March
Happy Holika folks!
This year Holika or Holi would be a total miss, due to the pandemic situation. This would have been the 3rd year of celebration from the time we shifted to this society. But still it doesn't harm to at least cook a nice meal and enjoy it in the comfort of your home. We usually had a lovely Holika celebration every year in the society where all the ladies and gentlemen come together around the burning Holika and offer their prayers. The picture below is from the last year when Holika Dahan was celebrated. That was the last day before the whole world changed for us forever or at least for the next couple of years. In fact I had also skipped attending the community Holi last year, because already Pune had seen the first few cases of Covid.
The tradition of burning the Holika accounts for the myth that describes how young Prahlada, in spite of his demonic father’s opposition, worshipped Vishnu and was carried into the fire by the female demon Holika, the embodiment of evil, who was believed to be immune to the ravages of fire. Through Vishnu’s intervention, Prahlada emerged unharmed, while Holika was burned to ashes. The bonfires are intended to commemorate this event or rather to reiterate the triumph of virtue and religion over evil and sacrilege. This explains why objects representing the sickness and impurities of the past year—the new year begins immediately after Holi—are thrown into the bonfire, and it is considered inauspicious not to look at it. Moreover, people pay or forgive debts, reconcile quarrels, and try to rid themselves of the evils, conflicts, and impurities they have accumulated during the past year. The only wish we all have this year is to burn away the whole pandemic situation and bring back health to one and all. We already have a few cases within our society and I really wish everyone has a speedy recovery and we do not go into another complete lockdown. Fingers crossed.
I have a favorite vegetable in every season. For Summers, raw Jackfruit is my favorite. I can let go any meat dish for a good home cooked Jackfruit or Echor curry. The unripe or the raw jackfruit has a neutral taste and soaks up flavor well. The only downside of this is that its very tricky to clean it. I usually ask my vegetable vendor to clean and cut it for me. But since this time mom is around, she used the boti to cut the jackfruit into pieces.
Last week we got a beautiful Kathal from our produce market and it was a whole lot. The primary intent was to make it into Echorer torkari or Jackfruit curry but we had so much that I thought of making a biryani out of it for Holi. This biryani proves that, to make a delicious and mouth-watering biryani at home, you don't always need to have chicken or meat in it. Jackfruit Biryani is a perfect combination of meaty vegetable with long grains and fragrant basmati rice. It gets the delectable flavors with a mélange of spices and biryani masala. I also added dagadphul or rock flower and javitri to infuse more earthy flavors into the dish.
The outcome was beautiful, delectable, moist and meaty biryani. Perfect for the summer meals or even for a small get together that you might want to have on Holi. Try this out and I would guarantee you would fall in love with this fragrant dish.
Once again a very Happy Holi to one and all. May you all have a safe and healthy year ahead.
Soaking Time: 30 minutes
Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients for Kathal curry:
- Raw Jackfruit - 300 gm
- Baby potato - 2, halved (optional)
- Small Prawns - 1/4th cup (optional)
- Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
- Tomato - 1 medium
- Green Chilli - 2 medium
- Ginger - 1 inch
- Garlic Clove - 7-8
- Curd - 1 tbsp
- Whole Jeera - 1/4th tsp
- Cardamom - 2 (bruised)
- Cinnamon - 1 inch
- Bay Leaf - 1
- Clove - 2
- Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
- Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
- Red Chilli powder -1 tsp
- Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
- Salt & sugar as per taste
- Refined oil - 1/4th cup
Ingredients for Rice:
- Basmati or any aromatic rice- 150 gm
- Cardamom - 2 (bruised)
- Cinnamon - 1 inch
- Bay Leaf - 1
- Pepper corn - 4 to 5
- Clove - 2
- Dagad Phul (Rock Flower) - 2
- Javitri (Mace)- 1/2 a flower
- Ghee - 3 tsp
- Coconut Milk - 150 ml
- Salt & Sugar - as per taste
Ingredients for Garnish:
- Green Chilli - 4, slitted
- Saffron soaked milk - 2 tsp
- Beresta (Deep fried onions) - 1/2 cup
- Fried Cashewnuts - handful
- Pomegranate kernels - 1/4th cup
- Mint leaf (optional) - 2 to 3
Equipment:
- Non stick pan
- Deep Kadai
- Tawa
- Pressure Cooker
- Spatula
- Knife
Procedure:
1. Wash the rice well and soak it for 30 minutes. Drain the water after 30 minutes.
Note: The standard ratio for any biryani is 1:2 rice to the vegetable or meat.
2. Cut the jackfruit into cubes and blanch it with turmeric. Drain and keep aside.
3. Make a paste of tomato, garlic, ginger and green chilli
4. Make a thick slurry of coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder
5. Deep Fry thinly sliced onion to make the beresta.
6. Soak a few saffron strands into warm milk.
Procedure for Jackfruit Curry
1. In a non stick pan, heat oil. When the oil is hot temper it with bay leaf, whole jeera, cinnamon, cardamom and clove.
2. When fragrant, add the finely chopped onion. Fry till lightly browned.
3. Add the tomato, ginger, garlic, chilli paste. Sauté for 2-3 minutes
4. Add the slurry made of coriander, jeera, red chilli and turmeric powder. Fry till oil separates.
5. Now reduce the flame to lowest and add the curd. Stir it in the masala.
6. Add the blanched jackfruit pieces and halved potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes on medium flame.
7. Add the raw small prawns. This is an optional step. If you want to keep the biryani vegetarian then skip this. Cook for a minute.
Tip: The prawns add a lovely flavour to the jackfruit biryani.
8. Now transfer the whole curry to a pressure cooker. Add a little water if required. Cook for 1 whistle. Let the steam die down. If there is extra liquid in the curry then take it out and keep aside. We don't want a watery biryani!
Procedure for Rice
1. Take a deep bottomed kadai and add ghee.
2. When ghee is fragrant temper it with cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, peppercorn, dagadphul and javitri. Toss it for a minutes on medium flame till fragrant.
Note: If you do not have dagadphul, your can skip it. But adding dagadphul gives a nice earthy aroma to the biryani.
3. Add the soaked rice to the kadai and toss for a minute, take care not to break the rice.
4. Now measure equal parts of water and coconut milk ( 150 ml each) and add to the kadai. Fold in.
Tip: You can also cook the biryani entirely in dilute coconut milk instead of adding water for a richer taste. Please note that the coconut milk we are using here is not very thick. You can also mix coconut milk powder to full fat milk and prepare the coconut milk.
Note: Total liquid should be double of the amount of rice taken.
5. Adjust the salt and sugar. Give it a good stir.
6. Let it cook till 3/4th done.
Procedure for Assembly
1. Now we need to do the rest of the cooking on dum. So have a tawa placed below the deep bottomed kadai and reduce the heat to minimum.
2. By this time the water would be 95% soaked into the rice. Now on top of this 3/4th cooked rice, place a layer of the jackfruit curry.
3. Drizzle the saffron milk
4. Sprinkle the beresta, fried cashew nut and add a few slitted green chilli
5. Cook on dum for about 15 minutes.
Serving
Add a few kernels of pomegranate, some beresta and a few mint leaves. Serve hot with your choice of raita.
