KING FISH BRIYANI

King Fish Biryani
Ingredients
For marinating the fish
    King fish-5 or 6 pieces
    Chilly powder- 2 tsp
    Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
    Ground Garam masala- ½ tsp
    Lemon juice- 1 tsp
    Curry leaves- 1 sprig
    Salt- to taste
    ginger garlic paste
  
For frying fish

    Oil- enough for frying

For making masala
   Green chillies 4
    Oil used for frying fish- 3 tbsp
    Onion, large cut thin long- 4 no’s
    Salt- litte
    Tomato, chopped- 1 large
    Chilly powder- ½ tsp
    Yogurt (not sour)- 4 tbsp
    garammasala-1 tbsp
    ginger garlic paste
    mint leaves
    coriander leaves.

For making rice

    Basmati rice- 2 cups
    Water- 3½ cups
    Salt- as needed

Topping  ingredients:
    saffron
    1 cup of milk.
    mix saffron in one cup of milk keep aside.

Instructions

    Wash the king fish steaks under running water,
     if you want you could cut the steak into
     medium sized pieces.
     Marinate the king fish with the above mentioned ingredients for marination,
     keep aside for 15 minutes.
    Shallow fry the fish in enough oil till it starts to turn golden in color.
    Avoid over frying the fish,
    Keep aside  on a paper towel.
    Place a large pan over medium heat, add 3 tbsp of oil used for frying fish.
    Add cinnamon sticks,cloves and elaichi.Allow it to splutter.
    Add  green chilli,then mint leaves,then corianders leaves to it  .
    cook covered till it turns tender.
    Add the ginger garlic paste,then add the onions turn tender.
    saute for a few minutes.
    Onion should turn really tender and well cooked.
    Add chopped tomato and cook till it gets mashed.
    Add chilly powder and turmeric powder then garam masala  to it, combine well.
    Now, add yogurt, combine well and cook covered for 5 minutes.
    Remove the lid and let all the water in the masala dries up.   
    Remove from the heat and keep aside covered.
Cooking Rice.
     Wash the rice taken in a large sieve under running water.
     Heat the pan with 4 cups of water.
     Allow it to boil.
     Then add the rice.
     Allow it cook half boiled.
     Atlast drain the water from the rice.
Layering:   
    In a large pan, spread half of the  masala as the first layer.
    Top it with half of the rice as the second layer.
    Top it with fry fish as the third layer.
    Again repeat layering with  masala, rice,fry fish finally top it with saffron milk.
    Close the pan tightly with aluminum foil and then with its lid.
    Place the pan on low flame and cook for 10 minutes.
    After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and keep aside covered.
    While serving, combine the rice and fish masala together, serve on a plate along with raita .

Notes
Adjust the spice level according to your needs,
 if you like it spicy increase the amount of chilly powder or green chillies accordingly.
This biryani, in fact all biryanis taste better when it sits for sometime,
 it would taste even more better the next day.

ulundhu vadai

INGREDIENTS:

WHOLE URAD DAL       1 AND 1/4 CUP
GREEN CHILLI       3-4 NO
SALT               AS NEEDED
ASAFOETIDA       1/4 TSP
CURRY LEAVES      FEW
SUJI RAVA         3 TABLE SPOONS
CORIANDER LEAVES  FEW
GINGER     A SMALL PIECE(OPTIONAL)
SMALL ONIONS      10-12 NO
WATER(TO GRIND)   APPROX 1/4 CUP
OIL FOR FRYING.

METHOD:

Soak the urad dal for an hour .

1.Drain the water completely.

2.Grind the urad dal along with green chillies , asafoetida,curry leaves, ginger and coriander leaves.
3.Normally wet grinder is most preferred for making ulundu vadai.
4.While grinding the vadais do not add too much of water as we normally add while grinding idli dosa batter.
5.Just sprinkle water. Else the vadas will drink too much of oil.

6.I just added extra curry leaves and suji rava.

7.Peel of the skin of the small onions and finely chop them.add this onion curry leaves and suji rava to the batter.
9.Normally my mother uses banana leaf for making the round shapes.
10.Here i used a zip lock cover.we can use any kind of plastic cover.
11.Just before making the vadas add salt to the batter, never add while grinding else the batter will become watery.
12.While making vadais keep a cup of water in a wide vessel .
13.Just wet your hands (before making each vadais) and take a medium ball sized batter in your hand and place it in the zip lock cover

14.Just pat the batter slightly and make a hole in the center.
15.Heat the oil in a pan.
16.The oil should be very hot.
17.Just carefully place the vadais in the batter and keep the flame in medium.

18.Flip it over after 2 minutes and fry till golden brown.

19.If the oil is not hot the vadais will drink more oil and if it is very hot the inside portion will not get cooked.
20.Drain it in a kitchen towel.
21.Repeat the same process for rest of the batter.
22.Enjoy hot , crispy vadais with coconut chutney and Sambar.

Note:

1.If using mixie for grinding the urad dal use the pulse option
2.For more quantity always use grinder else the heat generated while grinding in the mixie will not make the vadais fluffy.
3.Always grind the batter smoothly into a fine paste, else the vadais will become hard and rubbery.
4.Do not soak urad dal for more than 2 hours , else the vadais will drink too much of water.
5.If by any chance the batter turns watery just add a tblsp of rice flour.
6.My mom usually add a tblsp of rice while soaking the urad dal. This will give more crispy vadais.but i added suji rava in this it too gives more crispy.