Punjabi cuisine is the most well known cuisine not only in India but around the world too. Punjabi food who doesn’t love them?
Well I have never been to punjab but the i love the parathas curries and flavoured rice. Punjabis are great lovers of wheat, they hardly cook plain rice for regular meals. Their rice is flavored with cumin/or a varied number of spices. To have a quick tour of the cuisine of Punjab visit Richa’s As Dear as Salt who is hosting Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI for Punjabi Cuisine.
Handi Vegetable Biryani
All you need:
for the paste:
quartered – onions 1
ginger – 2 inch
garlic pods – 5
To make Rice:
Basmati Rice – 1.5 cups
whole garam masala
bay leaves – 2
cinamon – 1 large cut into medium pieces
black pepper – 1 tsp
cloves – 6-8
others:
chilli powder – 3 tsp
tumeric powder -1 tsp
garam masala powder- 2 tsp(punjabi everest)
yogurt/2 tbsp
tomatoes – 1
mixed vegetables(carrot/beans/cauliflower/peas)
to fry
cashews – 8
onions sliced thinely – 1
capsicum sliced – 1
- Make a paste of onion, ginger and garlic.
- Soak rice for half an hour. Cook rice in salted water and whole garam masala until grainy. keep aside let it cool.
- Take oil in a kadai, fry cashews to gloden brown drain keep aside.
- Fry onions until crisp drain and keep aside. Fry capsicums until soft.
- Half boil vege like beans/carrot/potato in microwave for 2 mins, preserve the stock for gravy.
- Take a wok to make the curry, heat 2 tbsp ghee/oil
- Fry the paste until raw smell dissappears, add the masala powders and tomatoes cook until tomatoes are done
- Add mixed veges, salt Bring to boil add curds. stir well until oil seperates out.
- Take a oven proof casserole grease oil or butter
- Add the cooked1/4 of the cooked rice. Spread half of the curry. Add again 1/4 of rice spread the half of onions, cashews capsicums, coriander leaves. Again repeat with rest of the rice
- Seal the caserole and bake it for 15 mins at 230 c.
- Serve hot rice with any accompanied raita.
Recipe source: Bawarchi.com
Mushroom Mattar Makani (source: Tarla Dalal cook book)

All you need
Mushrooms – 2 cups(i used button mushrooms)
Boiled peas – 1/2 cup
For paste
onions – 1 sliced
tomatoes – 1 cut into chunks
garlic pods – 4
ginger – 2 tsp
cashews – 4 cut into pieces
Boil all the above and grind into paste
Others
jeera/cumin seeds – 1 tsp
kasuri methi – 2 tsp
garam masala – 1 tsp (punjabi Everest)
chilli powder – 2 tsp
Cream – 1 tbsp
coriander leaves for garnish
Method:
- Take oil/ghee in a kadai add cumin seeds when hot.
- Add the masala paste once the cumin seeds are light brown color
- Simmer for few minutes until oil seperates
- Add all the masala powders, salt and cream
- Add mushrooms and peas and bring to boil. Garnish with coriander leaves
- Serve hot with parathas.





July 2, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Both the recipes are too good. They are looking very tasty
The presentatin for Biryani is gr8
July 2, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I missed sme of your recent entries…how come?did you post it altogether recently//coz you were away as well!!!
Nice entry for RCI…didnt know all these belong to Punjabi..
Love Handi biriyani with mushroom masala..Thatz the ULTIMATE combo…hope you had a fabulous treat with those two!!:)
July 2, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Your entry’s very inviting!
July 2, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Tasty Combination. Slight variations in the spices give a different to Biryani everytime. The Mushroom Makhani looks delicious.
July 2, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Sorry Roopa should have read “Slight variations in the spices give a different taste to Biryani everytime”
July 3, 2007 at 12:17 am
Both the dishes look delicious.
I’m going to try the musroom for sure.
July 3, 2007 at 7:06 am
i have mushrooms. will try your dish.
July 3, 2007 at 10:06 am
wow! that looks awesome, the gravy looks so good. did you pressure cook the masala or just boil in sauce pan?
biryani looks yum, very well presented, loved it.
thanks
July 3, 2007 at 8:38 pm
that is a delicious entry. looks yummmmm!!!
July 4, 2007 at 2:15 am
They both are looking very YUM!…..colourful dish……love it…
July 4, 2007 at 10:08 am
Hi Roopa! vegetable biryani looks yummy. I want to try this. Great entry too. Thanks for sharing.
July 4, 2007 at 2:47 pm
perfect meal combo!!!! Love your version of Mushroom makhni and if you have biryani to go with it!!!! WAH! Great entry
July 5, 2007 at 12:46 am
Ooh! Both dishes are yummy and goes well together as well.Next time ,cook both on the same day!:D
Love the Handi Biryani Roopa.Great entries:)
July 5, 2007 at 5:50 am
Both dishes look yum. Somehow I have never tried to cook biryani and never even heard of mushroom matar makhani.
Thx forr sharing these recipes.
July 5, 2007 at 8:45 pm
oh ho ho ho….
looks like someone is busy cooking all yummy punjabi food. bk in my college days we had one small dhaba few kms away from coll n we friedns used to go there in our bike and eat food in dhaba style with all those lorry drivers sitting around
it used to be fun….
July 6, 2007 at 12:22 am
Your mushroom is mouth watering and the rice too.
nice recipes.
Both are great
July 6, 2007 at 1:51 am
excellent one ….yummy and tasty ..both looks great
July 6, 2007 at 2:08 am
Hey, the biryani looks wonderful. I’m sure it would have tasted gr8.
July 6, 2007 at 11:28 am
Hi Roopa, the biryani and mushrooms both look wonderful — I’d love to have for a midnight snack!! With your recipe too, I now have a good reason to get some whole garam masala so I can try
Linda
July 6, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Loved both the recipes, especially the second one…love mushrooms..
July 6, 2007 at 9:33 pm
oooooooh biriyani and mushrooms … Iam fasting today and I am drooling over here looking at all these lovely recipes.
July 6, 2007 at 9:57 pm
That mushroom makhani looks too good. Have never tried it
July 7, 2007 at 12:56 am
Roopa, the biryani and mushroom gravy look absolutely tempting… it’s a definite must-try.
July 9, 2007 at 12:17 am
Hi Roopa
It likes to me saying my self hi ,bec_ my name also same .i wanna introduce Iam roopa i just found u r tresure recipe kitchen i so happy for that .we are living in usa (maine) with my 3 year old son & my husband,whenever i wanna make diffrent dish i come to chek u r’s web i will try some items those are really very good thanks for sharing
nannu karnataka dhavallu actully namadhu native place hubali hathira .kannadadhalli nimma recpies nodi bahala snthoshvayithu
July 9, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hi Roopa,
Great entry…….both recipe is delicious……….I also thought I make this vegetable biryani but you make first so I change it…….Your dish looks perfect with Punjabi Cuisine.:))
July 17, 2007 at 1:10 am
Yummy Briyani, Nice entry. Enjoyed reading your meme. I’m like u when it comes to pets:). Not that i’m worried but somehow I love watching them from distance.
September 13, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Thanks ri comment maadidhikhe. Nimgu nimma maneyavarigu Ganesha chaturthiya shubhashayagalu. Jog falls photo sakathagidhe! Neevu maadiruva thindigalannela noodidhare, nange Bengalooru naapaka barathe. Maddur vade nanna fav. Shall try it some time n let you know how it turned out antha. Allivargu happy blogging.
December 5, 2007 at 8:01 pm
[...] Vegetable Handi Biryani is a heavily spiced Punjabi rice dish. Often served with salan, a spicy thick chutney/gravy like sauce, and raita, a cooling yogurt sauce, often with cucumber or other fruits and vegetables. Apparently “A traditional Hyderabadi salan is made in a shallow wide flat bottomed handi. The salan is a sealed in this handi and kept on low fire to cook with all the flavours trapped inside to give that authentic rich taste.”(source: tarladalal.com) tomato salan recipe. Various raita recipes. [...]
July 27, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Hai, wat great dish yar good!nanu kannadavalu manglore navalu.ninna yella recipe ista aithu.