Eral Biryani is one of my favourite dish and there are quite a few ways of making

it. Cooking seafood with a tinge of coconut has been a family tradition and this
one is no exception. Making this with fresh baby prawns would be awesome but quite
hard to find small shrimp or prawn around my place and ended up making with jumbo
shrimps to satisfy my palatte. This mild flavoured biryani requires minimal work
and comes in handy for a quick non-veg treat.

Shrimp Briyani / Prawn Briyani / Prawn Biryani / Eral Biryani / Eral Briyani / Era
Biryani / Era Briyani

Ingredients
10 nos Shrimp
2 nos Onion (cut lengthwise thinly)
1 no Tomato (diced)
3 nos Green chili (small)
6 nos Dry mint leaves
5 stks Coriander leaves (for tempering)
tsp Ginger garlic paste
tsp Red chili powder
tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Coriander /dhania powder
1 tsp Salt (or to taste)
1 tsp Ghee
3 tsp Oil
6 stks Coriander leaves (for garnishing)
2 cup Basmati rice
1 no Bay leaf
3 nos Cloves
2 nos Cinnamon stick (small)
2 nos Cardamom
2 nos Choice of any other unique spice)
1 tsp Fennel seeds (perum serakam)
2 cup Coconut milk
2 cup Water

Instructions

Clean the shrimp, wash in cold water and set aside. Cut the onions lengthwise, dice
the tomatoes and slit open the green chilies. Dilute coconut milk (if using store
bought cans). If making at home ground some coconut to a thick paste like
consistency and mix them in hot water, squeeze out the milk.

Now take a sauce pan, heat oil and ghee, add all the whole masalas(bay leaf,
cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and fennel seeds) one by one and let them
sizzle for a while. Add the mint leaves and coriander set aside for tempering and
let them become crispy. Add the onions and green chilies and fry till translucent,
followed by the ginger garlic paste, tomatoes and shrimp pieces. Cover and cook
over medium flame for 5 minutes to cook the shrimp thoroughly. Now add the turmeric
powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and salt. Fry till the masala leaves the
sides as shown in the picuture. Switch off.

Wash basmati rice add 2 cups water, 2 cups coconut milk, the cooked masala and let
it soak for 5 minutes. Now pop it in the rice cooker and let it cook. When done and
if its ok with you, add few drops of ghee and garnish with coriander leaves. Do not
disturb by stirring harshly, this would break the rice. Slowly scoop with a slotted
spoon and spread over a plate or bowl and cool. When its cooled to some extent, mix
gently, check for salt and add garnishes which you prefer. Serve with boiled eggs
and raita.
Notes

Basmati Rice used Royal Basmati from Sams club. Soak just for 5 minutes. Try
swad, tilda they are equally good too.

For 2 cups rice its 4 cups water for fluffy and fully cooked rice. Here in this
recipe for 2 cups rice I've added 2 cups water and 2 cups coconut milk. If you
prefer the rice to be lightly chewy then use only 3 1/2 cups of water and coconut
milk.

If using a regular pressure cooker use the proportion which you are comfortable
with, as its varies with the quality of rice used and pressure cooker.

You can also substitute coconut milk with diluted curd / butter milk.

Due to non-availability of fresh mint leaves I've used dry, you can use fresh
leaves too.

Choice of unique spice the spice showed in picture I guess is nagasungu but net
shows it as val milagu(puzzled and still exploring) pretty sure that they use it
for biryani and included. You may also use star anise, jathi poo and pinch of nut
meg. This step is purely optional.

Serves 4 approx.

How to clean shrimp

1. To remove the shell from the shrimp, first hold onto the tail while gently
removing the shell around the body, then the tail can be detached completely by
just pulling it.

2. After this, the vein has to be removed, make a shallow cut lengthwise down the
outer curve of the shrimp's body using a paring knife, pick out the dark ribbon-
like vein running lengthwise along the shrimp's back.

3. Then rinse the shrimp in cold water and keep them iced or cook them off.