Plain biryani | Kuska

Plain biryani or kuska is a very popular biryani dish in South India. You can find this biryani being served in almost all vegetarian feasts. Tastes absolutely amazing. This dish tastes perfect only when the rice is cooked to the right consistency. So care has to be taken to select the right rice and cook them perfectly. They are mostly done with biryani rice, commonly called Seeraga Samba rice available mostly in southern india. It is a tiny grained aromatic rice, also one of the expensive variety. Since it resembles cumin, this rice is called Seeraga Samba rice. Seeragam is cumin in Tamil.

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice/ Seeraga samba rice

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 1/4 cup chicken broth (optional)

Whole masala (2 bay leaf, 3 cloves, 2 cardamom, 1 star anise, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 1 ts fennel seed, 1/2 ts cumin seed)

4 green chillies (finely chopped)

1 medium sized onion (finely chopped) (optional)

2 médium sized tomato (finey chopped) (optional)

1 ts ginger garlic paste

Handful of very finely chopped mint leaves

2 ts ghee

Oil as per need

Preparation

Wash and soak the rice in water for half an hour. Drain the water and spread the rice over a towel to drain out any excess water. Let it dry for 10 minutes. Heat a teaspoon of ghee in a pan. In a medium flame fry the rice in ghee for around 10 minutes until they turn glossy and gives a good aroma. Keep them aside in a bowl.

Add oil in the same pan. Once hot temper them with fennel seed, cumin seed, bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, star anise and cinnamon. Immediately afterwards add the chopped onion and fry them until they turn translucent. Add the chopped green chillies, ginger, garlic and the mint leaves. Keep frying them in medium flame for around 5 minutes. Next add the chopped tomatoes and cook them until they turn mushy. (You can also make kuska without the addition of onion and tomato). Add the rice and give a good mix. Add 3/4 cup coconut milk and 1 1/4 cup chicken broth. You can adjust the ratio according to your preference. Add enough salt. Allow the contents to boil. Then cover the pan and let it cook in the lowest flame until the rice gets done. Finally add extra ghee and mix everything well. 

Keep them covered for around 10 minutes for the flavours to set in.

Serve them with raita, kurma/ curry and some chicken fry.