Vegetable Biryani

This is absolutely my favorite veggie biryani recipe.It is my grandmom's recipe.It is very masaledhar and so my spice loving husband really likes it!! so do many of our friends. So its a no brainer for me when figuring out what to cook for a party or a potluck!

The original recipe calls for coconut milk.You can add it if you wish.

Ingredients:
600gms basmati
Onion - 2 big Sweet onion (the huge costco ones)
Tomato - 2-2.5 roma tomatoes
potato - 1 big potato diced
beans - around 20-25 fresh beans
carrots - around 20 baby carrots
peas - 1 cup frozen or fresh peas
cilantro - 1/2 bunch
mint - 4 springs
3 -3.5 serrano peppers (or 4-5 indian chillies)

2 spoons gg paste
1 bay leaf

Masalas
Freshly roasted and ground dhania powder - 1.5 level spoon
freshly roasted and ground jeera powder - 1 spoon
chilli powder - kashmiri chilli powder - 1-1.5 spoons (dont add more, it masks the green chilli flavor)
shakti biryani masala - 2.5 spoon (dont fret if you have it, it does not make a big difference)

grind the following
pattai - 2 inches
lavang - 3
elaichi -3
saunf - 1 spoon heaped
2 small coconut pieces


Procedure
1. Heat oil. (If you have , add little bit of jathipathri, marathi moogu and kalpasi). Else, just add one clove, one elaichi, little bit pattai and a bay leaf

2. Add finely chopped green chillies.Wait till fried.

3. Add onions and then the gg paste.

4. Add tomatoes.Saute till a smooth paste is obtained.

5. Add veggies.Cook in open pan till 3/4 th cooked.Add salt

6. Add the masalas

7.Add 4 cups water (You can add 3 or 3.5 cups.Should be fine for basmati.But i havnt tried it that way)

8. Add rice (you can roast it if time permits)

9.'Open cook' till rice is almost cooked and absorbs 90% of the water.Then cook in a pressure cooker at the lowest possible heat level for 10-15 minutes. Switch off. Leave for .5 hours before openingg and serving.

10.serve with raita