Hyderabadi Dum Biryani in South India, mostly comes with a bowl of biryani salan and Raita. I used to gorge on those wonderful aromatic Hyderabadi Dum Biryani with these wonderful Biryani gravy or salan on Sundays in the restaurant called Paradise in Bangalore. In Kolkata, Aminia, Lazeez, Shiraz are among other Biryani specialists. But in Kolkata, Salans are usually not served along side. Kolkatans love to have their Biryani with Chicken chaap mostly. For people who find biryani a bit dry to have as one pot meal, can surely pair it with simple Biryani Salan.
India’s Global Kitchen Blog is inundated with numerous recipes of Biryani like Chicken Tikka Biryani, Mutton Biryani, Prawn Biryani, Chicken Curd Biryani . You may want to check them out. But today let me share an easy recipe of Salan or Biryani gravy as well. Usually, Biryani gravy or salan is made with peanuts but I chose to make them with almonds here. You may add other ingredients like poppy seeds etc, but I only used sesame seeds or til along with it. It came out wonderful and is worth sharing too.
Time required to make biryani gravy or salan with almonds: 20 minutes
Ingredients required to make biryani gravy or salan with almonds:
- 12 almonds
- 4 tbsp of sesame seeds or til
- 3/4 cup of coconut slices (de-shelled)
- 1 cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick, 1clove
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- Salt
- Refined oil
- 2 red whole dry chilli
- 1 tsp of Turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder
- 1 big tomato – sliced
- 1 onion – sliced
- 3 big garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger
Biryani gravy or salan with almonds – The recipe:
- To begin with, dry roast coconut slices, pre – soaked almonds, sesame seeds. Roast till a nutty aroma is released. Keep them separate
- In the wok, add refined oil. Heat it. Drop in whole garam masalas, cumin seeds and red dry chilli. Let them release aroma
- Add onion slices, sliced ginger and garlic pods. Stir cook till color changes
- Add tomato slices and let the rawness of the tomatoes disappear by cooking a bit more. Once done, keep separate and let it cool off
- Now, in a grinder, add cooked onion-tomato mixture, roasted almond-coconut mixture. Add a little water and grind them to form a smooth paste
- Now, in heated oil in a pan, add the almond paste, add all the powdered spices, salt. Stir cook till oil starts to release. Add a little water more to prevent charring of the mixture at the bottom of the pan
- Once the paste is cooked till oil starts to separate, add 2 cups of water more and cover the wok with a lid. Bring it to boil. Let it simmer now for 7 minutes more!
So once the consistency is correct as per your need, take the Biryani gravy or salan off the flame. Serve with a plate of hot Biryani now!!!!
