Vegetable Dum Biriyani

Instructions

Marinate the vegetables

1. Par cook cauliflower and carrots till partially cooked.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl, cover and let sit for an hour.

Cook the rice

1. Soak Basmati rice in 2 cups of water for an hour.
2. Bring the remaining 5 cups of water to a rolling boil and add the whole spices and ghee. Add salt (the water must be slightly saltier than you want the rice to be).
3. Add the soaked rice+water and boil until the rice is partially cooked. You'll know it's ready when the grains start to curve slightly. (See image in post above).
4. Drain over a colander fitted with a muslin cloth. Spread on a large plate and let cool.

Assemble

1. Combine milk and orange food color. Ready the fried onions, lemon juice and chopped coriander.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, drizzle some ghee/oil and spread most of the marinated vegetables. If you have par-cooked the heavy vegetables, you can reserve some for a second layer. If you skipped the pre-cooking step, add all vegetables to the bottom layer.
3. Top with half the rice, then drizzle some of the orange milk, some fried onions and coriander.
4. Then do a second layer of remaining vegetables (if any), remaining rice, more fried onions, orange milk and chopped coriander.

Makeshift 'Dum' process

1. Cover the pan with a moist kitchen towel, close with a tight-fitting lid and wrap the towel over the lid.
2. Place on high heat for 2-3 minutes
3. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for 5 minutes
4. Reduce heat further to the lowest setting and cook for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, stirring the layers carefully and serve hot with raita and sliced onion rings.