Ingredients:

• 20 – soya nuggets
• 1 cup – basmati Rice
• 1/2 cup – Curd (well beaten)
• 1 medium sized – onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups – water
• 2 tbsp – Ghee
• for seasoning: 2 tsp – tandoori masala
• 5 – Cloves
• 5 – pepper Corns
• 2 – Cardamom
• 1 tsp – Kesar food colour or 5-6 – Kesar soaked in a few drops of water
• 1 tsp – red chili powder
• 6 – cashews, cut into half
• 6 – Raisins
• salt to taste
• for garnishing: Chopped coriander
• deep fried Onion strips
• Tomato rose flower

Method:

1. Soak rice and soya nuggets for some time.
2. In a saucepan or kadai, heat 1 tbsp of ghee and add the finely chopped onion and fry it till it is golden brown.
3. To the onion add the pre-soaked soya nuggets and fry till the sizzling stops.
4. Add the tandoori masala and red chilli powder and fry till the mixture blends well with the soya.
5. Add salt and curd to the soya and keep this mixture off the gas in a corner for the moment.
6. While doing the soya mixture, simultaneously you can heat another vessel and add the remaining tbsp of ghee.
7. Add the other dry seasoning like cardamom, cloves, pepper corn, cashews and raisins.
8. Add pre-soaked and drained basmati rice and fry it till each grain has been coated with ghee.
9. Add 2 cups of water, salt and cook the rice till all the water has been drained out.
10. Grease a square baking dish and set the oven temperature to 350 F.
11. Layer the rice and soya mixture one after the other and sprinkle the food colour or kesar on every layer of the rice.
12. Cover this dish with a lid and seal the ends with aluminium foil and bake it in the oven for 15-20 mins or till the rice is completely cooked.
13. Finally garnish the biryani with coriander, a tomato flower and some fried onions strips.

Recipe courtesy of Sandhya