Kuska Biryani (Dindugul Style) | Plain Biryani Without Vegetables

       Kuska is a kind of biryani without any vegetables and it is a popular food in southern part of Tamilnadu. This is my mom aunty's recipe, whenever we go to her house in Dindugul, she makes this biryani for us. In this recipe, the long grain rice is cooked in a pressure cooker along with some aromatic spices, mint leaves, onion, tomato and ginger garlic paste. The outcome of the biryani is just flavorful, spicy and yummy. You can make this easy biryani, if you run out of veggies at home. Best accompaniment for this biryani are some vegetable gravy or protein rich gravy like mushroom curry or soy chunks curry and raita.
       
    Preparation Time : 30 mins
    Cooking Time : 10 Mins
    Makes : 2 Servings
      
    Ingredients

            1 Cup of Basmati Rice
            1 Big Red Onion, Finely Chopped
            2 Tsp of Ginger Garlic Paste
            4 Green Chilly
            1 Tsp of Coriander Powder
            1 Small Tomato, Finely Chopped
            3/4 Tbsp of Dried Mint Leaves, You can use Fresh Mint Leaves(Handful)
            1 Tbsp of Coriander Leaves, Finely Chopped
            1 Cup of Water
            1/2 Cup of Milk
            Salt to Taste          

    To Grind

            2 Cloves
            1 Inch Cinnamon Stick
            2 Green Cardamom

    To Temper

            3 Tsp of Oil
            1 Bay Leaf
            1 Star Anise
            Pinch of Stone Flower
            4 Curry Leaves

    Other Ingredients

           1 Tbsp of Coriander Leaves, Chopped
           2 Tsp of Ghee

    Method

• Soak the rice in water for 20 mins. Drain and wash it in tap water. Keep it aside.
• Grind cloves, cinnamon and cardamom in a spice grinder or mixie to a fine powder.
• Finely chop the onion and tomato. Slit the green chilies. Keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add bay leaf, stone flower, curry leaves and star anise, fry for a min. In a medium flame, add the ground spice powder, fry it for 30 secs. Add chopped onion and green chilly, fry it for 2 mins  until it changes golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste, fry it until the raw smell vanishes. Add tomato, fry it until it turns soft and mushy.
• Now add mint leaves, coriander leaves and coriander powder, fry this for a min. Add rice, fry for another min, add water, milk and salt. Cover and cook it for 2 whistles in a cooker. Turn off the flame, let the pressure releases on its own.
• Open the cooker, add chopped coriander leaves and ghee, give a gentle stir with a fork.
• Hot, yummy kuska is ready to serve with spicy mushroom gravy and raita.

    Tips

• If you don't have stone flower and star anise, just use bay leaf for tempering.
• If you have small onion(shallots), you can use that in place of large onion.
• Increase or decrease the number of green chilly according to your taste.
• You can also use 3 green chilies and 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder to this rice.
• Don't add turmeric powder to kuska.
• Adding ghee after pressure cooking gives a nice taste and flavor to rice.  
• You can use jeeraga samba rice in place of basmati rice. 
• For basmati rice, the water ratio is 1 : 1.5 Water. You can use coconut milk in place of water or you can use 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of cow's milk, like I did.

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