Author: Jane Jojo Updated on:

An Indian one pot meal. Fish marinated, fried, cooked in spicy masala gravy and then layered with rice. A really delicious one 🙂 I used pomfret which turned out awesome. You can also try seer fish or king fish.
Ingredients
fish
1/2 kg
Marination
chilli powder
1 tsps
pepper powder
1 1/2 tsps
turmeric powder
1/2 tsp
ginger (crushed)
1/2 tbsp
garlic (crushed)
1/2 tbsp
lemon juice
1 tsp
salt
1/2 tsp
Masala
ghee
2 tbsps
onion (medium)
2 numbers
ginger (crushed)
1 tbsp
garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp
Chilly green
5
coriander powder
1 tsp
garam masala
1 tsp
tomato (medium)
2
curd
2 tbsps
coconut grated
2 tbsps
cashew
2 tbsps
coriander leaves
1/2 bunch
mint leaves
1/2 bunch
salt
Rice
ghee
3 tbsps
basmati rice Jeerakasamba/Biriyani/
2 cups
Ani seed
1/2 tbsp
cinnamon (1" stick)
3
Star Anise (thakolam)
1
Cloves
4
Cardamom Seeds
3
Bay Leaf
2
curry leaves
1 sprig
water
4 cups
lemon juice salt
1
salt
Garnish
ghee
cashew nut
2 tbsps
raisin
1 tbsp
onion (medium)
1 number
Layering
coriander leaves
mint leaves
Steps
- Grind ginger and garlic. Marinate cleaned fish with the ingredients listed under marination - chilli powder, pepper powder, turmeric powder, ginger, garlic, lemon juice and salt. Keep it aside for 30 minutes. I used pomfret which turned out awesome. You can also try seer fish or king fish.
- Heat oil in a flat pan. Shallow fry the fish pieces for 2 minutes each on both sides at medium flame.
- Fry fish in batches.
- Prepare masala - Thinly slice onions. Soak cashew in hot water for 10 minutes. Heat ghee in a pan. Use a flat surfaced pan so that it would be easy to add and mix fish pieces towards the end.
- Saute these onions well until golden brown. Adding salt, helps the onion to get cooked fast.
- Grind ginger, garlic and green chilli. Add it to the above pan and saute well. Add ghee as needed.
- Add garam masala and saute for a minute. Add sliced tomatoes and saute until tomatoes are done.
- Mix the curd and cook for 2 -3 minutes.
- Saute the grated coconut until golden brown. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
- Grind the coconut and cashews (previously soaked), with some water and make it a good paste.
- Add coconut cashew mix and mix it with the masala.
- Chop mint and coriander leaves. Mix it with the masala. Add 1/2 cup water, mix well and add salt as required.
- Then add fried fish. Make sure that fish is covered in the gravy.
- Cook it for around 10 minutes or until fish is done.
- For rice preparation - Clean rice. Heat ghee in the pan / cooker. Fry aniseeds.
- Fry cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom seeds, curry leaves, cloves, star anise.
- Once it is sauted well, add rice. Saute it till rice is crispy. Add ghee if needed.
- Add 4 cups water and lemon juice to it with enough salt. Cover and cook until rice is done. Don't pressure cook. It would approximately take 15 - 20 minutes.
- For garnish - Thinly slice onions and deep fry it in ghee. Sprinkle salt and bit sugar. Roast cashews and raisins in ghee.
- ** Never miss this step. Layer and cook - You can either layer the biriyani and bake in the oven or you can cook on stovetop. I have tried both. Preheat the oven at 350F. Layer a pan with alternating layers of rice and the fish masala. Add coriander leaves, mint leaves, 1 tsp ghee, fried onions, cashews and raisins at every layer. Cover the pan with aluminium foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Without aluminium foil, rice gets dried up easily.
- If you wanna cook on stovetop, layer the biriyani in a cooker or in a pan. Cover with a lid and cook for 20 minutes. Rice and biriyani masala gets blended well with this. You need not add water since biriyani masala has good gravy content.
- Serve it with raitha, pickle and papad.
Notes
Masala preparation - Instead of ghee, I have also used the leftover oil from frying fish for the masala preparation. It worked out for me 🙂
