3Medium Sized Onions or 2 Large Onion thinly sliced and airfryed.
Rice
2Cupsof Rice
6Cupsof Water
11/2TspSalt
Whole Spices (Garam Masala's)
1Cinnamon Stick
3Bay Leaves
10Cloves
4Cardamom
1Black Cardamom
For layering
3Tspof Finely Chopped Mint Leaves
2Pinchof Saffron soaked in 6 Tsp hot milk
1Tspof Cinnamon Cardamom Cloves Powder
4Tbslpn of Butter or Ghee
Fried Onions
Serve with Cucumber Raita
Instructions
Paneer Marination
In a large bowl add all the ingredients for marination and set aside minimum of 30 minutes. It can stay marinated for 2 hours or so if time permits.
I have airfryed my Onions for a healthy alternative. If you like, you could fry them. Heat Oil in a pan and add the sliced onions. Fry them in medium flame until golden brown. Set them aside.
Rice preparation
Wash and Rinse the rice a couple of times and allow them to sit for atleast 30 minutes.
To a large pot, add the boiling water from the kettle followed by the whole spices and Salt. Now add the rice and allow it to cook just 50%. To test, pick up one of the rice grain and check, it should break into halves. Drain all the water at this stage and set the rice aside.
Assembling
To the Cocotte, add butter and oil. Now add the marinated Paneer and saute them briefly . Layer the rice on top of the paneer. Top it with fried onions, saffron soaked in milk, Cinnamon Cardamom Cloves Powder,Finely chopped mint leaves and some more butter.
Cover with a moist cloth and then place the tight lid. Allow the rice to cook in medium flame for 5 min and then for another 5 minutes in low flame. Turn off the flame and set it aside. Since the cocotte would retain the heat, Biryani will tend to cook further .
Serve Paneer Biryani hot along with a bowl of Onion Raita or Cucumber Raita.
Notes:
I had reserved a few paneer cubes from the marinated paneer and fried them on the grill. Once the biryani was ready, these paneer cubes were used as garnish.