This is the recipe for The Best Mushroom Biryani in the world. Introduction For the longest time I really did not like Biryani, having eaten it at some pretty famous places in Bombay, I was a bit disillusioned. The only good biryani I have had in Bombay is at Neel, at Tote on the turf. You should have the Gucchi ki Biryani (Can’t go wrong with Morels!). The first time I had a good Biryani was in Hyderabad, where a friend took me to every place that served a superb Biryani, apart from Paradise Palace, and the five star hotels, I found some exceedingly perfect Hindu Andhra food at a place called Malgudi. Now let’s get to the Biryani.
I first started experimenting with this with my friend Erik Krautbauer four years ago, when we cooked Chicken Biryani for 80 guests at Taliesin West.
Concept: Every flavour must be kept separate, yet every morsel must have all flavours. You can make Biryani with anything, just remember it is a three part deal. 1. Absorption – Rice will absorb flavours, use the longest grain Basmati rice you can find, it has a wonderful fragrance, we cook it 3/4th to keep that fragrance locked in until you serve. 2. Masala – This will impart the flavour. Never use anything that absorbs flavours in this, a common mistake is Potato, Carrots, Cauliflower, etc. 3. Aromatics – These are separate- Saffron and Mint, even your masala will have aromatics, but these are special and need to be kept that way. Keep in mind that use only the best ingredients possible, at the end of your grocery trip you might wonder why not go and eat it at the restaurant? Recipe: I will not go through what ingredients you need, you will find out as you go through this recipe, this is important because you need to know what we are going to do with them rather than see them on their own. This is part of the design of this food. You will need at least two hours for the whole process.
Take a tiny bit of saffron and mix it with about 5ml Vodka, add some sugar. The Vodka helps the saffron quickly lose its flavour, you can see the yellow strands after a few minutes of treatment. Sugar is to bring out the flavours in the final product. The alcohol will burn off when you cook everything.
Wash and dry the Portobello Mushrooms. Remember all mushrooms will absorb water very quickly, so keep them as dry as possible. I have used Shimeji, Button, and Shiitake mushrooms as well.
Fry some Cashew halves for later
Fry two white onions until crisp for later.
Add some more oil, then put in Black peppercorns, Star Anise, Bay leaves, Green cardamom, Black cardamom, Cloves, and Cinnamon. Most of these were found in Wayanad, Kerala, and the Cinnamon came from Sri Lanka. Break the Cardamom’s slightly to release the flavour.
Add Onions soon after
Add Green Chillies, and some Ginger + Garlic paste. You must add the ginger garlic at the end so that it does not over oxidise.
Add some Kashmir Red chilly powder, this is not very hot, but has a good colour. If you can’t find it, Spanish Paprika works well. 
Add Yoghurt to this mixture, the yoghurt if hung the previous night, will yield better results. This one is not, I had to cook it longer. Also, good time to add salt.
Add the Mushrooms, You must stop the flame as soon as the mushrooms are about 3/4th done. If they get fully cooked, they will lose their flavour. You can add the salt in this step as well if you didn’t add it before.
This is the best part. 3/4th cooked Basmati rice, I have added enough salt for the rice itself. The Masala is ready, and another saucepan for the actual dish.
This serves four, open the pot only when and where you want to serve it, when all your guests are already seated. I tend to overeat when I make this. If you cook this dish with my recipe, please leave a little message to let me know how you like it, and if you have any suggestions, I will try them and add them here. Biryani and Pizza are two of my favourite dishes, and I often cringe when I eat either poorly made, I will put up some other recipes sometime. Everything else I make is much easier than this.
Architecture+Design 