Preparations:

Take a bowl and add rice and water. Wash the rice well by rubbing between fingers. To the washed rice add the measured water (360gms). Soak this rice for 30 minutes.

Wash, peel and cut potatoes into medium sized pieces.

Wash green chilies and chop them finely.

Crush cinnamon, clove and black cardamom seeds using a mortar and pestle. Take the crushed spice powder into a plate and cover with another plate to retain smell till use.

Method:

After soaking rice for 30 minutes, separate rice and water. Do not throw away that water we need to cook this rice using this water.

Heat a pressure pan and add oil to it. When oil is hot add cumin seeds and fry stirring till they splutter. Then add ginger-garlic paste and chopped green chilies. Fry the mixture well in oil to reduce the hot flavor of chilies. Then add biriyani flower, red chili powder, turmeric powder, spice powder and 10ml water and mix well. Adding water will not burn the dry spices. Fry the mixture till all water evaporates and oil separates. Then add green peas and potato pieces. Mix well to coat the vegetables with spices. Then add soaked rice and mix gently. Take care while mixing rice as soaked rice would be fragile. Now add the water which we have separated from soaked rice. Add salt and mix well. Taste the water and adjust the seasonings. Cover the pressure pan and cook on high flame till we hear a whistle. After first whistle cook on low flame for 7 minutes and switch off the stove. Once the pressure goes down naturally open the lid. We need to fluff up the rice—to do this use a fork so that the cooked rice grains will retain their texture. First remove the biriyani flower and fluff up the rice using fork. Transfer the Alu Ki Tehri to a serving bowl and serve with raita of your choice. While cooking this tasty dish in pressure pan we can smell the nice aroma of the biriyani flower which fills the space. Serve hot with chilled raita.

Points To Notice:

Use water as per the requirement of rice used.

As far as possible use freshly ground spices to give a nice flavor to the dish. Similarly use freshly prepared ginger-garlic paste.

Soaking rice reduces the cooking time.

Fry green chilies in oil well  to reduce the hot flavor.

After adding the dry spices, add little water and mix. Adding water will not burn the dry spices.

After adding soaked rice mix gently as soaked rice would be fragile and breaks easily.

After adding salt taste the water and ajust the seasonings before cooking to get the right taste.