Biryani: not so hard after all :)

Rice

There are 2 parts of biryani: the rice and the sauce. First of all, make the rice. Put rice into the rice cooker with half the water that you would normally use for it. The rice will come out half cooked. I assume par boiled rice works as a substitute of half cooked rice, but I am not sure.

Spice

After putting the rice on, you can concentrate on the sauce. But before that, take all the spices you have, and set them to boil in water. 

This here is cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom, bay leaves, black pepper and a very small pinch of nutmeg powder. Missing black cardamom and saffron. Of course, you can always add the spices to the sauce at a later stage, but boiling them in water for a long time concentrates their flavors, I think. Put more of whatever smell you like most (I overdose on cloves and cardamoms as compared to, say, cinnamon). You can also tie these spices up in a cloth so that you get only pure flavored water in the end. You can either put all the spices in the sauce, or strain the spices and use them for tea :) hehe

Sauce Prep

The next step would be to make the sauce. Cut all the vegetables you have in small pieces. Here is an example of what you can use. Once again, as in dump salad, do not use highly flavored vegetables like bhindi and karela. This here is lettuce, peas and corn, carrots, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and cauliflowers in clockwise order. 

Note: they don't have to be so cramped. This is just a pose. 

Nuts

Next, heat some oil in a karai. Fry some cashews and raisins in it, take them out and put in a separate bowl. 

My bowl contains all sorts of things like coconut flakes and dried papayas. But I was just trying to get rid of all the dry fruit that I have. Cashews and raisins are sufficient in ordinary time. (Ok, go for coconut flakes if you really love coconut that much)

Sauce

Next, fry jeera, methi and green pepper in the oil. Then fry the vegetables. Start with the vegetables that are slow to cook: I started with cauliflowers and carrots. Put them in, stir and cover for 2 minutes. Next step:  peas, corns and mushrooms in, stir and cover for 2 minutes. Next step: onions, same process. Finally, put the tomatoes in. Tomatoes can either be minced or pureed. I think pureed gives better effect as it gives instant gravy. Put in a spoon of ground garlic and ginger. At this stage, pour in your flavored water, sprinkle garam masala and salt to your taste, and let it boil for a few minutes. (I recommend putting slightly more salt than needed, as it will have to suffice for the rice as well). At this point, you can also add any other spice that could not be boiled in water. I used heeng and it tasted wonderful, but you can use jimmu and other things. 

The sauce should look like this. Do NOT cook the lettuce, spinach or other saag items, they will be used later. 

Baking prep

At this time, you can preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Or, I have heard that this works just as well in rice cookers, though I have not tried it. Take a baking dish that is big enough to fit all the food. Start with rice at the bottom. Put about half of the rice you have.

(This is actually the second layer, but no matter, the first layer is just rice at the bottom of the pan)

Put half of the sauce over the rice. Sprinkle half of the nuts. 

Cover it up with a layer of your favorite saag. It can be spinach, cabbage, lettuce, soup ko saag or anything else. Some recipes recommended putting entire leaves of lettuce on top of the rice, I veto it and recommend cutting the saag into bite sized pieces.

Repeat process for remaining half of ingredients so that there are two layers of the food. At this point, if you dish comes with a cover, put the cover on. If not, cover it up with aluminium foil. Dash it into the oven and bake it for about 40 minutes, or until the rice doesn't feel raw. If you are using rice cooker, cook until rice cooker says done. The sauce should have enough water to completely cook the half cooked rice.

Finally!

After 40 minutes, take the dish out, and voila!!!! Serve hot! Don't forget to mix the stuff around with a spoon. Since it is cooked in layers, it needs to be mixed up before eating. (Usually accompanied by curries, but I think raita is the best side dish for biryani) 

I can assure you that the smell is TO DIE FOR!

Just in case: List of all ingredients:

Rice

Oil

Vegetables:

Green peppers

Onion

Tomatoes

Cauliflower

Carrots

Lettuce

Mushroom

Peas

Corn

Nuts:

Cashews

Raisins

Spices:

Jeera 

Methi

Ginger

Garlic

Cloves

Green cardamom

Cinnamon

Nutmeg powder

Black pepper

Bay leaves

Heeng

Garam masala

As for proportions, it was all kind of improvised.... let's just say reasonable proportions