Though it's hard to imagine now, there was a time when I used to live with just one saucepan in the kitchen!! Enter my Bangalore days. The life purpose of that saucepan was to create countless happy Maggi noodles memories for me and my friends. Sometimes we were so exhausted at the end of the day, even to decide which place to go and eat, we’d have some small chits of paper with names of nearby restaurants stored in a dhaba (container) ready to decide the fate of our tummies. I'm sure you’ve also had similar memories of your college days :)
Well, another reason for Maggi meals was that none of us had a clue about cooking, except for my friend Divya. She was our official masterchef! One day, we were invited to a friends place, with a special condition. We had to make a biriyani! They promised to get all the ingredients, but cooking was left to us. Since it was a break from our usual weekend hopping of Brigade road and Commercial street, we happily accepted the challenge. Our only confidence was our faith in Divya's cooking!
As soon as we reached the place, we got into full cooking mode, Divya being the main cook and the rest of us rallied behind her with full support. We had so much of fun that day, it was more like on-the-job-training ;) I remember the experiment being successful and we actually enjoyed the homemade biriyani (… who wouldn’t after regular doses of Maggi noodles and other restaurant food!?).
So when I made this biriyani, the other day, all those memories came rushing to me. The reason is… this is more like a bachelor's cooking recipe and not the traditional kind of biriyani. I was feeling a bit lazy and wanted to make something, that's quick. That's when I thought of a pressure cooker biriyani. These days whenever I'm feeling lazy to cook, I end up using pressure cooker to make some kind of biriyani, it's easy to clean up and not much standing around stirring and mixing.
This is a an easy recipe as far as biriyani recipes goes. The flavour was nice and the highlight is you need to wash just the cooker ;) This is a good recipe if you want to entertain somebody on a short notice or without much effort (isn’t it like that every time?). Also you can make this in advance and store in fridge, so it's good for a long weekend too. You can have homemade food, without slogging in the kitchen. I guess I've given you enough reasons to try this recipe, so what are you waiting for?
Fabulous recipe! I’ve just made this for the first time after a busy day of schooling and it took almost no time to get a delicious meal on the table! Thanks, Maria.
You are welcome :) Great to hear that the recipe came out well for you.
Cheers
Maria
Loved it! Thanks for the recipe.
Omg d beef biriyani ws rock on!!!!!! My hus cannot stop praising and himself being brought up in bglor nd tasted almost too many biriyanis in his lifetime, he cannot go wrong when he says, ‘this is d best biriyani i have had in my life’…. Thank u so much nd even im drooling….
hi maria jose,can i have to know about rice need to soke spcific time or wsh and put direct
Hi,
I havent soaked rice in this recipe, you can rinse it under water a few times and add directly.
Cheers
Maria
This is a great beef biriyani recipe and we have made it on quite a number of occasions. However, this recipe wont suit (actually, would be a disappointmen) if we replace it by mutton, may be because the mutton doesnt require the same masala flavors as beef.
Hi Arya,
Thanks for trying it. Good to know that you liked the beef biriyani. Sorry to hear that it didnt work with mutton for you.
Cheers
Maria
Hi Maria! My wife and I was googling around beef biryani till we saw your blog. Pressure cooker biryani recipe was helpful and yeah! It was tasty! Thank you.
Hi,
Thank you so much for your comment :) I’m glad that you and your wife liked the biriyani recipe.
Cheers
Maria
Hi Maria,
You have mentioned 2.5 cups of water for the 2.5 cups of water. Is that enough? Coz usually we double the amount of water for basmati rice, isnt it?
Hi Sheeba,
Yes, usually we use double qty of water but for pressure cooker biriyani, we use the same measurement for rice and water, it’s 1:1 ratio.
Cheers
Maria
Hi Maria,
Tried it today. came out very well. Thanks a lot for the easy recipe!
:)
Hi Reeja,
You are welcome :) I’m glad that you liked this recipe.
thank you so much for the comment!
Cheers
Maria
Hi Maria,
Great blog you have here. Need an opinion. If I have to serve 15 people, how many cups of rice vs. kgs. of beef do you think I should go for? The entire crowd is a foodie-gang :)
Hi Bismol,
Thank you! Sorry for the delayed reply. I guess you will need around 2 – 2.5 kg beef and same qty rice.
Cheers
Maria
Hi Chechi,
My husband is a die hard, big time fan of biriyanis – be it any type…..so much so that he can even have it everyday….
I tried this recipe last Friday with a minor change in the ingredients – I added double the quantity since we like more masala in our biriyani – and it turned out real good.
My hus just put one ball of this biriyani in his mouth and before even swallowing he was all praises for the same and wouldn’t stop until evening. He even finished the leftovers the next day for lunch.
Thanks chechi for the recipe…
Hi Giana,
Thanks a ton for your wonderful comment :) Really happy to know that your husband liked this biriyani very much.
Cheers
Maria
Loved your college days memories Maria chechi. I make chicken biriyani using cooker and its just easy peasy!
Thansk Sangeetha :) Yeah, it’s always easy to make biriyani in a cooker..
Cheers
Maria