Lobster Biryani

Lobsters long time ago were my favorite too.  This post is about a Lobster biryani I once made for Arvi. He enjoyed just the white meat from the lobster unlike me, I loved it more when cooked in its shell. Either a Shevndi cha kanji, the Koli style curry or as boiled or boiled and then roasted in the embers. Lobster needs delicate treatment so the simplest versions were my favorite. Arvi too liked the Tatraveli lobster where it is marinated in Jeeru lasan masala and then shallow fried in a pan. 

The main difference when I loved and ate lobsters I enjoyed the really big ones as my maternal uncle brought them for me. He was a supplier of seafood for Taj Mahal Palace Hotel back in those days. Whereas the lobsters that our Fishermonger, Dwarka brought for us were not very large. Arvi did not enjoy the head where as wasting the head was blasphemy for the Koli in me. So Just the white meat cleaned and deshelled look much like a very very large prawn though it wasn't.

Ingredients

10 -15 chunks of lobsters, cleaned

2 tablespoons  Jeeru Lasan Masala

10 onions

1/2 cup oil

2 cups Basmati rice 

1 teaspoon red chili powder

0.5 teaspoon turmeric

0.5 teaspoon ginger paste

3-4 pinches Kashmiri saffron 

1/2 cup milk

1 cup chopped cilantro

salt to taste

Whole garam masala

5-6 cloves

4 green cardamom

2 tej patta

2 black cardamom

10 peppercorns

2 nos X 2 inch sticks of cinnamon 

Preparation

Marinate the cleaned lobsters in Jeeru lasan masala.

3-4 pinches Kashmiri saffron soak in 1/2 cup milk. Let it rest till needed.

2 cups Basmati rice washed and soaked for 30 mins. 

Boil 3 liters of water in a large vessel. Add soaked Basmati rice to it. In a diffuser or tie in a muslin cloth all the whole garam masalas then add it to the cooking pot of rice. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Cook rice al dente. Drain it into a colander. Remove the garam masala diffuser/ pouch.

Peel and chop 10 onions length-wise. Crush them with fingers to separate the segments.

Procedure

Heat oil in a deep pan. Add all the chopped and separated segments of onions into the pan. Keep the flame on high and keep frying onions for 5 mins. Then add 0.5 teaspoon of salt. The salt will help the onions to sweat and help in frying to crisp golden on slow flame. Keep mixing continuously so onions don't char. It will take about 30-40 mins to give you golden fried onions. Remove them on a sieve.

In the remaining oil add two handfuls of golden fried onions and ginger paste. Saute. Follow in with marinated lobsters. Add the red chili powder, turmeric and the chopped cilantro. Splash a couple of handfuls of water on it to avoid burning. Stir fry a bit. Cover and cook for 2-3 mins. Then remove the cooked lobsters in masala on a plate.

Now do the layers. Add half the cooked basmati rice to the pot. In the middle layer the losters in masala. Sprinkle some golden fried onions which we kept aside. Put another layer of cooked basmati rice. Now macerate the saffron soaking the the milk a bit. Distribute the saffron milk over the pot of rice. Again sprinkle the remaining fried onions. Put the lid on and cook for 2 mins on medium flame, reduce the flame to sim and let the pot sit for 10 mins or till you see steam coming out showing that the whole rice is warmed and the flavors are melded.

Served with love and enjoyed with double the amount.