How to cook Paneer Biryani (Cottage Cheese Biryani)

This is a vegetarians delight!

Cottage Cheese (Paneer) lovers, behold. This is a mouth watering recipe for you. The recipe below elicits how to cook Paneer Biryani.

This dish is like heaven for paneer lovers. You may add multiple ingredients in it such as nuts, mace, cloves, pepper, cardamom, bay leaves, coriander, cinnamon etc. 

Here are the ingredients

For the spicy mix:

3 cups rice (should be long Basmati rice)
500 grams paneer sliced in small chunks
Garam Masala (powder is generally available in grocery stores)
Nuts,
Jeera
Mace
Pepper
Cloves
Cardamom
Cinnamon
Bay leaves
3 table spoon ginger paste and 3 table spoons garlic paste
3 chopped onions
3 finely chopped tomatoes
7 to 10 green chillies 
Mint leaves (half a cup)
2 tea spoons turmeric powder
2 tbsp yoghurt
2 tea spoons of red chilli powder 
3 table spoons of Biryani Masala (available in grocery stores)
Salt
One cup green peas
6 table spoons of Ghee
Leaves of coriander

Garnishing Ingredients

Onion – 1, finely sliced 
Fried Cashews & raisins - 40 to 50 grams
Orange food color 
Coriander & Mint leaves
Ghee

Steps how to cook the Paneer Biryani?

Prepare the rice as cooked always and put it on one side; Drain the excess water, if any.
.
In a tall flat heavy metallic pan, cook some oil and the fry the cottage cheese pieces; Cook until they turn golden brown in color.

In a different cooking pan, cook the Ghee. Pour here the Garam Masala and the Onions.
Next, add the ginger paste along with the garlic paste.

Add the tomatoes and cook this for 3 to 4 minutes on high flame.

Next, add the Mint Leaves along with the Biryani Powder you bought from the asian grocery store. Heat this for 7-8 minutes on medium flame. After that, add all the vegetables listed above and cook for another 3-4 minutes on medium flame.

Now you may add the Paneer you fried earlier. 

This readies your Paneer Biryani's spicy part.

Next, cook in a nonstick pan the onions along with the  cashew nuts and raisins. Cook until the onions become a bit brown.

Put half of the rice you cooked earlier in a deep pot. This is layer 1.

Add the Paneer mix on top of this. This is layer 2.

Put the balance rice remaining on top of this mix. This becomes layer 3.

Add the orange color on top of this.

Seal the pot with a heavy lid.

Now place a flat prostrate heavy cooking metallic pan on hot heat. (tawa).

Put the pot on top of this flat pan for 20 minutes on low flame.

Your Paneer Biryani is now ready.

Garnish it with the coriander leaves you chopped earlier. 

Now relish it!