Mushroom Spinach Biryani

I am not very orthodox with my cooking, but I realised that I am a little boring and conventional sometimes. I like all kinds of cuisines and love to experiment, but somehow tend to stick to some basic combinations.

When I was working in Bangalore, there were these caterers at office who made sabjis of the wierdest combinations of vegetables and I decided I didnt like it even before I tasted it.
There used to be chana with beetroot, brinjal with okra - not really bad, but like I told you, the idea of combining two ingredients which didnt fall in my category of 'good combinations' was a bad idea !! They, of course, did it just because they had it in stock and not with the intent of making us taste new combinations !!

Mushroom and spinach always seemed like a very 'quiche' combination, or something that would go with pasta or some sauces and cheese, basically I never imagined it in an Indian food context.
But I once saw this recipe for a spinach and mushroom pulav and thought it actually was a pretty interesting combination.



I tried a biryani version with this combination and it turn out pretty good
The problem is that when I make pulav, it always needs a side dish - a raita wouldn't do, cos the pulav is generally not so spicy, but with this biryani, a salad or raita was just fine !

What you need -

2 cups mushroom
2 cups basmati/long grain rice
1.5 cup chopped spinach
2 onions
1 tomato
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fennel seeds
1" stick cinnamon
3-4 cloves
3-4 green chillies
4 cloves garlic
1/2" piece ginger
1 tsp pepper corns
1 tsp salt

What you do with it -

Grind to a paste the fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, green chillies and pepper corns
Soak the rice for about 20-30 mins
Chop onions length-wise and the tomato into small pieces
Wash and quarter the mushrooms
Wash and chop the spinach

Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a large pan
Add the bayleaf and onion and fry till onion turns brown
Add spinach and mushroom and saute till the spinach changes colour and mushrooms shrink in size
Add the ground paste and fry till raw smell goes away
Add the chopped tomato and fry till it becomes soft

Add the soaked basmati rice and fry for 2 to 3 minutes
Add 3 cups of water and a tsp of salt
Cover and cook till done