Vegetable and bean biryani

Main Ingredient: Cereals Rice and Grains
Course: Various Main Dishes
Cuisine: Indian
Dietary: Various vegetarian
Yield:

Vegetable and bean biryani ingredients

1 med Aubergine, cubed
-(large is better, though)
1 pn Salt and black pepper
4 T Vegetable oil or vegetable
Ghee
3⁄4 t Poppy Seeds
1 t Mustard seed
1 pn Cayenne
1⁄4 t Turmeric
3⁄4 t Garam masala
1⁄4 t Ground coriander
1 Red pepper, seeded & sliced
3 oz Butter beans, cooked
2 Tomatoes, skinned, seeded
-chopped
8 oz Long grained brown rice
-cooked with saffron
1 oz Toasted pine nuts
1 oz Raisins
1 Coriander sprig for garnish*

Cooking Vegetable and bean biryani

1. Place the aubergine cubes in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes.
2. Rinse the cubes and dry. Heat the oil or ghee in a large pan. Add the poppy and mustard seeds and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.
3. Add the cayenne pepper, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, aubergine, red pepper, beans, tomatoes and salt and pepper.
4. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.
5. Layer the rice and vegetable mixture in an ovenproof dish.
6. Cover and cook in a preheated moderate oven (180°Fc, 350°F, gas mark 4) for 30 minutes.
7. To serve: sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and raisins.
8. Garnishi with a coriander sprig and serve hot.
9. * i"ve never used sprig of coriander - can"t stand it unless it"s ground coriander, from a packet! it"s called cilantro in the us, isn"t it? this recipe from carole bowen"s book "the vegetarian cookbook", i think.