Bengaluru Special Donne Biryani ( Plus my Vegan Sermon, Yikes!)

Mighty but not Meaty

Ola Leopards!

Here's to a more conscious, kinder, and happier New Year. 2017, baby! Let's make it wicked hot.

If you've been following my posts, you already know the drill: it doesn't matter if you aren't vegan, or vegetarian. Reducing your intake of meat and dairy makes a stand against cruelty. By consciously lowering your intake you are acknowledging one of the most cruelest industries in operation today: subjecting animals to being produced just to they live in cages until they are killed. The dairy industry keeps cows pregnant (by artificial insemination) constantly, so they give out milk around the clock. And their calfs certainly don't get enough to drink. What's more is that they inject cows with hormones,so they produce more (which is painful for the cow, and super nasty for you).

 I turned vegan ( after being vegetarian/pescatarian for 7 years) about 8 months ago. So, I thoughts, why not chronicle my experience of being one in India.

It's lonely being a vegan in a non-vegan world. I don't know any vegans in real-life most of them are on the internet. We live in a non-vegan world, globally we're only 3%-5% of the population. India might have a large vegetarian population, but is very lactose dependent: ghee, milk, curds and butter is in a lot of our vegetarian food. India's population is huge-Ass, but we in all probability don't have even have 10k vegans in the country.

As a vegan, I get eyebrows raised, I get made fun of, and I certainly get unwarranted advice. But I am no evangelistic vegan. Ain't one of them that says the go vegan or call yourself a mass murderer. Humans are fundamentally hypocritical- we have pets, but we eat meat. We think cruelty is bad, but we don't think about our food.  We have cultural ties to food, and the demands for vegan substitutes are so low, that it might seem like a very privileged thing to take up. Most people think that you don't get the right nutrition on a vegan diet. That's a complete myth, and there is enough on the internet to read about that specifically.

I believe any change is good chance. If you can give up meat and dairy one day a week, you are contributing to a better world. We're consuming and consuming, we've lost touch with our food, where it comes from, and what goes on behind the scenes. Sometimes, I don't think the vegan label does us much good, people feel intimidated by it, and get defensive about it (which is why we get all the stupid comments and jokes). And it's not only the non-vegans who create the problem. Some vegans be be downright annoying, holier-than-thou, and dogmatic. After all who is to define the exact rules of being vegan? We could always argue that vegetables kill insects, that india uses animals to farm its agriculture, and that most things we are involved with directly or indirectly abuse animals in some form. There is plenty of infighting in the vegan community precisely because of this, who get's to be 'vegan' enough?  Franky, I could give a rat's ass. Everyone has their own evolution based on their circumstances, privileges, culture, and individual experience. But what we all have in common (if you are reading this) is to be aware of our experience right now, and what we're doing. That's why I think: any change, is good change. Even acknowledging the problem of cruelty is change.


Read up more about the industry. If it moves you, then give up the small things first. Give up leather (there is no good reason you need to actively buy leather). Reduce your consumption of milk. If you are vegetarian, consider trying the vegan diet. The environmental impact is huge. And if this is too hard, support the rest of us vegans by buying vegan products from time to time, it helps us increase the demand in the market, making it more accessible to the mass population.

Alright, sermon over. But the preamble also serves well for my next recipe. A lot of people who eat meat are worried about taste and and recreating old favorites. I am no different, I grew up a meat eater and one of my favorite things was biryani. Bangalore has a special local biryani, and you live here, you've either eaten it or seen it all around town: Donne Biryani. Usually made with chicken and small grain rice. The taste, if you ask me, comes from the spicy-delish mix of ginger-garlic, shit tons of coriander, mint, and chilies! 'donne' in Kannada means palm leaves, which was originally the way it was served, in a cup made out of these leaves.

Here's my vegan version using soya chunks and potatoes! It was extraordinarily tasty and spicy! This recipe will serve 2-3 people.

The Taste comes from these cuties

Here's What you Need


3 fresh  tomatoes pureed

2 large onions

2 cups fresh coriander leaves

1 cup mint leaves

3 inches of ginger plus 10 pods of garlic

As little as 2 to as much as 10 green chilies ( I like it super spicy)

11/2 cup small soya chunks

2-3 potatoes chopped ( I cute one potato into 8 pieces)

5 tablespoons biryani masala ( I use Shaan masala/Bombay Briyani masala or Chicken masala)

11/2 teaspoons turmeric, jeera powder, and dhanya powder

Some fresh coriander and chopped tomato for garnish

11/2 cup of white rice

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

3tb cooking oil


How to make

Puree your tomatoes and set aside. Then blend your mint, chilies, and coriander together with a a bit of water to make your green paste. Blend your garlic and ginger together to make a fresh ginger-garlic paste. Don't use ready-made paste, the taste of this recipe relies on everything fresh. Lastly, grind up your onions too. Now you have 4 pastes : Onion, Ginger-garlic, Tomato, and Green.

Green and Red

In a pressure cooker, heat up 3tb of cooking oil. Add you ginger-garlic paste and fry it for 2 minutes. You can also add a bayleaf to the oil if you want, but totally optional. Now add your onion paste, and fry for another couple minutes.

Pasty!

Soak your soya chunks in a bowl of water. And keep you potatoes peeled and chopped.

Now add green paste to the onion/ginger-garlic paste, and stir. Dump your tomato paste in, and add all the masalas. If your biryani masala doesn't already have salt add some to taste. You might need to use a little salt anyway, since potatoes tend to soak it up. Add your teaspoon of sugar as well now too.

Now add your soya chunks and potatoes, and fry it all together, add a few tablespoons of water, and cook for about 5 minutes. Finally add your washed rice, and stir the mixture throughly. Add 3 cups of water and put the lid on. Let it go for about 3 whistles. Put off the cooker and let it cook with the heat inside. Open, place in a bowl and garnish with more coriander and fresh chopped tomato. Serve with a salad, or with vegan raita (peanut curd is available for delivery in Bangalore and tastes very much like regular curd) Contact Veganarke on their FB page for peanut curd (80 rupees for a litre)

Yeah! Enjoy your vegan donne biryani, and share some with your friends.

<3 Happy 2017!

Have questions about vegan food or being vegan in India? Comment or catch me on FB: Rheea Rodrigous Mukherjee