Sherva or Biryani Shorba is a side dish for Biryani, prepared with onions, tomatoes, spices, and herbs. This is a very common side dish served in many South Indian restaurants with Biryani.
Ingredients
To make paste:
3 medium tomatoes / 1 cup roughly chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion roughly chopped
1 chopped green chilli
3 roughly chopped garlic
1/2 inch ginger chopped
2 tbsp grated fresh coconut or desiccated coconut
1/2 tbsp chopped mint leaves/ pudina
1/2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves/ Dhaniya Patta
2 tbsp water for grinding
Other ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1 Indian bay leaf/tej patta
2 green cardamoms/ elaichi
2 cloves / lavang
1 inch cinnamon/ dalchini
1/4 tsp turmeric powder/ haldi
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin/jeera powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp coriander / dhaniya powder
1 cup water/vegetable stock
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
Procedure
In a blender, take the following ingredients - 1 cup roughly chopped tomatoes, 1/3 cup chopped onion, 1 tsp chopped green chili, 1 tbsp roughly chopped ginger, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 2 tbsp grated fresh or desiccated coconut, and 1 tbsp chopped mint or chopped coriander or half-half of both.
Grind without adding little water to a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the whole spices - tejpatta, green cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves,
Saute till the spices become aromatic.
Now add the ground tomato-onion paste. Be careful as the mixture splutters. Stir very well.
Then add turmeric powder, red chili powder (reduce to 1/4 tsp for a less spiced gravy), cumin powder, garam masala powder, and coriander powder.
Stir the spice powders with the rest of the masala paste.
Stir and saute the masala till you see oil releasing from the sides of the paste. The mixture will also gather together and leave the sides of the pan.
Then add 1 to 1.25 cups vegetable stock. It is preferable to add the veg stock. If you do not have veg stock, then add water. If making for veg biryani, you can also parboil/boil the veggies that will be added to the biryani and then add this vegetable stock to the gravy.
Stir very well and season with salt.
Again stir and bring the curry to a simmer on a low to medium flame for 5 to 6 minutes or till you see specks of oil on top.
Garnish with chopped coriander or mint leaves. Serve shorba with vegetable biryani or vegetable pulao.
Comments