My Biryani Disaster?



Last Friday was Eid, A day celebrated by Muslims and so Wishing everyone a happy Eid to those who celebrate it. To others hope everyone is enjoying a nice weekend :)

Since It was Eid we had a small lunch with friends, a Maldivian family who live here in Kelantan. Decided to make biryani after seeing one in this blog, But by the time I had come up with my own biryani mix it was a mixture of different biryani recipes I checked out.

Biryani recipe

Rice : 
2 1/2 cups rice , basmati
2 bay leaves
1 stick cinnamon
6 cardamon
3 cloves
Water

Cooked rice with the whole spices till they had a slight bite then drained then water and spread it out in a colander to cool off fluff it a little.

Chicken:
120g cup plain yogurt
4 cloves garlic
1" piece ginger
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
salt and pepper
Chicken leg pieces , about 1 kg
1 onion, sliced
1 tbsp tomato paste/ puree
1 large carrot roughly chopped
2 large potatoes cut into cubes

Grind everything to a paste. And mix into the yoghurt. Rub into the chicken and leave it to marinate overnight.

Fry the potatoes till golden, drain and set aside

Heat a little oil, add onion and saute till translucent, then add tomato paste and cook for a minute. Then add the chicken along with the marinade along with a little water and cook stirring occasionally till cooked through. Add the carrots and the fried potatoes at the very last minute. Taste and adjust the seasoning and cook till the liquid is almost dried up.

Garnishes: 1 large onion sliced and fried till golden in ghee
50 g cashew nuts  fried in ghee till golden
1 big bunch of mint and parsley chopped although I would prefer mint and coriander.

Take a large baking tray, layer with rice, then chicken then rice. Dot with butter or ghee, sprinkle the garnish ingredients and then layer with rice, chicken and rice again, then garnishings. Put a parchement paper on top then cover tightly with foil then place in oven, preheated to 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Disaster?!?!?! My baking tray was a little big for my tiny toaster oven so I heated it on the stovetop, unfortunately, I left it a tad too long and ended up getting the rice burnt at the bottom and it had a bit of a burnt smell!!!

Highly recommended. The first time I made biryani was in Pakistan, and I used saffron dissolved in milk and sprinkled it on top of the rice along with the garnishing and there is such a big difference in taste when you add saffron.

Serve with a simple cucumber raita and had pavlova for dessert.

Comments

  1. i usually dont add any veg to my biriyani, but added a handful of potato cubes for my eid biriyani. H was like - potatoes? in biriyani? I should show him your recipe - with carrots in it! :)

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  2. Never had biriyani, you're widening my horizons! Looks good!

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  3. its much better than I could do biriyani is hard thanks for visiting my blog bottle gourd is a green squash found in Indian stores, Rebecca

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  4. salam, belated eid mubarec, my biryani never works out:( I just try to pretend I was making something else.hehehe

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  5. oh sad..In Kerala style biryani we do not add saffron milk. But when I cook Hyderabad biryani (will try to post the recipe soon) I do add that :-)I cook it on the stove top too. Next time you try to keep it for 3minutes on high and then 15 minutes on medium low and 5 minutes on very low, after closing the lid tightly..

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  6. Only this afternoon I was doing some research on biryani. I want to try it soon.

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  7. Ah, it happens to everybody... and usually at the worst times, too, ugh! Recipe looks lovely :)

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