From ianhoarespamless@wanadoo.fr Fri Mar 21 10:57:27 2003 Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 01:02:51 +0100 From: Ian Hoare Reply-To: ianhoare@wanadoo.fr Newsgroups: uk.food+drink.indian Subject: Re: Biryani? Salut/Hi Arno, le/on Tue, 18 Mar 2003 20:18:19 +0100, tu disais/you said:- >Hey all > >I am looking for a good recipe for the perfect Chicken Biryani... > >I'm new to the group, so i may have some questions about spices. Here are three recipes, one from Sri Lanka (that well known hotbed of Biryani cooking ;-)) One from Pat Chapman (not too popular with some here) and one which claims to be ancient ans authentic, you would use chicken as the "meat". Let us know which you like best, if and when you try them. ----- Now You're Cooking! v5.59 [Meal-Master Export Format] Title: Biriani - (Various) Categories: indian, main dish, meats, vegetables Yield: 4 servings 675 g filling; see note 1 md onion 1 lg garlic clove 2 1/2 cm piece green ginger 1/2 lemon; juice 1 ghee 2 md tomatoes, ripe; concassee ----------------------------------SPICES 1---------------------------------- 2 green cardamoms 5 black peppercorns 2 whole cloves 1 ts cummin, ground 1 ts coriander, ground 1/4 ts chillies, ground ----------------------------------SPICES 2---------------------------------- 2 green cardamoms 2 whole cloves 5 cms cassia bark/cinnamon 2 bay leaves ------------------------------------RICE------------------------------------ 600 ml basmati rice 1 water 1/4 ts saffron strands; soaked in 2 tb milk; warm for 10 minutes 1/2 sm onion 300 ml meat stock ----------------------------------GARNISH----------------------------------- 1 tb sultanas 1 tb almonds; halved 1 egg; hard boiled & sliced Note. Use chicken, beef, lamb or even pork, or a combination, for a meat biriani. For a shellfish one, use prawns, lobster, scallops or combination. For a vegetable biriani, a combination from cauliflower, carrot, courgette, aubergine, peas etc. A combination may even be made of any of these, with the same total weight. To make the filling, chop the onion, garlic and ginger together, and then fry in the ghee until golden, then add spices 1. Add lemon juice, meat seafood or vegetables, and tomatoes. If cooking meat do it very slowly for 1 hour or so. Seafood requires about 30 minutes at most, and vegetables about 15 minutes, cooking a combination requires the various ingredients to be added at appropriate moments. The mixture should all be very dry and coated with te mix. Salt to taste. Meanwhile, parcook the rice in plenty of boiling water (it should have been previously washed thoroughly and soaked an hour in cold water. for a scant 5 minutes. Drain, and set aside. Soak the saffron in the milk. Fry the onion in some ghee add the stock, and the saffron milk. Add the rice, heat through, then strain, reserving the stock. Preheat the oven to 325 to 350F (160 to 180C). Place a layer of about half the rice in a flat dish, top with spices 2 (I would have added them to the stock etc with the rice - IMH) then layer in the filling. Top with remaining rice, pour on retained stock, cover and cook for about 1 hour. Garnish with sultanas, almonds and egg, and for special occasions, pistachio nuts and even gold or silver leaf. Recipe "Indian Restaurant Coookbook" Pat Chapman MMed IMH c/o Gohlam BBS Fido 3:324/151.4 ----- ----- Now You're Cooking! v5.59 [Meal-Master Export Format] Title: Chicken Biriani Categories: indian, main dish, poultry Yield: 1 servings 1 chicken 60 g onion 2 fresh chillies 25 g coconut 100 fresh cashew nuts 2 cloves 2 cardamoms 4 eggs 1/2 ts turmeric 1 ts salt 60 ml tomato paste 60 g yoghurt 1 ts paprika 1 ts chilli powder 3 ts curry paste 50 ml oil 1 sprig curry leaves 60 ml water 25 g raisins ------------------------------------RICE------------------------------------ 225 g basmati rice 60 g onion 3 cardamoms 3 cloves 50 ml oil 1 sprig curry leaves 1/2 stem lemon grass 2 cm cinnamon stick 1/2 ts turmeric 500 ml stock Joint and wash the chicken. Chop one onion and make the other into onion rings. Crush the cardamoms and cloves. Put the chicken into a pan and add the salt, vinegar, curry powder, pepper, cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon stick. Pour in half the water and bring to the boil. Cook until the gravy is absorbed. Remove the chicken pieces and place in a bowl. Add the rest of the water to the pan, swill round and pour liquid into a jug. Heat the oil and saute the chicken pieces, the chopped onion, curry leaves and lemon grass. When the chicken pieces are done add the onion rings and Worcestershire sauce. Pour in the liquid from the tug, mix well and bring to the boil. Lower heat and allow to simmer for a further 3 minutes, then discard the cinnamon stick and serve immediately. From "A taste of Sri Lanka" by Indra Jayasekera, ISBN #962 224 010 0 ----- ----- Now You're Cooking! v5.59 [Meal-Master Export Format] Title: Biryani Pulav Categories: meats, side dish, rice, indian Yield: 8 servings 250 g meat 17 g caraway seeds 250 g yogurt 156 g ginger juice 156 g garlic juice 26 g raw papaya juice 39 g salt 175 g ghee (1) 1050 g onion 146 g ghee (2) 40 g ghee (3) 26 g cardamom 26 g cloves 467 g long grain rice 17 g caraway seeds 19 1/2 g salt 117 g milk 2 g saffron 233 g dough This recipe is over a hundred years old, and is from the former and oldest of the Deccan states ... Phaltan. To retain its authenticity the units of measure used in those days have been converted exactly to metric units while translating from Marathi to English; and that is why the figures may seem a little odd. Cut the meat into small and large pieces and wash thoroughly four times in water. Marinate the meat for an hour in papaya juice; garlic juice; ginger juice; yogurt; salt and first measure of caraway seeds. Heat ghee (1) in a vessel and fry 1/3 onion cut into rings till they turn almond colour. Set aside the fried onions and remaining ghee separately. Cut remaining 2/3 onions into half and slice axially. Fry slices in ghee (2) till they turn reddish brown. Keep the fried slices and the ghee aside separately. Heat ghee (3) in a vessel and fry cardamom seeds and cloves till they crackle. Add water and bring to a boil. Add rice and bring to a boil. Add 2nd lot of caraway seeds, salt and cook till rice is half done. Strain through a sieve. Take a fresh vessel and add a little ghee to it. Add half the strained rice in a layer. Layer the marinated meat over the layer of rice. Layer half the fried onion rings over the meat. Layer with remaining rice. Layer with remaining onion rings and golden brown fried onion. Pour all remaining ghee evenly over the surface and sprinkle milk in which the saffron has been soaked evenly. Cover the vessel with a lid and seal it with the dough along the circumference. Cook on medium flame for about five to six minutes. Lower flame to minimum. Place burning coal on the lid of the vessel and let cook till it starts steaming. Lower from flame. Remove coal, lid and serve hot. * The dough is made by kneading wheat flour with water. Kishore Namjoshi Pune - India From : K N ----- -- All the Best Ian Hoare Sometimes oi just sits and thinks Sometimes oi just sits.