Persian Rice with Tahdeeg

Ingredients:-

Basmati Rice - 2 1/2 cups

Egg yolk, beaten - 1 No.

Yogurt - 2Tbsp

Saffron - a pinch

Oil - 3Tbsp

Butter - 5Tbsp

2 onions, 1 chopped and 1 thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

600ml, 2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup raisins

2Tbsp tomato puree

coariander, ground - 2Tbsp

few strands of saffron
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:-

Rinse the rice well and strain. Boil the rice in salted water for 3 minutes until it softens but remains slightly crunchy, stirring in between. Drain and keep aside.

In some 2Tbsp hot water, soak the saffron. Add 3 Tbsp of cooked rice to this and keep aside.

In a deep pan, heat 2 tbsp oil and fry the chopped onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add the raisins, tomato puree, coriander and seasoning and saute. Add the stock to this and bring to a boil. Add cooked rice, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Keep a large pan with tight lid on heat and add oil. Turn off heat once oil is warm and add the prepared egg-yogurt-rice mixture to the bottom of the pan. This will bake into a delicious golden crust called tahdeeg, which is a specialty of Persian food. Arrange the cooked rice on top of this in a pyramid shape, away from the sides of the pan, finishing with saffron mixed rice on top.

Make 4-5 deep holes in the rice and add a spoon each of butter. Bring to a high heat, cover the pan tightly with a lid. Keep on a low heat for 10 minutes.

Fry the sliced onion in a tablespoon oil, drain and keep aside.

Once the rice is done, remove from heat and keep the pan in a sink of cold water for 1-2 minutes to loosen the base. .

Transfer the rice to serving platter. Garnish with fried onions. Break up the golden crust from the base (the prized tahdeeg) and place it around the rice.

Pineapple Fried Rice

This is a classic Thai dish almost always served in scooped out pineapple shell.

Thai style fried rice stands different from Chinese fried rice with the addition of ntraditional thai ingredients like Pineapple, cashew nuts and raisins. The resulting taste is sweet and sour.

Ingredients :

Basmati Rice - 2 cups

Pineapple, fresh or canned, chopped - 1 cup

Onion, chopped - 1small

Spring onion, chopped - 1cup

Green Peas, cooked - 1/2 cup

Red, Green and Orange Bell Pepper, chopped - 1 cup

Ginger Garlic paste - 1Tbsp

Egg - 1 No.

Boneless chicken, cooked and shredded - 1 cup

Pepper powder - 1Tbsp

Curry powder - 1Tbsp

Soy sauce - 3 Tbsp

Fish sauce - 2Tbsp

Pineapple juice - 3Tbsp

Cashew nuts - 2Tbsp

Raisins - 2Tbsp

Method:

1.Boil water in a vessel, add salt and 1tsp lemon juice. Add rice and cook till done. Drain.

For fried rice, it is always better to use cooked rice refrigerated overnight. This will make the rice less sticky while preparing fried rice.

2.Heat 1Tbsp oil in a wok. Fry the cashew nuts and raisins and keep aside. Add chopped onion, spring onion, green peas and bell peppers and stir fry for 1 minute. Take it out of oil and keep aside.

3.Beat the egg with a little soy sauce. Heat 1tsp oil and gently scramble the egg. Remove from wok and keep aside.

4.Add little more oil if needed, saute ginger garlic paste until slightly brown and fragrant. Add chicken and pepper powder and saute on high heat till slightly browned. Add curry powder, fish sauce and soy sauce. Add pineapple and saute for 1 minute on medium heat. Add rice to this, mix in the pineapple juice and stir well. Add the stir-fried vegetables and egg until everything is mixed in well. Check seasoning and salt and adjust if needed.
5.Serve in a carved Pineapple boat and garnish with Cashew nuts, raisins and spring onions.

Malabar Chicken Biriyani

An original recipe followed by my mother and me since a long time. Adored by many of our friends and relatives, this is a dish which stands alone by itself and I find it an excellent choice for parties.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 whole cut into pieces
For marinade
2 Tbsp red chilli powder
1 Tbsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

oil for pan frying

For gravy
6 large onions, sliced thin
3 Tbsp ginger-garlic-greenchilli paste
2 tomato, chopped
2 Tbsp curd
2 Tbsp coconut, grated
2 Tbsp cashewnut
1 Tbsp almonds
1 Tbsp kus-kus (poppy seeds)
1 cup coriander leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp mint leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp garam masala

garnishing:
1 cup thinly sliced onion
2 Tbsp cashewnuts, broken into halves
2 Tbsp raisins, soaked & drained
2 Tbsp chopped coriander leaves

for rice:
3/4 kg basmati rice
Juice of 1 lemon
1 handful mixed spices
salt to taste

for dum:
1 cup pure ghee
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp rose water
1 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp saffron
1 Tbsp pineapple essence

Cooking procedure
Clean the chicken pieces and rub the ingredients for the marinade into the pieces. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Shallow fry in hot oil until slightly browned but not crispy. the idea is to make the masala stick to the meat well.

Gravy:

In a deep pan, heat half-cup oil and half-cup good quality ghee.

Add the sliced onions and saute until nicely browned.

Add the ginger-garlic-green chilli paste and saute again for 5 min until the raw smell is gone. Add the powders and garam masala and saute for a minute on low fire.

Now add the tomatoes and little salt and saute until well done.

Add the chicken pieces and saute for 5 minutes on high heat.

Add the curds and ground coconut-kuskus-cashew-almonds and saute again for some time. Now, add the chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves and while steaming, turn heat off. Put some more garam masala on top and keep it tightly closed.

Preparing Rice:

Wash the required rice (1/2kg rice for 4 persons) and soak for about half an hour. Drain.

Take a large enough (almost double the size of cooked rice) vessel and take water in it.

Add salt and mixed spices (some elaichi, cloves, cinnamon, pepper) and keep the vessel covered and boil it.

Now add the drained rice and cook in open pan, stirring in between.

Test for salt and add if the water tastes less salty.

It will be cooked in 10-15 minutes.

Test the grains for readiness by chewing.

It should be JUST cooked and not very well cooked.

There should be enough water during this process and the rice should be freely flowing, not congested.

If water is less, add some more boiled water.

Once cooked, drain the rice immediately using a colander.

This should be immediately used with the masala for the dum.

You can remove the whole spices if you wish.

Aso try adding some lemon juice to the water while cooking so that the rice remains seperate.

Garnishing:

In little oil or ghee deep fry thinly sliced onions (1-2No) until crisp and brown and keep aside. Now fry the cashews and raisins and keep aside.

Dum:

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and brush some ghee in it.

Put a thin layer of rice so as to provide a barrier to the meat.

Arrange the meat pieces and masala over it.

Put the rice on top of it.

To the hot milk add some yellow color, pineapple essence and saffron strands and pour on top of the rice.

Now pour some 2tsp rose water above it.

Pour some 3-5 Tbsp of ghee over the rice.

Put 1tsp garam masala over it.

Sprinkle the garnishing prepared above and put some chopped coriander leaves.

Cover the vessel and seal well with roti dough so that steam doesnt go out.

Keep on a slow fire or oven for 10-15 minutes. Ideally, heat should come from above the pan also, which is done by placing charcoals on the lid, but this step can be omitted.

Enjoy!