Biriani/ Kenyan Biryani/ East African Rice
Venturing out to a new zone always needs an anchor in the form of some known or comfort tool. For me amongst food, Rice is one such anchor or comfort ingredient for me. Pairing any amount of side dishes with one good rice dish works for my family.
Coming back to the theme, you do know we are on an exotic journey through the cuisines. And I have gone all the way upto Africa...
Swahili is the most popular language spoken in this continent. The food world is shrinking in size with all the cultures , colours and races merging in to one... I really hope that just like food, eventually all religions and races fuse up being one - human
The food in kenya exhibits the influence of India, Middle east and Asian flavors to a large extent. While the origin of Biryani is itself debatable, but back in Kenya this is attributed to the Indian ancestry.
It is nothing like the biryani we eat - neither the lucknowi nor the hyderabadi...it is not even layered but there is something about this that makes you associate with the biryani.
Go figure that out by trying this recipe....
Ingredients
2 cups Basmati Long Grained Rice (washed and drained)
1 cup mix par boiled vegetables (potato, beans, green peas, cauliflower)
1/2 cup paneer cubes (optional)
1 onion finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp curd
1 tspn red chilli powder
1 tspn turmeric powder
1/2 tspn black pepper powder
1 tspn garam masala
1 stick cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves
2-3 whole green cardamom
1 tspn ginger paste
1 tspn garlic paste
1 pinch of saffron/ kesar
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp butter/ ghee
salt to taste
Oil to cook
for garnish
pineapple
tomato
hard boiled egg
lemon
Method
1) Cook rice with 4 cups water with some salt and 1 cardamom. Add the juice of lemon or curd about 1 tspn while cooking to get long grains
2) In another pan , heat some oil. Add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom. Then add the ginger garlic paste. Saute it for half a min
3) Add the onions and let it cook only till it turns pale - do not caramelise it
4) Next add the chopped tomatoes and saute it for 4-5 min.
5) Add the dry powders, red chilly turmeric, garam masala,black pepper at this stage to aide faster water evaporation.
6) Now add the tomato puree and let it reduce down
7) Add the tomato sauce and vegetables. Add some water and cover it until vegetables are cooked
8) Add the ghee, curd and salt at this stage and let it cook until desired gravy consistency. I prefer it to be thicker.
9) When the rice is cooked, mix a part of it with saffron soaked in hot milk. Then using
a fork mix it with the rest of the rice.Add some more ghee to the rice for extra aroma
10) Serve the rice with the gravy and garnish with pineapple, tomato, egg and lemon.
We loved this biriani as mentioed earlier....it is something that will be made often at my home...
Coming back to the theme, you do know we are on an exotic journey through the cuisines. And I have gone all the way upto Africa...
Swahili is the most popular language spoken in this continent. The food world is shrinking in size with all the cultures , colours and races merging in to one... I really hope that just like food, eventually all religions and races fuse up being one - human
The food in kenya exhibits the influence of India, Middle east and Asian flavors to a large extent. While the origin of Biryani is itself debatable, but back in Kenya this is attributed to the Indian ancestry.
It is nothing like the biryani we eat - neither the lucknowi nor the hyderabadi...it is not even layered but there is something about this that makes you associate with the biryani.
Go figure that out by trying this recipe....
Ingredients
2 cups Basmati Long Grained Rice (washed and drained)
1 cup mix par boiled vegetables (potato, beans, green peas, cauliflower)
1/2 cup paneer cubes (optional)
1 onion finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp curd
1 tspn red chilli powder
1 tspn turmeric powder
1/2 tspn black pepper powder
1 tspn garam masala
1 stick cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves
2-3 whole green cardamom
1 tspn ginger paste
1 tspn garlic paste
1 pinch of saffron/ kesar
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp butter/ ghee
salt to taste
Oil to cook
for garnish
pineapple
tomato
hard boiled egg
lemon
Method
1) Cook rice with 4 cups water with some salt and 1 cardamom. Add the juice of lemon or curd about 1 tspn while cooking to get long grains
2) In another pan , heat some oil. Add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom. Then add the ginger garlic paste. Saute it for half a min
3) Add the onions and let it cook only till it turns pale - do not caramelise it
4) Next add the chopped tomatoes and saute it for 4-5 min.
5) Add the dry powders, red chilly turmeric, garam masala,black pepper at this stage to aide faster water evaporation.
6) Now add the tomato puree and let it reduce down
7) Add the tomato sauce and vegetables. Add some water and cover it until vegetables are cooked
8) Add the ghee, curd and salt at this stage and let it cook until desired gravy consistency. I prefer it to be thicker.
9) When the rice is cooked, mix a part of it with saffron soaked in hot milk. Then using
a fork mix it with the rest of the rice.Add some more ghee to the rice for extra aroma
10) Serve the rice with the gravy and garnish with pineapple, tomato, egg and lemon.
We loved this biriani as mentioed earlier....it is something that will be made often at my home...
.jpg)
Comments
As vaishali pointed out, there seems to be some thought going into the style of presentation. Loving the name tags :)