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Biriyani = Biriyani Rice

Category: African

Author: uvw

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(3.0) by 1 users

Ingredients:

2 Kilo grams RED Onions
2 Kilo grams Chicken (thighs & drumsticks)
4 cups Basmati rice (long grain rice)
2 tb spn canned tomato
2 large regular tomatoes
1 bunch mint leaves
1 bunch parsley
5 spices (cinnamon bark - 3 medium pieces, cardamom - 6 pieces, cumin seeds, black pepper - about 1/6 tea spoon, cloves - 3 to 4 sticks)
4 medium sized potatoes
2 cups yogurt
6-8 lemons
Salt to taste
5-6 sections/pieces from 1 head garlic medium sized
1 node fresh ginger, about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch diameter (not powdered)

Instructions:

Wash the rice 2 or 3 times until the whitishness does not re appear in the water.
Boil the rice until it is half done, sieve and throw away the starchy fluid
Mix the rice with a big pinch of strands of saffron, about 20 or 30 strands.
In a big cooking pot, fry the garlic in GHEE
Raise the temperature of ghee and put in the chicken.. fry at high temperature only to brown the chicken... remove quickly so that the juices from the chicken do not get out (you will need them for later). Remove the chicken and put on a paper towel to drain the oil and remove the pot from the fire
Now put everything BUT THE RICE, into another pot and mix them nicely (all the spices -ground-, the chicken, yogurt, ginger, garlic etc). Add salt and make sure that you can taste the salt (don't go over board) also make sure that the mix taste for sourness.
Pour rice on top of all the mixed stuff.
Boil some ghee on another pot or pan and pour on top of the rice. Cover the pot with tinfoil and make sure you do this well, make it snuggle nicely. Then use your regular pot cover over this.
Cook in medium low (second option between low and medium) for about 30 minutes. {Alternatively you could cook it in the oven at about 250 that is about 30-40% lower temp than you would use for backing cake - if cooking in the oven, you will need to time it for 45 minutes, after 45 minutes you will need to poke in a fork all the way to the bottom to feel if its done or not}
To be done, the rice on the top will be cooked and the bottom of the pot will stay a little bit soggy.
Time to serve, NOW you will need a big deep bowl like plate, uncover the pot completely, clear the area for a little work. Cover the pot with the plate, serving side facing the pot. Lift the pot in such a way that with a quick twist, you can flip it over where the plate is at the bottom and the pot is on top of it. If you used a plate big enough, nothing will fall on the floor when you pull up the pot. So now pull up the pot. The thick curry should be at the top and may slightly run if it was not cooked at right temperature, but that is not a bad thing. The biriyani curry is one of the best curry you will ever taste. Remember what I said about NOT over frying the chicken, not losing the juices?? Well what has happened is that the juices from the chicken combined with tomatoes, yogurt and other stuff and made the rich biriyani curry at the low cooking temperatures.

Serving
Usually in Africa and the Middle East, the whole BIG plate is set in the middle and every one eats hand in hand from it, sitting on the floor around it. However, though that is the best way for socializing and breaking class barrier, you can serve it any way you like in your home. You could set the big plate in the middle of the table and every one can serve into their plates (especially if you do not have eaters hehehe), and take the amount they need.

Every one taking a serving should take the curry and all, that is the best part, if biriyani is cooked right, I would swear it is the best food in the world as far as taste is concerned. However, this here is chicken biriyani, the more authentic one is beef/veal biriyani, I will get the recipe for that when mom has time and I will post it here for you. She says there is a little difference in preparation. I know there is a lot of difference in taste!