Biryani

Are you ready for an adventure??? Biryani is an Indian/Pakistani dish. If you've ever been to an Indian restaurant and like that type of food, you'll like this! It's not your every day chicken dish, but, come on people! Give those taste buds a little something new and exotic!

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:


Chicken legs and thighs, on the bone but with the skin off
One large onion, sliced
3 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
One anaheim chili pepper, sliced
1-2 tomatoes,chopped
1/2 to 1 potato chopped into 1/4 inch cubes (depends how big your potatoes are)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon chili powder
about 1/2 teaspoon salt (you can always add more later...)
6 whole cloves
1 inch of a cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
5 whole pepper corns
1 cup chicken broth
fresh mint leaves
rice

Get your rice cooking first so it will be ready. Here's what you need.

2 cups jasmine or basmati rice

4 cups chicken broth

1 inch cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

Put those four ingredients in a rice cooker or in a pot and cook until rice is done.

Now, while the rice is cooking......

Put oil in a large saute pan or electric skillet and saute onions and potatoes until onions start to brown a little.
Add the ginger and garlic and saute.
Add the cloves, cumin seeds, cinnamon stick, turmeric powder, chili powder, salt, and whole pepper corns. Mix together.
Add chicken pieces and start to brown those up.

(I didn't let the chicken brown up enough before I added the tomatoes in the above picture....make sure you cook it a bit more first....I learned...)

Then, add tomatoes and 1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth. Start out with less. Add more as needed. If it all dries out too much before the chicken is done cooking, you'll want to add more broth. Let cook at at simmer until chicken is completely cooked and sauce is reduced. Usually, I'll cover it for a little while, then leave the lid off so the sauce can reduce. You don't want it too liquidy. Once the chicken is done, the sauce is reduced, and your rice is cooked, start adding rice in to the rest of your goods. Don't just add it all in.... add it in gradually, mixing as you go, until you appear to have a good sauce to rice ratio. If you add to much rice, you won't get much flavor. And I'm all about flavor! The rice will kind of soak up any remaining liquid and soak up all the flavors. Yummm..... Usually I add it until it looks about right, then put the rest of the rice out on the table as well, so people can add more rice to their own if they want it that way.

Before you serve it, add fresh, chopped mint leaves over the top.

Sometime we've noticed... if it tastes a little bland.... we just have to add more salt!!! It is amazing how a little more salt can just enhance all the flavors that are already there! so, make sure you've got salt out on the table.

And, there you have it. Your first, home cooked Pakistani/Indian dish!

Ginger Peanut Rice Bowl (kinda like at...Rumbi Island Grill)

(Okay, so I stole that picture off of the Rumbi Island Grill website.......)

So, as Steve and I were eating a salad with that ginger salad dressing on it, Steve commented that it reminded him of the flavors in one of those rice bowls at Rumbi Island Grill. So, of course, then I HAD to figure out a way to make that! So... I pretty much just altered some other recipes I had, did a little experimenting, and ended up with what we thought was very good! Give it a try.

For the rice:
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1 can red beans, drained and rinsed

Put the rice, coconut milk, broth, and water in a pot with a lid. As it starts to get to a boil, you're gonna need to stir it because it's going to be a little thick with that coconut milk in it. You don't want it to all goo to the bottom and burn! So, once it is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer, put the lid on and let the rice cook, stirring occassionally to ensure all is well. Once all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, add in the beans (make sure they are drained and rinsed first). Mix those in and let them heat through. And there you have it, island coconut red beans and rice.

Other Ingredients:

broccoli or asparagus, cut into bite size pieces

celery, choped

carrots, sliced thin

red bell pepper, choped

zucchini, sliced


Chicken breasts

For the chicken:

You could do this a few different ways.....

1) Marinate some chicken breasts in some left over ginger salad dressing then grill it up or cook on the stove top in a skillet. Then cut it into bite size pieces.

or

2)Cut up some chicken breasts into pieces. Pour some left over ginger salad dressing into a large skillet. Add the chicken pieces, and brown them up and cook them through. Add more of the dressing during the cooking process if needed, enough that all the chicken is coated in a little of it.
or
3)If you don't happen to just have any leftover dressing, you don't need to marinate the chicken or anything. You will put sauce on it in the end anyway. It's up to you. Or you could just marinate it in a little soy sauce and oil or something.

Set the chicken aside, then add all the veggies to the large skillet along with more of the ginger dressing and saute until desired doneness. (You don't really HAVE to add any dressing in the cooking process. As stated before, you will put sauce on it in the end). I suggest putting the carrots and celery in first, cooking those for a little bit, then add the others because they don't seem to take as long. Put the lid on for a little bit if you want them to get steamed a bit.

When you're ready to eat, plate up some of the red beans and rice, put some chicken and veggies on that, and top it all off with some ginger peanut sauce (NOT exactly the same as the ginger dressing......recipe below) and chopped peanuts!

Ginger Peanut Sauce:

This is a slight variation on the ginger dressing recipe. It omits a lot of the oil and uses more peanut butter, resulting in a thicker, more sauce-like consistency.

1 tsp oil (vegetable or canola)

1 to 2 teaspoons chili oil-- (once again... add it to your desired heat)

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar or seasoned rice vinegar (I use the seasoned rice vinegar, because that's what I have)

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger (FRESH ginger is so good! don't use the dried stuff!)

3 to 4 Tablespoons of peanut butter

Beat with a wire wisk until smooth (add peanut butter a tablespoon at a time, beating and adding more until reaches desired consistency and taste). Heat in the microwave or in a pot on the stove until heated through. Stir. Put on top of the rice bowls!

"Spicy" Rice

This is a great rice to go with that Fiesta Lime Chicken. It says spicy, but don't be mislead. It is not spicy in the sense of "wow, that's got some heat!" It is spicy as in.... it's got spices in it.

Ingredients:

1 fresh corn cob

3 tbsp. olive oil

6 scallions (green onions) chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1-2 green bell peppers, chopped

2 fresh mild green chilies (anaheims are good), seeded and chopped

generous 1 1/4 cups long-grain rice

2 tsp ground cumin

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cut the corn from the cob. heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the scallions, celery, and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened (be sure not to burn your garlic! burnt garlic tastes bitter...yuck...). Add the bell peppers, chilies, and corn and cook for 3-5 minutes.

Add the rice and cumin and cook, stirring to coat the grains in the oil for 2 minutes.

Stir in the stock and half the chopped cilantro and bring to boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes, or until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is just tender.

Remove from the heat and fluff up with a fork. Stir in the remaining chopped cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.

Thai Curry (Evil Jungle Princess)

We once went to a restaurant in Salt Lake City called Thaifoon and ordered something called Evil Jungle Princess. It was a coconut based Thai curry. We loved it, and I decided to try to find a recipe for it. It has become probably Steve's favorite dish. It's got some crazy ingredients that might only be found at Oriental Markets, but it is well worth it in the end... *1 Tbsp Red Curry Paste
*2 1/4 inch Lemon Grass stalk- trimmed and bias sliced (can't get fresh lemon grass? Some places have it dehydrated and others have a lemongrass paste!)
*2-3 lime leaves (can't find these? just use a little more lemon grass and/or lime juice)
*2 Tbsp Palm Sugar
*1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
*1 Tbsp Peanut Butter
*2 Tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce
*13 oz Coconut Milk (not the sweetened kind, just regular)
*Chicken Breasts- cut to bite size pieces or strips
*1/2 cup fresh chinese long beans-blanched (these are like really long green beans, but slightly different. If you can't find these at your oriental market, you can just use fresh green beans. They aren't in the picture because they didn't have any the day I went to the market.)
*Red bell pepper- cut into 1/4 inch strips
*1/2 cup blanched Asparagus spears
*Canned Bamboo Shoots
*1 tsp Lime Juice
*1/4 cup Fresh Thai Basil- chopped (if you can't find Thai Basil.... you guessed it... just use regular fresh Basil!)
*1/4 cup Frest Mint leaves- chopped
*Roasted Peanuts- chopped
*Jasmine Rice (or whatever kind of rice you want...)

(The measurements of vegetables and chicken are not to be followed too strictly. Just, add however much you want! You like lots of vegetables? Just put in however much looks good. I always put in a lot more than this recipe says. Don't like vegetables so much? Add more chicken and cut back on the veggies.)

Game Plan:

Don't forget to cook your rice!

While that's cooking.........

Combine the coconut milk, red curry paste, lemon grass, lime leaves, fish sauce, palm sugar, peanut butter, and sweet chili sauce in a saute pan. Bring to a simmer. Add the chicken, long beans, asparagus, and bell peppers. (I don't like my vegetables to lose all their texture, so I usually put the chicken in first and let it cook a little before I add the veggies). Cook until chicken is just done and the curry sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add the lime juice and the fresh herbs. Mix. Serve over steamed jasmine rice (or regular rice) and top with chopped peanuts.

(Just so you know.... the lime leaves and fresh lemon grass aren't really intended to be eaten. They just add flavor to the dish. When you are eating it, just push them to the side of your plate. Or suck on them first then push them to the side. They taste good! They are just tough so you probably don't really want to chew and swallow.)