Hmmm new dish was good.

So tonight I made a new dish for dinner. Britgal wanted an Indian dinner, so I planned to make chicken biryani. I've seen this dish in a ready-made box in the Indian store or larger grocery stores. So after some looking around, I found what appeared to be a good one. Made of basic ingredients, yet still sophisticated I was intrigued.

For those who are unfamiliar with this dish, the final result looks something like this (left). At first glance, it's just chicken and rice. In reality, it's a layered dish which you can serve stirred or unstirred (I prefer it unstirred).

The main components in this dish are rice (duh!), chicken, onions, garlic, jalapenos, ginger, coriander, mint, fennel, cinnamon, cardamon and water. So, you make a bouquet garni of about 4, 1/4 inch ginger root (skin on), 1.5 tsp of fennel seeds, a stick of cinnamon and 10 cardamon pods (crushed). Place the bouquet in 12 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling back off the heat and simmer/low boil for about 30 mins. Essentially, you're making an herbal tea, and you want a nice deep caramel colour (Mine was a little lighter, and while tasty I would like a deeper flavour).

Stick the rice (1.5 cups of basmati) into the water and boil the rice until just under done. At the same time saute 2 onions chopped in 3 tbsps of butter until they are brown and caramelized. Into the onions, add 3 garlic cloves (minced) and 2 jalapenos (minced). Once the smell blooms into the air, set aside. Take 4-6 chicken thighs (tasty) and brown both sides for 5 minutes each in a fry pan. You don't want to cook the chicken all the way through, just get the skin nice and browned. With the rice 3/4 of the way done, take off the heat and save 3/4 cup of the water to the side. Strain the rice and mix some saffron and perhaps some salt to taste.

So put together the whole thing into a deep pot or dutch oven as follows: 1/2 the rice mixed with some saffron in the bottom. 1/2 the onion mixture into the 2nd layer. Place the chicken thighs as the third layer on top of the onion bed. Sprinkle fresh chopped coriander and mint on top of the chicken. Add the rest of the onion mixture, then follow up with the rice bed on top. Pour in the saved 3/4 cup of water you saved into the pot and cover. Put on low heat and simmer for 30 mins.

That was once dish. I made my usual Rogan Josh (beef), and the meat was just right. Strangely enough, the sauce didn't thicken which was a little disappointing and somewhat confusing. Also to go with these dishes, I made my best naan yet! Nice and thin, but not too thin. Nicely soft, yet blacked just right on the bubbles.

As usual, it took a lot longer to prepare it all then I gave myself. I started around 4pm, and didn't have it complete until 745pm... I will get quicker at this. I think more prep is cruicial to getting things done.