MKR’s Jessie & Biswa’s Goat Sindhi Biryani

After the hype around Jessie & Biswa, I couldn’t help but make one of their dishes to decide for myself if they are the culinary geniuses that they proclaim to be.

Yes the recipe turned out quite nice but I’m baffled that Jessie & Biswa see this as a competition dish?

Note I did a chicken version.

Preparation time: At least 30 minutes marinading + 2 hours cook time

Cooking time: Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

·         Raisins, to serve

·         Cashews, to serve

·         Walnuts, to serve

·         Flaked almonds, to serve

Chicken

·         1kg chicken breast cut into 3cm pieces

·         100g natural yoghurt

·         Juice of 1 lime

·         4 tsp salt

·         2 tbs vegetable oil

·         1 large brown onion, finely chopped

·         4 garlic cloves, crushed

·         3cm-piece fresh ginger, finely grated

·         8 black peppercorns, ground

·         5 green cardamom pods

·         5 bay leaves

·         3 cloves

·         1 tbs ground coriander

·         2 cinnamon quills

·         2 tsp chilli powder

·         2 tsp turmeric

·         2 tsp paprika

·         2 tsp ground cumin

·         2 tsp cumin seeds

·         2 black cardamom pods

·         250ml (1 cup) water

·         10 prunes

·         4 long green chillies, 3 whole, 1 finely sliced

Rice

·         500g basmati rice

·         8 green cardamom pods

·         ¼ tsp saffron threads, soaked in

·         60ml (1/4 cup) milk

·         50g butter, chopped

·         Salt and pepper, to season

Tomato Cucumber Salad

·         4 small vine tomatoes, quartered

·         1 small Lebanese cucumber, chopped

·         ½ bunch mint, leaves picked

·         ½ bunch coriander, leaves picked

·         1 long red chilli, thinly sliced

·         2 tbs red wine vinegar

Raita

·         1 cup Greek yoghurt

·         1 garlic clove, crushed

·         2 tbs chopped mint

·         1 Lebanese cucumber, deseeded, grated

·         1 tbs lemon juice

METHOD

1.       Wash goat thoroughly, then pat dry with paper towel. Place goat in a large bowl, then add yoghurt, lime and salt. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator and bring to room temperature.

2.       Preheat oven to 150C.

3.       Heat oil in a large flameproof casserole dish over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Stir in garlic, ginger and spices and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Return goat to dish with remaining ingredients. Cover lightly and transfer to oven. Cook for 2-3 hours or until very tender.

4.       Meanwhile, to make rice, place rice in a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 30 minutes, then drain. Cook in boiling water with cardamom pods until just tender. Drain. Stir through saffron mixture and butter, then season with salt and pepper.

5.       To make tomato cucumber salad, combine all ingredients in a bowl.

6.       To make raita, combine all ingredients in a bowl.

7.       Arrange a layer of rice on each serving plate. Top with a layer of goat curry, then a little raita. Sprinkle raisins and nuts on top and serve with salad on the side.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/my-kitchen-rules/recipes/recipe/-/16038846/goat-sindhi-biryani/

Left Over Basil?

I bought a Bunch of Basil for the sake of 15 leaves and made sure the rest didn't go to waste by making this awesome marinade for salmon and prawns. It was terrific. Key is to not over cook, take it off as soon as it even thinks about crusting.

1/4 cup nuts

1/3 cup Parmesan

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic 

1/2 tsp Salt or to taste 

Pepper to taste

Recipe - Chocolate tart

Chocolate tart

The whole tart serves 10 but I decided to use half the mix to make individual tarts and also individual desserts.

Filling

·         400 gm  dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids), finely chopped

·         260 ml  pouring cream

·         120 ml  milk

·         2  small eggs (50gm each), lightly beaten

For dusting:         

·         Dutch-process cocoa

To serve: 

·         vanilla ice-cream

Sweet pastry

·         150 gm  softened butter

·         100 gm  caster sugar

·         250 gm  (12/3 cups) plain flour

·         25 gm  almond meal

·         egg yolk

·         Juice of ½ lemon

·         Seeds of  ½ vanilla bean

 Method

1.       For sweet pastry, beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer, add flour and almond meal and stir to combine. Add egg yolk, lemon juice, vanilla seeds and 1 tbsp iced water and stir to combine. Pat into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate to rest (1 hour). Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to 5mm thick, line a 24cm-diameter fluted tart tin, trim edges and refrigerate to rest (30 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C. Blind bake tart until edges are golden (10-12 minutes), remove paper and weights, bake until base is golden (7-8 minutes) and set aside.

2.       Meanwhile, place chocolate in a bowl, set aside. Bring cream and milk to the simmer in a saucepan over medium heat, add to chocolate, stand until chocolate melts (1-2 minutes), stir to combine, cool slightly, then stir in beaten egg.

3.       Reduce oven to 130C. Pour chocolate mixture into tart and bake until just set with a slight wobble in centre (30-35 minutes). Set aside to cool, dust with cocoa and serve at room temperature with ice-cream.

This recipe is from the July 2012 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Image of whole tart courtesy of Gourmet Traveller. Individual dessert image and mini tart image taken by me.

Recipe - Vine Leaves

This is the recipe from the "Whispers from a Lebanese Kitchen" cookbook.

I did 1 lemon vs the suggested 2 and it was still a little more lemony than I what I prefer so I'll have to have a play with that next time - also the recipe doesn't say it but do make sure you use fresh tomatoes.