Mutton Yakhni pulao

 

It's been a busy summer, not in a relaxing, I'm-not-doing-anything sort of summer, but a working summer with Chaiparty gaining full on momentum. We did our 4th themed supper club last Sunday and must say we have slowly gotten the hang of cooking and hosting without too much wastage, mismanagement, and goof ups. Of course there is still loads more to learn, but we are really thrilled at how we have pulled through so far. Do check out our Facebook Chaiparty page for pictures and updates.

We also went off to Spain for a week and stayed in the quaintest, rural-est of places and I loved it. Of course the insect bites and the unbearable heat meant half of the time was spent in the pool or at the beach, but it was a good break and we had a blast.

Cooking wise, not a lot of experimenting has been happening, but I'm still cooking! This yakhni pulao was the after effect of a week long no-cooking scenario and after being sick of eating out, i decided to get into the kitchen and cook, and no less a rich pulao. I have tried this with beef and thought it was somehow much more flavourful then. It wasn't bad this time, very flavourful and such, but i remember the beef being a favourite at that time. Its a recipe that is supposed to be slow cooked, but me being me, decided to cook the mutton in a pressure cooker and then continue with the rest of the process. That cant have been the reason why the beef prep was better, because i did that the same way- in the pressure cooker.

Anyways, this is definitely one of those indulgent pulao's, but one definitely worth trying.

Recipe adapted from here (serves 4)

Mutton- 500 gms

Yoghurt- 1 tbsp

Cardamom- 5

Cloves- 5

Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp

Coriander seeds- 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon- 2 ,1 inch sticks

Bay leaf- 1

Black peppercorns- 1 tsp

Onion- 1, roughly chopped

Ginger- 1 tbsp, crushed

Garlic- 6 cloves, crushed

Salt- to taste

Ghee- 1 tbsp

Onions- 1 medium, thinly sliced

Basmati rice- 2 cups, washed and soaked in water for about half an hour

Water- as needed to make 

Into a pressure cooker add the mutton and all the ingredients listed up to salt and marinate for about an hour or so. 

Add 3 1/2 cups of water to the marinated meat and pressure cook for about 20 minutes, or till the meat is completely cooked. 

Remove the mutton pieces from the mix using a slotted spoon. It doesn't matter if the onions have disintegrated and the garlic and ginger sticks to it. Don't bother removing them, it only adds to the flavour.

Drain the stock using a sieve and discard the spices. You should have around 3 cups of stock. Add quarter cup water to the stock to make it 3 3/4 and keep aside.

Pour the ghee into a heavy bottomed pan and add the onions.

Fry on medium heat till they turn brown, around 15 to 20 minutes. They don't need to be crisp, just caramelised.

Into that add the meat (along with the onions, ginger garlic and whatever is clinging to it) and the drained rice and saute for a minute or so. Don't over do this, or else the rice would break.

Reduce heat to low and add the stock to the rice and meat and give a good stir. Check for salt and add more if needed.

Close the pan with a tight fitting lid, covering all sides with a wet cloth if you think steam would escape.

Cook for around 15 to 20 minutes, resisting the urge to open the lid.

Once the time is up, turn off the heat and leave the rice to rest for about 10 minutes without taking off the lid.

Fluff the rice, garnish wtith some fried onions and serve with raita and poppadom.

Notes: You know your rice cooking times, usually its around 15 minutes for me, but 20 is safe.

My ratio of rice to meat was not that right, I'd probably use 1 1/2 cups of rice next time.

Of course if you want to do it the right way, slow cook the meat till tender, in a heavy bottomed pan. Keep checking in between to see that water levels are not too low and that the meat is not getting over cooked.

If you don't want the onions disintegrating, keep it whole with and x slit at the base. Same with the spices if you dont want to keep biting into them tie them all together in a muslin cloth and use

Nigella's saffron scented chicken pilaf

I am obsessed with trying out new rice recipes. Maybe its because we have rice only over the weekend, that too just for lunch, and instead of the boring plain rice I'm always looking for a variety of ways I can play around with rice. I keep getting updates from nigella.com and this recipe was updated on one of the days. I realized I had everything in hand and so made it.

I must say that it tasted good, except I may not actually add the chicken henceforth. It would be perfect on its own, with maybe a side of chicken curry or something. I love the fact that the procedure is easy and of course Nigella just makes it a tad more exotic. I watched her video for this recipe and the first few minutes I was completely distracted by her home and kitchen. Then the next few minutes I was trying to understand why she uses so many adjectives to describe food. Seriously this is how she describes the pilaf on her website:

"The cinnamon and lemony yoghurt marinade gives the chicken a soft, perfumed tenderness; the saffron in the rice, itself studded with nuts and the musky breath of cardamom (??????), is almost lit up with gold. "

Are we describing a hunk out of Mills & Boon or just some random Pilaf??? So while I was serving the rice, I started talking like Nigella (sans the fairy lights in the background) and telling Ro, "here's a touch of the Arabian nights in sunny Greenwich ...mmm beautiful isn't it?" Ro was annoyed and said I'd soon look like a "fat" version of Nigella if I didn't stop making rich carb-high food like this. That was uncalled for, but anyways, I enjoyed making this rice and eating it too :)

Recipe adapted from here

Skinless, boneless chicken thighs/ breasts- 250 gms, cleaned and sliced into small cubes

Yoghurt- 100 gms

Cinnamon powder- a little less than a 1/4 tsp

Pepper- to taste

Salt- to taste

Lemon juice- 1 tsp

Basmati rice- 250 gms (approx. 1 1/3rd cups)

Chicken stock- 500 ml (approx. 2 cups) I dissolved a cube of instant chicken bouillon in boiling water.

Saffron threads- 1/4 tsp

Cardamon pods- 2, bruised

Oil- 2 tbsp

Lemon zest- of half a lemon

Lemon juice- of half a lemon

Coriander leaves- to garnish

Marinate the chicken pieces with yoghurt, cinnamon powder, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Toss well and keep aside for at least an hour or overnight. Whichever is convenient.

Soak the saffron threads in the chicken stock.

In a large pan, heat the oil and add the rice.

On medium heat, sauté till the rice turns lightly translucent/ glossy.

Add the chicken stock with the saffron followed by lemon zest, lime juice, some salt and crushed cardamom pods. Give a good stir and cover with a tight fitting lid.

Turn the heat to very low and cook for about 15 minutes, or till you have noticed that the rice is cooked, and all the water has been absorbed.

While that's taken care of, remove the chicken from the marinade and shallow fry it in a pan with little oil or like I did, grill it on high in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Once the rice is cooked, remove from the fire and fluff it with a fork.

Transfer the rice into a serving dish, arrange the fried/ grilled chicken pieces on top and garnish with some chopped coriander leaves.

I served this with some chilled cucumber raita, baby tomato salad and some glorious white wine.

Notes: Now the original recipe calls for roasted pine nuts, cashew nuts and almond flakes. I didn't go there because for one, I don't really like the whole idea of biting into the nuts in rice and two, didn't want to add to the calories and three and most importantly, I was too lazy to dry roast it :)

Coriander leaves can be substituted with parsley leaves. I didn't have any fresh leaves and dried ones would have been bleh!

The chicken stock is salty, so watch before you add more.

The cinnamon taste in the chicken is quite obvious, so reduce or omit if you are not a big fan

Double the recipe to serve about 4 to 5 people.