Monday 28 May 2012

how to make chicken biryani when you have no idea how to...


I recently tried my hand at biryani. You can use any meat – chicken, fish, prawns, lamb. I did it with chicken.

I used 1 small chicken which looked enough for 6 people. I cut the chicken into medium sized peices and marinated them with around 4 tbsp of biryani masala (you can get this at Lulu) (you can put more masala if you wish as long as all the chicken pieces are coated thoroughly), 2 tsp chilly powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi), 1 tsp cumin powder (jeera) and 1 tsp coriander powder (dhania), 1 tsp salt (or less if you prefer), 0.5 tsp of pepper powder and a little water. You may wish to add some yoghurt (around 2-3 tbsp) to the marinade but, as I did not have any that day I substituted for water.

For the Rice - I used 2 full cups of rice and it was enough for 6 people. You may wish to add more or less depending on the quantity of rice you need. If you use more rice then you probably need more chicken as well. Wash the rice well and drain it completely off water. I fried the washed rice with 2 tsp of oil, 1 small bay leaf, 3 cardamom pods, 3 cloves, 4 whole black pepper, 0.25 tsp of turmeric powder for colour and 0.5 tsp of salt. You can also add 1 cube of chicken stock (I did not use this as I didn’t have any). Stir for a minute or two and then add 2 cups of water (it should just cover the rice as we don’t want it to boil completely, it should only be half boiled). Don’t stir the rice around too much when you add the water as it makes it mushy. Leave it untouched and once all the water evaporates you can just run a fork through it.

For the Masala – I first fried couple of cardamom pods, 2 dried bay leaves, 0.5 tsp of whole black pepper and a couple of cloves. After a minute I added 2 onions (chopped fine); 2 tomatoes (chopped very fine); 1 tsp ginger garlic paste; 0.25 tsp salt; 0.25 tsp of chilly powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and biryani masala; 0.25 tsp of whole cumin (put this in last as it tends to burn). Fry this for a good few minutes till the tomatoes are all mashed up and oil starts to float on top. To this I added the marinated chicken and chopped up potatoes and fried for around 5 mins. Then add some water to the chicken (around quarter of a cup).

Finally – I added the half boiled rice on top of the chicken and covered it with a tight lid (I put a kettle on top of my lid just to make it stay tight) and cooked it for 15-20 mins on a very low flame.

Voila – the biryani should be ready. Garnish it with golden fried onions, boiled eggs (cut in halves) and some fresh coriander leaves.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Thai Terrace - Dubai!

My hubby and I are sort of on a mission to try out different cuisines. So after finger licking French our next stop was tempting Thai. After reviewing a couple of places online we opted for Thai Terrace (For Delivery - 050 939 2497, Karama - 043969356, Knowledge Village - 043658442).


Located in Karama the restaurant looks pretty much average from the outside. When we entered, we were greeted by our hostess who showed us to our seats. The restaurant didn't look anything fancy from the inside either but had a few touches of Asian decor (or what I think it was). It was a Thursday evening and there were a few people besides us. While reviewing the menu the manager came over to tell us that a single portion was large enough for two. It was decent of him as sometimes we tend to over order thinking portions will be small.


So here is what we ate with the respective prices in AED.

Starters
Tod Man Pla (Spicy Fish Cakes) - 52 the fish cakes weren't anything special, it tasted mainly of lemongrass but the accompanying dip was amazing - it had peanuts and cucumbers!


Main Course





Ph Taek Haeng (Stir Fried Spicy Seafood) small - 52 consisted of tiny crabs, mushrooms, squid, prawns - was spicy and had a very different flavour to it, which both my hubby and I liked..


Gai Phad Prik Pao (Chicken with Chili Paste)  small - 48 yum yum yum - the sauce in which the chicken was cooked was amazing...apart from the chicken there was babycorn and cashew nuts and lots of green and red peppers...

Khao Phad Prik (Spicy Fried Rice) small - 53 not much to say about the rice except that it had decently sized prawns in it :D (I was expecting the tiny frozen prawns)

Drinks

2 Iced Teas
We didn't have any dessert as we were just too stuffed. The mango sticky rice looked like a good option though.

Overall we were very impressed with the food. The servers were friendly. The restaurant itself does not have a very great ambience but the food is worth trying. I would definitely love to go back but we have many more eateries to explore.


BEWARE - if you tell them to make your dish spciy they actually listen to you and make it spicy with lots of red chillies!

Our total damage was approximately AED 250.


Chan chob...

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Honey in my hair!

In one of my previous posts I did say I would blog about the goodness of honey. So here is something that I tried last evening.

I made a mixture of coconut oil (home made by my sister's mom-in-law - you can use any oil), lime juice (1 whole lime) and 2 tsps of honey. I applied it on my scalp and hair left it on for about an hour. I washed it with little shampoo and then applied some conditioner on my hair (not scalp) and left it for about 5 mins and then washed that off too. I can really tell the difference it made to my hair. It's so soft and shiny today :) I did however hear that honey makes your hair turn grey. Check out this answer -


Apparently it does not turn hair grey or white - well I'll let you know in a couple of weeks...

Have a sweet weekend =)