The Malabar Kitchen: Rice

Malabar chicken biryani is a standard choice for most Malabari functions.

For the rice:

1. Jeerakashala OR kaima rice - 4cups
2. Ghee – 4tbsp (to fry the rice) + 2 tbsp (to fry onions for garnishing)
3. Lime – 2tsp
4. Salt – To taste
5. Water – 8cups
6. Spice-pouch
7. Rose water – ¼ cup
8. Saffron – 5-6 strands (soaked in 4tbsp warm milk)

9. Cashwes and kismis - 6-8 each

For the Spice-pouch:

    Fennel seeds – 1tbsp
    Cardamom – 3
    Cinnamon sticks – 2 pieces
    Cloves – 8
    Star anise – 3
    Shajeera/Caraway seeds – 1tsp
    Bay leaf – 2 leaves

   Crush all these spices lightly and put them into a small pouch, made from a soft muslin cloth, and tie it up.

For the chicken masala:

1. Chicken - 1kg, cut into medium pieces
2. Onion - 4 (for the chicken masala), 1 (for garnishing) - sliced thinly
3. Tomato – 1, cubed
4. Green chillies - 5-8 (as per your spiciness levels)
5. Ginger - 1 big piece
6. Garlic – 1 pod
7. Mint leaves – 1 small bunch
8. Coriander leaves – 1 small bunch
9. Fennel seeds – 2tbsp
10. Pepper – 1tsp
11. Lime juice – 2tsp
12. Curd – ½ cup
13. Turmeric – ½ tsp
14. Salt – 1tsp
15. Ghee – 1tbsp

Preparation:

· Wash and soak the rice for about an hour. Drain out all the water, you can move the rice onto a soft muslin cloth, tie it up and hang it somewhere so that all the water it drained out.

· After you have soaked the rice, you can start work on marinating the chicken. Roughly crush together ingredients 4 to 9 (listed under chicken masala). You can do this in the chopper in the food processor or use the pulse option on the mixer. Mix this with the chicken, along with ingredients 10 to 14 and keep aside for at least 2-3 hours so that the masala seeps well into the meat.

· Heat a skillet and add 2tbsp ghee to it and fry the onion for the garnish, add some sugar to it so that it gets slightly caramelized. Keep frying on a medium flame till the onion become light brown in color. Strain out of the ghee and keep aside. Keep the ghee aside too for garnishing the rice at the end. Fry the cashews and kismis, set those aside too.

· To the same skillet add the remaining 4tbsp ghee and fry the rice, on a medium flame for about 10-15 minutes. Keep stirring gently, ensuring that the rice doesn’t break. While the rice is getting fried, in a separate vessel, boil 8 cups water along with the spice-pouch, lime juice and salt. Once the rice is fried, add the boiled water, close lid and cook on a medium to low flame for about 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off heat and leave it for another 10 minutes, without opening the lid. Remember the rice need to cook only about 80% at this stage, since it will get cooked a little more when we set it for dum.

· While the rice is getting done, in a pan, heat a 1-2 tbsp of ghee. Add the sliced onions and sauté till it turns pink. Now add the tomato pieces and sauté for 5 mins. To this add the marinated chicken. Mix well. Cook for about 20-30 mins on a medium to low flame. Do not add any extra water. Ensure that the chicken doesn’t get over cooked because when we set this for dum later, the chicken gets cooked further. Once you open the lid, there will be some gravy. Cook on a low flame till the gravy thickens a little.

· Open the lid on the rice and remove the spice-pouch. Loosen up the rice with a fork and close lid for another 10 minutes.

· Now for layering the biriyani. Take a skillet in which you plan to set the biriyani, add half of the chicken masala, then add half of the rice, repeat this procedure to make 2 layers. Garnish with the fried onions, cashews & kismis. Spill around on top, the rose water, saffron milk and the ghee that was kept aside for garnishing. Cover with a well fitting lid.

· Heat an iron tawa on high flame and keep the biriyani’s skillet on top of it for about 15 minutes. Turn off heat, and leave it for another 15 minutes. This is for the dum and helps all the flavors blend well with the rice and the meat.

· Biriyani is ready to be served!!!

· Serve with Pappadam, Biriyani chutney and Salad/Raita.

This recipe is one of my cooking experiments, inspired by the ‘Chinese chicken rice’ which I used to have during my stay in Brunei. It was a very popular choice for lunch for majority of Bruneians as well as Malaysians. I was in a mood for Chicken rice today, but was too lazy to go buy chicken, and since sausage was readily available in the freezer, decided to experiment with it. I must say, it came quite close to the real chicken rice, or maybe we were too hungry, either way we enjoyed it. Very soon I’ll be trying out the original chicken rice. For now here’s the Chicken Sausage rice...

For the sausage:

Chicken sausage – 4, whole

Ginger – 1 tbsp, chopped
Garlic – 1 tbsp, chopped

Shallots – 1 tbsp, sliced
Pepper powder – ½ tsp
Garam masala powder – ¼ tsp

Honey - 1 tsp
Red wine – 2 tbsp
Oyster sauce - 1 tsp

Soy sauce – 1 ½ tbsp

Fish sauce – ½ tsp

Red chilly oil – ½ tsp

Chilly vinegar – 1 tsp
Sugar – ½ tsp

Marinate the sausages with all the ingredients for 10 – 15 minutes.
Pan the marinated sausages fry in a little oil till its nicely browned, turn over and fry the other side too.

Add ½ cup water, cover and cook on very low flame for 10 minutes till the sauce starts to thicken.
Remove cover, do a taste-test for the sauce, add salt and sugar to taste if necessary.
Set this aside, and cut the sausages into desired pieces, pour half the sauce over it.
Keep the remaining half of the sauce on the pan for later use.

For the rice:

Cooked white rice – 2 cups
Ginger – 1 tbsp chopped
Garlic – 1 tbsp

Shallots – 1 tbsp
Chicken cube – 1, powdered (I used Maggi chicken cube)
Sesame oil – 1 tbsp

Kaffir lime leaves – 3 (I used dried leaves as I couldn’t get any fresh ones)

Red wine – 1 tbsp

Soy sauce – 1 tsp

Vinegar – ½ tsp

Water – ¼ cup

Remaining sauce from the sausages
Salt to taste

· Sauté the ingredients (except rice and water) in some oil.

· Add the rice, stir fry for 5 minutes.

· Add water and mix well, and cover the pan for 2 minutes on low heat.