Biryani Galore!!!!

This week's challenge is going to be Chicken Biryani cooked in Hyderabadi style. Biryani is cooked with Basmati(flavored) rice. Let me first talk about Biryani. Biryani to me is like the fried rice of Middle Eastern/South Asian. It is rice cooked together with marinated meat/vegetables and spices. The difference is that while fried rice is cooked with "cooked rice" which is left overnight in the refrigerator so that the the rice does not stick. Biryani however, is cooked together alongside the "meat". Although I grew up eating Biryani and have been enjoying this cuisine my whole life, I was oblivious to the locality of each Biryani I have had the privilege to taste. It was not until recently that I was introduced to the Hyderabadi Biryani by a dear colleague which coincidentally is from Hyderabad. As the name suggests, the dish is the golden child of Hyderabad, a state located at the Southern part of India. In blends cuisine from the Munghal Kingdom and Andhra Pradesh, also meaning a combination of a mildly spicy cuisine with one of the spiciest cuisines in India; and it comes from the kitchen of Nizam, a historic ruler of the Hyderabad state. The Biryani stood out as a signature Hyderabadi Cuisine as a dish that pays its central attention around the meat and liberal use of exotic spices. While goat meat/mutton is usually used for this dish, I will be making it with chicken due to budget constraints...hopefully when I master it, I can splurge on some goat goodness. There are 3 types of Hyderabadi Biryani:the Kacchi (raw) Biryani,the Jappu (raw) Biryani and the Pakki biryani. I believe I will be making the Kacchi Biryani per the recipe I obtained from vahrehvah.com (an awesome site for indian cuisine albeit sometimes the instructions may be very vague). So guys! I will be diving into this dish by introducing the recipe first and then slowly dissect each step, taking pictures and write notes as I go along. Finally, I will give my afterthoughts and see how it turns out! ;)

Alrighty then here goes Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani! :)
Ingredients will be combined with the method:

Chicken + Marinade
2 pounds of chicken (I bought 1 pound of drumsticks + 1 pound of thighs)
Fresh ingredients:
Green chilies ~4 (serrano)
Mint (fresh)
2 tablespoon of ginger and garlic paste
Coriander leaves/cilantro(1/4 of the whole bunch)
1 handful of fried onions
Powder Spices:
2 teaspoon of peppercorn
1 teaspoon black cumin (saha jeera)
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 table spoon of coriander powder
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of cumin powder
Dry whole Spices:
2 black cardamom
2 green cardamom
3 cloves
3 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stuick
10 mace
Other:
1 tablespoon of lime juice
3 tablespoon oil
2 cups of yogurt

Method:
1. Remove then skins and trim the fat from the chicken.
2. Have the chicken in a large bowl and add in the marinate ingredients into the bowl.It should look like this:

3. I wrapped the bowl in saran wrap and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. I do this because I did not what to cook it on the day itself, so I split the whole process into 2 days. It is up to you to decide on the time you want to marinade (experiment!)

Rice
2 cups (american) of basmati rice
8 cups of water (4X of rice)
1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt (actually to taste but this is to my taste)
2 tablespoon of olive oil (that was what I used, any oil is fine; beware of allergies!)

1. Soak the basmati rice for ~30 minutes
2. You can check if the rice has absorbed enough moisture by pinching it in between your fingers and it should crumble, I think it is unnecessary but try it!

3. After 30 minutes, drain the rice and start boiling the water in a pot. (Heat level 8 on my stove)
4. While the water is boiling, add in salt and taste the water to your liking ;)
5. Add the oil.
6. Once the water starts to boil, add in the drained rice and wait until the water boils again.
7. You will see that the rice starts to dance/bounce around the water (for is me about 4 minutes and 45 seconds right after the rice is added).
8. The rice should look white inside and transparent outisde (yes exactly half cooked!), you can taste the rice to know the texture, soft on the outside, crumbly in the inside!


9. Drain the rice.

Combination:
Marinated chicken
50% cooked rice
A tefal _ quart pot
Saffron water
Some cilantro
Some mint
Some fried onions

1. Put the marinated chicken at the bottom of the pot and make sure they lay flat, no protruding parts!

2. Spread the rice on top of the chicken, similarly make it a flat layer yo!


3. Sprinkle mint, cilantro, and fried onions on top of rice layer.
4. Add around 2 tablespoon of saffron water by sprinkling around the rice layer for the pretty red color!
5. Cover the pot with a tight lid, if yours is not tight cover the pot with a clean kitchen towel before placing the lid on top.
6. Cook on high (level 8) for 5 minutes, medium (level 4) for 15 minutes and finally low (level low) for 10 minutes.
7. You should be able to smell an awesome aroma around the medium heat period.
8. Remove the pot from the heat once it is done and leave it for 5-30 minutes.
9. Annnnnnddd you are done! A successful biryani dish have fluffy and separated rice! If the rice sticks then try and try again! :)


An awesome dinner!




Note:
I have to say this time is rather successful, although I do feel like the rice could be fluffier (maybe I could cook it longer, maybe it was <50% cooked), also the original recipe uses the marinated chicken right away instead of leaving it overnight, so escaped moisture could be a problem. I should also mix it more thoroughly as some parts are spicier than others. Furthermore, chopping the leaves (mint and cilantro) into smaller parts or even removing the stems would give it a better texture.
Overall, the subtlety of the spices and hints of yogurt ended up making it a wonderful and satisfying dish. The rice was separated and the chicken ended up soft and succulent! Yum! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and end up making this dish! Leave any questions in the comments and I will try to answer them! Peace out!

Rice! Rice! Rice!

There's no better way to start a food blog other than introducing rice. As a Chinese rice has been a staple source of carbohydrate and also a good source of folic acid (source) which is a B-complex vitamin needed by the body to produce red blood cells.

Short to say, I looooove rice!! Even though I have moved from Malaysia to America, rice has been on my diet forever. While I have been shoving white rice into my mouth ever since I was able to consume solid food (not that I can remember exactly when) but overtime, like many other types of plants, there are many types of rice! I was simply amazed by the different variations of bags of rice sitting on the shelve during my trip at Whole Foods ;). I guess I will list them as I use them and not bore you with my musings.

For now, I will write about the basics of cooking rice as I learn and try to explain as much as I can in the beauty of cooking awesome rice (without spending more than 100 bucks on rice cookers Ouch!). According to Vah-chef there are 2 methods in cooking rice:
1. The Drain method,
This method employs boiling the rice and subsequently draining the water to remove the starch, a straightforward method to making the perfect rice. However, it requires the cook the stand in front of the cooking pot while carefully observing the "dance of the rice" as a few seconds could spell failure.

The advantage:
Allows you to manipulate the rice in case you would like to use to rice for other cooking purposes such as biryani (yum!).

First, rinse the rice to get rid of excess starch.
Then, the rice is to be soaked (15 to 20 minutes) prior to cooking to prevent the uneven cooking of rice and reduces cooking time.
Drain the rice.
Note: Do not handle the rice too roughly after soaking as they will break easily.
There are 2 things to do in order for rice to remain separate and have a fluffy presentation after cooking:
1. Add oil into the boiling water where you will cook your rice in.
2. Roast the rice prior to cooking.
Try to break the rice to make sure it is brittle to know if the rice have absorbed enough moisture.
Add the rice into the boiling water (4X amount of water per cup of rice) with oil, and mix them gently with a spatula to prevent rice from sticking to the bottom. Also, you can add salt.
When the rice is 95% done (ok this I cant tell, I would need to experiment myself), remove the rice through a colander, transfer into a pot and cover up with the lid. The steam generated from the rice will cook the rice until done. If larger amount of rice is used, cook until 90% done (more steam yo!).

Mix the rice again as it starts to boil.



2. The absorption method:
This method is done by simply using the rice cooker, pressure cooker or stove top cooking :p

The amount of water required to cook rice depends on the:
1. Type of rice
2. Age of rice, the older the more water it takes (less moisture) but always better.

Simple and reliable.
Simply combine rice and water and bring to a boil in a heavy base pot.
1 cup of rice = 1 1/2 cup of water.
If making a small batch, 1 cup of rice = 2 cups of water to allow for evaporation.
Cooking rice with cold water can cause the rice to stick to the bottom, so as usual mix the rice with a spatula (1 to 2 times) as it boils. Once it boils, cover the pot up with the lid. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

New Year, New Resolution?

Every once in awhile, you try to keep with a blog and it never happens.
Laziness and writer's block often gets in the way boooooo.....
Anyhow Happy 2012!!! (fireworkssss).... the year when the world
is going to end, or so they say...we might have died a thousand times over
already. With that said, this year's winter has been arriving pretty slowly, a calm
before storm or a sweet surprise? We'll see :)

So why the restart? The BIGGEST reason why I stopped updating
is due to lack of excitement in my daily life, actually more like
I am lost as to what I should be writing. Since I have now found
a passion in cooking and drinking (mostly beer), I will be cataloging
my adventures and growth as a cook and a beer snob.

As for beer, I will try to "review" the beers I drink and hope my
vocabulary expands, so I can be snobbier and snobbier.

Cooking wise would be a harder challenge as starting next week, I will
introduce 1 ingredient per month and for each week I will learn a new dish using
that specific ingredient. I will post the recipe and my thoughts on it (pictures too!) So here's to my adventure as a cook!!! :) Love ya'll