Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures - I was busy hostessing and setting out food and cooking food and mixing drinks and so on, and didn't really have time to focus and angle my photos, so they're all very quick snaps. 😅 But I was quite proud of my spread!
All the treats in the first picture are homemade. In the centre is murukku, a sort of Indian fritter (rice flour and two types of lentil flour, butter, cumin, sesame seeds, omam/ajwain/bishop's weed, and asafoetida turned into a dough, extruded and fried) that is a Deepavali staple. 😋 The long orangey-red strips are tape murukku, which is the same mixture but with chilli powder added to make it mildly spicy. And then there are suji biscuits, made with semolina, sugar and ghee. Almond London biscuits, coated with dark chocolate and topped with almond nibs. And cornflake biscuits.
At the top of the tiered cake stand are pineapple tarts (bought at an Asian store - a festive staple of Singapore and Malaysia) and coconut candy (made by me) and then the yellow flaky cubes are storebought soan pappadi, and then more of the treats from the first picture.
Mains were lamb briyani, a vegetable dish called mulai keerai poriyal (mulai keerai, or amaranth, is stir-fried with spices, shallots and garlic, and then has grated coconut mixed in at the end), tofu sambal, chickpea curry (pardon the ugly photo!), and of course plenty of raita and fried appalams. I've also got a picture of my plate - I couldn't have the briyani (I'm vegetarian), but I'd made potato pilaf for myself.
Dessert was semia payasam (roasted rice vermicelli is cooked in milk along with sago and lots of sugar until soft and tender, and then cashews and raisins are roasted in ghee and added to it).
So yesterday I had my friends over for dinner, and I had decided to make them lamb briyani rice. I had bought and frozen a ton of lamb awhile ago, and since I don’t eat lamb that often it was better to make a big dish and share it, rather than get sick from eating all the lamb on my own! It turned out really well and I was so happy with the recipe that I decided to share it here with you guys.
I had been using Azie Kitchen’s food blog for my Malaysian food recipes ever since I started my PhD in Leeds - it has not failed me yet! But the website is in Malay so I thought I’d translate everything here so you guys can also make delicious Malay-inspired dishes yourself. With this dish, however, she claims that it is a Pakistani recipe. I’m sure that’s what it started out as, but with Malaysians, there is always tweaking involved, and this dish ended up tasting like the Malay briyani rice I knew and loved. Anyway, without further ado, the recipe (as I had made it yesterday):
Ingredients
5 cups of basmati rice
9 pieces of lamb on the bone (I only used 5)
4 star anise
2 inches of a cinnamon stick
8 whole cardamoms
10 cloves
1 tb ground coriander
1 tb ground fennel (mine wasn’t ground but that was fine)
1 tb ground cumin (also wasn’t ground and that was fine)
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 large onions, diced
5-6 large tomatoes, diced
2 bulbs of garlic (blended)
3 inches of garlic (blended)
1 ½ cups of yogurt (the more the better)
2 bay leaves
Olive oil (I think sunflower oil will also do fine)
4 boiled eggs
Saffron
To garnish
Fresh coriander (chopped)
4 green chilli (cut each in half and de-seed)
Fresh mint leaves
Raisins
Preparing the lamb
Marinate lamb with salt, half of the blended garlic and ginger, along with ground turmeric, ground coriander, ground fennel, and ground cumin for one (1) hour.
Heat oil, saute onions, the other half of the blended garlic and ginger, cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, and cloves. Wait till fragrant. Optional: Also saute pandan leaves for more fragrance.
Add marinated lamb; stir everything until even. Add water until lamb is submerged (this well help make the lamb tender).
Mix yogurt and diced tomatoes in a bowl before pouring into the wok. Cook until the oil rises. Make sure the mixture doesn’t go dry; you want to keep it at a gravy-like consistency.
Add bay leaves, and salt and sugar according to your own taste.
Cover the wok and cook with low heat before switching it off.
Preparing the rice
In your rice cooker, use 10 cups of water with 5 cups of rice. Add a dash of oil, cardamom, clove, one bay leaf, and some salt. Cook until it is almost done, but not all the way. You’ll need to check every so often to make sure!
Once you feel it is almost done, switch off the rice cooker, and strain the water from the rice.
Preparing the lamb briyani rice
Using a different pot (make sure it is quite large pot!), ladle in the first layer with half of the rice. Sprinkle saffron over the rice.
Unshell and slice the eggs before placing them over the rice and saffron.
Place the 2 green chilis in between the eggs before sprinkling chopped coriander and chopped mint leaves over it.
Ladle in half of the lamb and its sauce for the second layer. Make sure it fully covers the rice.
For the third layer, pour in the remaining rice. Again, sprinkle saffron over it. And then place the remainder of the green chilis, chopped coriander, and chopped mint leaves over the rice and saffron.
For the final layer, cover the rice with the remaining lamb and sauce. You can sprinkle more coriander, chili, and even fried onions over this layer (I did not).
Cook on stove on low heat for a little bit. I left it on the lowest heat for approximately 15 minutes before switching it off.
Check that the rice is fully cooked and switch into a different serving dish. Mix the rice and lamb together gently - try not to smush anything!
You can eat this on its own or add the simple side dishes below.
Salad
3 tomatoes, diced
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cucumber, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
Salt and sugar
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Fresh coriander leaves
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well. Adjust according to your own taste.
Yogurt sauce
1 pack of yoghurt
1 large onion, sliced thinly
Fresh coriander leaves, thinly chopped
Salt
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well.
I also had poppadoms and leftover curry on the side, along with the salad and yogurt sauce. So it was a full meal!
