Shari's Biryani Du Jour

Okay, so what did I put in my biryani today? Spices, brown rice, chicken, and vegetables to name some of the ingredients. I know brown rice isn't traditionally used in biryani, but hey, it's healthier, and it's the only kind I have in my kitchen right now. 

The first time I made biryani was over ten years ago when I was living in Pennsylvania. I had a Pakistani driving instructor. I told him I liked international cooking. He brought me a biryani seasoning packet with a recipe for biryani. I made the dish for my family. I think they liked it, but it was very spicy. I loved it! I froze some bags of it. I would thaw a bag randomly, and have lunches for a few days.

Back to the present, this evening was my first time putting together "the spice packet" for biryani. I had fun. But would you believe it, not wanting to make the dish too spicy, I failed to put enough spicy in it! Dinner was still amazing.

Oh, and another cool thing, a few summers ago when Anthony and I were starting to date, I had some leftover biryani in my fridge. I heated it up for Anthony. He loved it. 

Shari's Biryani Du Jour:

1 TB Oil

1 Tsp. Salt

1 1/2 Cups Brown Rice

3 Cups Water

1 TB Ghee (Clarified Butter)

1 Cinnamon Stick

1 Bay Leaf

1 Star Anise

1 Mace

Whole Cloves

Black Peppercorns

Cardamom Pods

1 Tsp. Coriander Seeds

1 Tsp Garam Masala

1/2 Tsp. Tumeric

1/2 Tsp. Red Chili Powder

2 Tsp. Ginger Paste

1 Tsp. Salt

Garlic Cloves

1 Onion

Handful of Tiny Tomatoes

2 Carrots

1 Potato

3 TB Chobani Yogurt

1 Cup Water

2 Chicken Drumsticks

1 Cup Water

1. Start cooking rice.

2. While rice is cooking, heat spices. 

3. While rice and spices are cooking, chop veggies in a mini food processor after cutting them into wedges. Add veggies to spice mix on stove, and stir. Add yogurt to spices and veggies. Stir. Add water. Stir.

4. Cut chicken and add to spices and veggies. Add a cup of water. Stir. Cook until chicken and veggies are done.

5. Drain rice. Add rice to spices, veggies, and chicken. Stir. Cover and cook ten minutes on low.

Anthony Made Dinner For Us!

Anthony made us a delicious dinner after church while I was feeding Shastya. He says it was Chinese inspired. We ate our meal with chopsticks. He made a stir-fry of chicken with the bones, green bell pepper, onion, fresh ginger, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, and salt. What a treat!

Cauliflower Curry

Cauliflower Curry is so easy and so delicious. I often just make rice and 1 rice topping when I cook Indian or Asian cuisine. Tonight I decided to make a side salad to go along with our dinner. Funny thing is, neither of us touched the salad, though Anthony and I both had seconds on both the rice and the rice topping.

Pizza Steaks & Sandwich Cookies

I made pizza and cookies for Valentine's Day. I was out of yeast and tomato sauce. I found a new quick pizza dough recipe that did not use yeast, and made that. I created my own tomato sauce recipe. It turned out lovely.

I found a basic oatmeal cookie recipe, and then changed it up . . . a lot. I was out of brown sugar and vanilla flavoring so I used granulated sugar. I had raisins but I used dried raspberries in place of raisins because I thought they might be nice with the filling I was going to make for the cookies. I love sandwich cookies so I made a papaya icing to go between the oatmeal/sugar raspberry cookies. My sandwich cookies were outstanding in a good way.

vegetables

We had soup and salad for dinner. Shastya was completely mesmerized with the bright, colorful salads. I think kids are probably taught to like all the fats and sugars that are so common in the American diet. Those nutrient deficient foods are not pretty, and they don't even taste as good as fruits and vegetables.