Tuesday 20 October 2015

Kurdish Biryani - recipe

Few months ago I invited some good friends over for lunch on a lovely Saturday. I decided to make one of my favourite dishes made by my mother on special occasions for our family. Her food is well known to be delicious and she is truly a good chef.

This dish is called Kurdish biryani as we do it slightly different way than the Indian biryani. It was lots of flavour and a oriental mix of spices. What distinguishes it from other biryanies is that we use a special biryani spice mix coming from Kurdistan but it can be done without just as well. Since it is hard to find it in the UK, you can simply use any biryani spice mix you can find. Another famous spice mix used in this biryani, is the one called 7 spice mix, often find in Asian food stores or bigger supermarkets.

Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rise cooked according to the package instructions
2 tsp biryani Spice mix
1 tsp mild curry powder
1 tsp paprika powder
Salt and pepper to taste

1 -2 cup frozen chopped frozen vegetable mix
4 tbsp roasted almond flakes
5 tbsp sultanas
5 potatoes dices into 1 cm cubes
2 chicken breasts chopped into bite size cubes

Salad: chopped paprika, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and mint. Seasoned with salt, pepper and sumac.

Method:
1. I made the salad first. Basically chop all ingredients and mix it all in a bowl with the seasoning. Finish by puring olive oil on top.


2. Cook the rice according to package instructions. Add salt and half of the seasoning to the pot. Once rice is cooked, mix. If you instructions asks you to drain and rinse water do not add the spice mix during cooking but afterwards. 

3. Fry chicken cubes, frozen veggies and potatoes separately in a frying pan with little vegetable oil on medium high heat. Place on a paper covered plate so that all excess oil is removed.  While frying these ingredients add little of the spice mix to them To season.

4. Once everything is ready add the cooked rice in a big bowl, add all remaining seasoning on top, add all fried ingredients and the sultanas. Mix well so that everything gets evenly coated with seasoning. Don't forget to taste for salt and pepper. Finish of by serving the biryani in a big serving plate and sprinkle over the almond flakes.


Enjoy!

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