I had one great big huge rave last night one right after another from Mr. Riaz about this dish. Some of the pins I have in my Pinterest is my inperation behind this recipe but yet this is soley my own recipe. I resorted to getting some of my spices that is hard to find from Amazon. I rather comb the ethnic foods markets for spices to make authentic dishes from all over the world. Yet at the same time making sure to follow my Islamic guidelines of my own diet.
This recipe starts with preheating the oven to 375F or 190C. While heating up grind in mortar and pestle 1 small piece of dried lime which can be bought at a Middle Eastern Grocery store. Add 1 each of black and green cardamom, a small broken piece of cinnamon stick, 1 small amount of dried rose pettles but you may be able to substitue for 1 drop of rose essence, 1 pinch each of fennugreek seeds, saffron, mustard seeds, dill seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns then grind in to a powder. Add to this 1 pinch each of turmeric and red chili powder and mix with the newly made spice blend. Set this aside.
The rest of the spices are sold in both Indian and Pakistani grocery stores except for the dried rose pettles, I was lucky to find these in a Mexican store. The rest of the ingredients except the raw rice gets added together in a roasting pan and put in to the oven.
The protien of choices are 1 kilo or 1 pound of fish, shrimp, chicken,turkey, quail, beef, which also include the short ribs and oxtails, goat, veal, lamb, cornish hen or rabbit, The veg choices are 1 rutabega, 3 turinips, 1 pound or 1 kilo of carrots, peas, okra, string beans, baby eggplants, zucchini, yellow squash, mixed vegetables, artichoke, swiss chard, red or white I don’t care, spinach. After you wash and prep the veggies then add them with the meat in the roasting pan.
Add 1/4 cup of olive or grapeseed oil, the choice of protien with your choice of vegetables. I used goat and baby eggplant. To this chop 1 onion or shallot. 4 green onions, 6 cloves of garlic, the contents of the mortar and pestle, 1 bullion cube crushed, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma. Mix all of these together to combine with the terrific spice mix then put in the oven for 30 minutes. If it is still a little tough cook for 30 minutes more for pultry and red meat. For fish and shrimp it is 15 minutes,
While this is going take 2 cups of basmati rice only. Put this in a pot and par boil for 10 minutes. This Is the only time I had been par boiling rice other then making oven baked jollof rice. when the meat and vegetables are done and they are nice and soft then you can drain the water off of the rice and add to the roasted meat and vegetables. Add 1 tiny pinch of permitted yellow food color which is available at Indian and Pakistani grocery stores. place in the oven for 10 minutes. When it comes out the rice and everything is perfectly cooked and so very inviting.
Enjoy this with either fetta cheese and olives or extra thick creamy yogurt on the side. Please let me know how you like this.
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