Indian Cooking Extravaganza - Part 2

This post began yesterday - please read Part 1.

Home made Raita was a must with those delicious dishes I am making. Home made yoghurt, shredded cucumber and carrots. And an experiment with Rick's Rub as Raita spicing. I am not sure I used the right Rub for Raita, but Rick's Rub Moroccan, with its aromatic cumin, ginger, turmeric, pepper, cardamom, to name a few of its ingredients, seemed like my best bet.

The next dish I made was Chicken and Prune Biryani (page 152). 

What fascinated me about this is the chicken marinade that included yoghurt with fried onions, garlic, ginger, chilies, garam masala and coriander stalks. This is the first time in my life I cook with the stalks, so exciting.

The smell of cooking the chicken with this yoghurt marinade was magical.

The process of this Biryani is too complex to summarize in a blog. But it included marinating dried prunes in orange zest and juice. It included a lengthy rice cooking process. And it included a neat layering of rice, prunes, fried onions and cooked chicken.

 

The outcome was this beautiful looking Biryani with an even more beautiful tasting and eating experience.

And finally, Biryani without a Mango Lassi is not a complete Biryani eating experience. 

My home made Lassi comprised of a Tbs of yogurt mixed with canned sweetened Indian style mango pulp combined with an equal proportion of pure mango juice. Add a drop of rose water and I had an almost authentically refreshing Indian Mango Lassi.

Oh how much I enjoyed this cooking extravaganza. And the cookbook, Rice, Spice and All Things Nice has enough of those exciting recipes to go cooking-crazy with it again. Stay tuned.