Recipes

Chicken Biryani

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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Usually we do a really good job of our menu planning but the last couple of months the ball has been rather dropped. However much work doing a meal plan on a Saturday afternoon is (not a lot) it’s a lot less work than getting to 4pm on a Thursday and realising that the toddler needs to be bathed and fed and some shopping needs to be done and … I have no idea what to cook for dinner.

So it’s time to get back in the routine which has kicked off this week. To help both myself and other hungry families, I’ll be publishing a meal plan each Saturday morning (in time for the Saturday shop hopefully!) – more details this Saturday when the first one appears. You’d better make sure you’re following Eating Adelaide on Facebook or subscribed to the email updates!

This week’s meal plan had to have something easy for Monday dinner because Monday’s moments of spare time would be spent cooking the pie filling for Tuesday’s dinner. Andy in particular loves biryani and so this (almost) one pot recipe hit the nail on the head.

The supermarket I went to didn’t sell any biryani paste (it did sell a jar of biryani stir through bake stuff but that all started to sound a bit too pre-made for me!) so thanks to a combination of the internet and what we had in the drawer, we made our own.

The finished product was an absolute HIT – with everyone, including the toddler. As is almost always the case with these things, we found that the cooking time was almost double what the recipe specifies … But that aside, this is a very easy recipe that is hearty and filling. Yes, you do need to have your oven on for a while – so choose a cooler day if you’re in the southern hemisphere and things are starting to heat up.

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Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

    Biryani Paste
  • 3 tbsp canola oil
  • 1 tsp onion flakes
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • ½ tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garam masala (we used my mum's spicy Sri Lankan curry powder)
    • For the Biryani
  • oil
  • 1 tbsp ghee
  • 3 large chicken thighs, skin on or off
  • 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 175g basmati or jasmine rice
  • small handful of flaked almonds
  • ~ 500mL vegetable or chicken stock
  • generous handful of green beans, cut into chunks
  • fresh coriander for garnish

Instructions

    Biryani paste
  1. To make the biryani paste, mix all the ingredients together and set aside.
    2. Biryani
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
  3. In an oven proof dish, heat the oil and ghee and brown the chicken thighs. Remove and set aside.
  4. Add a little more oil to the pan and soften the onions and garlic.
  5. Add the biryani paste and stir though, cooking for a few minutes.
  6. Add a little more oil, and then add the rice. Stir the rice through, ensuring it is well coated with the spice mix.
  7. Add the almonds and stock. I use the little pots of jellied stock and boiling water. Return the chicken to the pan and ensure that there is enough liquid to cover the rice.
  8. Cover the pan tightly with til foil and a lid (if you have one) and place in the hot oven.
  9. After around 20 minutes, check progress. You may need to add more hot water and give it a good stir.
  10. After another 10 minutes, stir through the beans and add more liquid if required.
  11. Return to the oven until the beans and rice are cooked.
  12. Stir through some chopped coriander leaves and maybe some more almonds.
https://eatingadelaide.com/chicken-biryani/

Spicy Fish Stir Fry

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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A bit of a wander over the other side of town saw us in a position to visit a different fish monger and perhaps try out something new. In the end, Andy was sent off with purchasing orders and came back with ling. Ling falls into the Sustainable Seafood ‘think’ category because it is often trawl fished which can create stock management problems and significant bycatch. Sadly, there’s no legislation that means this kind of information is displayed at point of purchase so the poor consumer either stands at the counter entranced by his or her phone, or gets home to find that a wiser choice could have been made.

I wasn’t too sure what to do with ling so google came to our aid and we decided we had enough in the cupboard to muddle together something similar to this Korean fish stir fry.

The final dish got top marks for a quick, easy and delicious mid-week dinner. Unfortunately, in this case, it received the thumbs down from the toddler. Despite his initial enthusiasm for ‘spicy fish stir fry’ (which he shouted over and over again) this waned dramatically when faced with the dish. I suspect this was because he was actually full, rather than a reflection of Andy’s cooking!

Don’t skimp on the sesame seeds and don’t wander off while you’re toasting them.  They turn from golden brown to burnt within a heart beat.

We actually served this on top of a mix of brown rice and quinoa which worked very well.  The rice and quinoa was very filling and a great carrier for the flavour of the stir fry.

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Spicy Fish Stir Fry

Ingredients

  • ~ 500g ling fillets (any firm white fish will do)
    • Marinade
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ½ tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp lightly toasted sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
    • Stir Fry
  • neutral oil
  • 1 small-medium onion, finely sliced
  • ½ red capsicum
  • lightly steamed broccoli and carrot
  • fresh coriander as garnish

Instructions

  1. Mix together the marinade ingredients. Cut the fish into bite size chunks and cover with the marinade. Leave for about half an hour.
  2. There is not a ton of marinade so don't expect the fish to be swimming in it.
  3. Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the onion. Add the fish. When the fish is cooked, add the vegetables and cook for a minute or two more to ensure they are warmed through.
  4. Serve on rice or noodles, and garnish with the coriander.
https://eatingadelaide.com/spicy-fish-stir-fry/

Potatoes Dauphinoise

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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We have a big bag of potatoes lurking in a cupboard. This always happens. I spot the potatoes at a cheap price, buy them and then we hide them in a cupboard and wonder what to do with them.

As we currently have eight Dutch Cream potato plants turning into triffids in our garden, it’s time to do some long overdue potato experimenting.

Potatoes Dauphinoise (or pommes dauphinoise, or pommes de terre à la dauphinoise or dauphinoise potatoes) is hardly experimental but I suspect that it’s the type of dish that most people eat at a restaurant rather than at home.

It’s NOT health food: this is sometimes food, not every day food. But because it survives reheating excellently, it’s ideal when you’re cooking a roast or short on oven space. You can 95% cook the potatoes in advance and return them to the empty oven to reheat while the meat is resting. This makes timing a roast a LOT easier than if you try to do roast potatoes. Of course, the left overs are also top notch!

While this is a very basic, store cupboard recipe, a word of advice. A mandoline is essential. Unless you have super sharp knives, the patience of a saint and some really mad cutting skills.

This recipe also scales very easily. You just need to adjust the cooking time – the potatoes are done with a knife slides in easily.

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Potatoes Dauphinoise

Ingredients

  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and finely sliced (with a mandoline)
  • softened butter
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • parmesan cheese
  • approximately 150mL pure cream

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
  2. Grease a baking dish well and then rub the clove of garlic around the dish.
  3. Layer the potatoes in the dish. This doesn't have to be perfect: rough layers will do fine. In between layers, sprinkle with black pepper and add three or four dobs of garlic.
  4. Finish with a layer of potatoes. Pour over the cream. If it very thick pure cream it might be too thick for pouring, in which case just spread it across the potatoes as evenly as possible.
  5. Grate over a generous amount of parmesan cheese. Cover and bake in the hot oven for around 30 minutes. The potatoes are done when a knife slides in and out easily.
  6. To get some colour on the top, finish or reheat uncovered.
https://eatingadelaide.com/potatoes-dauphinoise/