My day-to-day routine includes watching cooking videos and food review vlogs - as a must-do. I know my place and don't consider myself a food expert, even a critic/reviewer. I am a mare food-lover at most. I really appreciate the science and arts of cooking and food altogether.
One of the channels, in one of the countless media, I follow with a lot of respect and lots-lots of awe is "Wilderness Cooking". A couple of weeks ago I watched an episode where Chef Tawakkul cooks "Pilaf" with homegrown ingredients, with passion, on Navruz, which is a Persian New Year event on the verge of Vernal Equinox and celebrated widely in Uzbekistan.
Interestingly, Navruz means new day or new year literally. And since 14th April is the Bengali New Year day, I thought, what if I try the dish and give it a "Bangla" touch! What can go wrong?
Well, nothing did go wrong and I was in for a surprise. I will try to share my experience with cooking Pilaf and Tandoori chicken as a side dish (which was a protection - if something goes wrong the kids will be at least not hungry 😋 🤤). Unfortunately, shooting a video of it, was not possible, so I will go with still photos and dry descriptions.
Ingredients (for 3/4 persons):
- 500gm boneless chicken 🍗 (ideally first preference would be lamb or mutton)
- 5 big onions 🧅
- 2 full garlic 🧄 (yielding 8/10 cloves)
- 6/8 green chilies 🌶️
- 5/6 small carrots 🥕
- Cilantro or Coriander leaves 🌿 (max)
- Green peas 🫛 (150 grams)
- Chickpeas (150 grams)
- Ground roasted mixed 🥜 🌰 (I bought a roasted mixed nut box for this)
- Raisins
- Dried Apricots
- Dried Tomatoes 🍅
- Basmati Rice 800gm approximately 🍚 (Jasmine or any other long-grain rice will do too - but preboiled or soft-boiled rice will result in disaster)
- Cooking oil (as required)
- 1 TBSP Ghee (or butter will also do)
- Salt (to taste)
- Coconut milk (100ml)
- Spices and Herbs (here comes the Bengal touch 😏)
- Turmeric Powder
- Red chili Powder (or you can go by with Paprika if you are not that into hot stuff)
- Cumin Powder
- Coriander Powder
- Biriyani Masala --- (readily available in India/Bangladesh --- and can be acquired at Indian/Asian shops abroad. If not found, the ingredients of Biriyani Masala are Chilli, Garlic, Cinnamon, Ginger, Coriander, Sodium chloride, Aniseed, Cumin, Black pepper, Bay leaf, Cardamom, Mace, Caraway, Nutmeg, Clove, Food grade flavor.)
Preparation:
🤌🏽 I washed the rice and used a strainer to rinse all the water. Put the rice in this state until it is needed.
🤌🏽 In boiling water, I baked the mixing of green peas and chickpeas for 5 mins. That will soften them but they will not be completely baked. Then I let them dry by rinsing the water.
🤌🏽 Then I tried to cut the onions in a "Juliene cut", it actually became a mix between sliced and Juliene 🤭
🤌🏽 Then I cut the carrots into thin slices, which will ensure better cooking.
🤌🏽 Then cut the chilies into half (but not separated - a little tricky - just need to make sure not to go all the way)
🤌🏽 Then I separated all the cloves of the garlic. Then "gently" crushed them with the blade of the knife (Gordon Ramsay style 🫠 🧑🍳)
🤌🏽 Then comes the coriander leaves/cilantro. I tried to make them as small as possible. They are for garnishing/flavor purposes. So it might depend on your liking/disliking of it.
🤌🏽 I cut the boneless chicken fillets into block sizes. Chicken is softer than lamb/mutton. So it will be cooked earlier than them. So to balance the cooking time and make sure all the elements are cooked properly, I would recommend making thicker pieces if Chicken is used.
🤌🏽 There should be some tiny pieces of meat left over on your cutting board when the bigger chunks are cut. I used them in the preparation of peas. In your case, this might not be the case, but you still can get hold of some almost-grounded meat while making the main meat chunks.
🤌🏽 Then I ground the mixed roasted nuts. It doesn't have to be very fine-grained, a little grainy would also do.
🤌🏽 Then the final prep part. I half-cooked the half--boiled peas mix. First fried the onion and chilies until they are soft and a little fired, put some turmeric powder, chilie powder, salt. Then put the peas into it fry them for 8/10 mins until they are half cooked.
Cooking:
Now comes the cooking part. Although the preparation is a little heavy, while cooking, it's essentially a one-pot dish. It will take a longer time, for sure, but the actual cooking process is not very complex.
🤌🏽 First I sauteed the meat in cooking oil. The amount of oil I found varies from cook to cook and person to person, I used 4 TBSP oil. Once the oil is hot, I put the meat into it, and fried it until the meat became white.
🤌🏽 Then I poured the rest of the onion, garlic, and chilies into the meat and saute it for 4/5 minutes.
🤌🏽 Then I poured the carrot into the mix. And side-by-side pour 1TBSP of each of the mentioned spices and ground nuts. The spices can also be mixed together and made into a paste before putting it in the pot.
🤌🏽 I poured a cup of water and cooked the mix for 8/10 minutes. Just need to make sure if the carrots are soft and boiled (at least half-boiled).
🤌🏽 I poured half a pack of dried tomatoes, dried apricots, raisins (half a pack of each), and the previously cooked peas into the mix. Cook for 4/5 minutes more. Stir the whole pot to make the mix even.
🤌🏽 Then I pour the rice over the mix, kept it for a minute. Put some more tomatoes and dried fruits over it. Spread the coriander leaves over the whole thing.
🤌🏽 I stirred and mixed the whole mix properly for a couple of minutes.
🤌🏽 Then I poured approximately 8 cups of hot water into it.
🤌🏽 Then I sealed the pot with aluminum foil and covered the pot.
🤌🏽 Then I let it cook for 25 minutes like this in medium heat (6 in my induction hob).
🤌🏽 After 25 minutes, I opened the seal and checked the condition of the rice. In my case, it was still a little unboiled and hard. I poured 2 more cups of water and covered it again for 5 more minutes.
🤌🏽 Then I opened the seal. Found that everything was cooked. I mixed it properly.
🤌🏽 Pilaf is ready.
I served it with Tandoori Chicken fry.
The recipe for the fry? - well may be in a later post 😎
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