AFGHANI RUZ BUKHARI...talk about inspiration!

Remember Murgh Methi Malai? That creamy creamy delicious chicken curry? That same sweet lady, Bindu shared another favourite recipe of hers with me. Infact I shared it with another blogger friend of mine,Prerna of Indian Simmer and we both decided to make it and post it together on the same day, which is today :) I'm sure most of you know Prerna, because she takes gorgeous photographs of all that she cooks and it just spells out DELICIOUS!

I had this recipe with me for sometime now and was wondering where to get the 'Sela' basmathi rice from. Bindu mentioned that it is the only rice known to the Afghanis and it is absolutely necessary that we use the same for this Birinj (Biriyani).That's when Jobin reminded me of the Middle Eastern Market that we have closeby. I never thought about that store because we usually get all our 'desi' stuff from the Indian store. So after the celebration of 500,000 hits we went to that store and got a bag of Sela Basmathi rice. It is quite pricey as compared to the regular Basmathi rice.When I got back home, I wrote on Bindu's FB wall about this and that set off a lot of question- answer session  which got to Prerna's attention.That's how we ended up having a conversation about it and decided to cook and post it together. I'm so glad we did it because good things are meant to be shared!

If you ask me the difference between Sela basmathi rice and our Indian Basmathi rice, I would say, they are almost the same but not completely the same! Sela basmathi rice is a bit more full bodied and has a very very pale yellow colour as opposed to our Indian Basmathi rice. I wouldn't even have noticed the colour if it wasn't for Bindu telling me :-) She says it's impossible to make this with our basmathi rice, but I feel you can. I'm a person who believes a lot in substitution because I did a lot of that when I was in India. If I make it with our regular rice, I will update you all. In the meantime, if you guys do that, please let me know :)

AFGHANI RUZ BUKHARI/BIRINJ
Built on the recipe provided by my dearest Facebook friend, Bindu .

Ingredients:
1 kg 100 g Sela Basmathi Rice (measure the rice in cups later)
Water (2 x no.cups of rice) (For 1 cup or rice, we need 2 cups of water)
1 kg Goat meat/Mutton (with bones) cut into 2 inch cubes
1/2 c Canola/vegetable oil
1 large Onion halved , halved again in the centre and sliced fine
1 large Tomato, pureed
2 large carrots, sliced fine (no grating please, it will turn mushy)
1/4 c black raisins, soaked in water for 15 mins
Salt to taste

Method:
Pre-preparation:
Wash the meat and let it drain for atleast 6-7 hours, preferably in the fridge(yes, the meat with the draining apparatus et all)
Wash and soak the rice for a couple of hours. I soaked it for 3 hours.
Cooking the Birinj:
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the mutton/goat pieces .Fry till the pieces no longer stick together and all the water which oozed out from the meat has evaporated. Add the onions and saute till they are soft and translucent.
Add the measured amount of water and salt.Let the meat cook completely. This will take about 20-25 mins.
Once the meat is cooked, we need to start layering.Remove the pieces and reserve the stock.
Put a thin layer of soaked rice in the bottom of a pan (with tall sides).
Put the meat over it. Next, arrange the sliced carrots and raisins over it.
Put the remaining soaked rice over it, it will be a very thick layer.
Pour over the reserved mutton stock and top it up with some more water so that the water level is atleast 2 inches above the rice layer.
Add the tomato puree and just simply stir it around carefully in the water which is above the rice.



Take a sheet of aluminum foil, fold it up and fit it on the rim of the vessel which hold the rice. Now put the cover over it and place the whole thing on another flat bottomed pan (I completely forgot about this and ended up covering it with my lid alone and it worked just as fine!)
Switch on the gas/stove and let the stock/broth come to a boil.As soon as it boils, reduce the heat to a medium-low and cook it for 15 mins (Set the timer!).After 15 mins, switch off the stove/gas and leave it for 5 mins. By then all the water would have been absorbed and the rice would have cooked perfectly. You can just slide in a ladle through the side all the way till the bottom of the pan and pull it out to see if there is any water left. 99% you will have it dry but if that 1% is strong, leave it on the stove for another 5 mins or so.
When you are ready to serve, dig all the way down and pull it out together as it is a layered dish and you want everything to come out in one go :-)

Verdict: When Bindu gave me this recipe the most catchy thing that she said was,'If you think a biriyani cannot be made without garam masala,you will be proved wrong!' and that was it, I had to try it out!

I'm so glad  We are so glad that I tried it because it's definately different and it tasted really good. It is a LOT different from the usual Biriyani because of the absence of garam masala, green chilli etc. So don't go ahead and make this if you are craving for the usual Indian Biriyani. The mutton broth flavoured the rice so well and the sweetness from the carrots and raisins added to the taste. This made an enormous quantity for just the two of us so I froze them in ziplock bags. It comes handy on those lazy evenings when you don't feel like cooking anything. When you re-heat it, do that in a microwave oven or try steaming it and not directly in a pan. If you are microwaving it, sprinkle some water over it so that it remains soft and not dried up.