Tender Lamb Curry on a bed of Pilau Rice – my simple method!

Tonight’s dinner menu is Tender Lamb Curry on a bed of fluffy Pilau Rice.  Appetizer is Rocket and Spinach Pear Salad with Blue Cheese and classic Sundried Tomatoes!  Without further ado, here is my simple method for Pilau Rice.  I have never made Pilau Rice before so this is my first attempt, and I hope it is successful!  Let’s see how this goes, and after dinner, I’ll pen a review and let you guys know how well this cooks!

 

Pilau Rice Recipe

Pilau Masala seasoning: I got this as a gift from a friend from Kenya!  What a gem!  If you don’t have this, please use 4 cardomom pods, 8 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick and 2 bay leaves
Water (3.75 cups for 2.5 cups of basmati rice but I’m using normal grain rice) and a pinch of salt, or Vegetable/Chicken Stock
1 onion finely chopped
handful of chopped coriander leaves
One knob of butter

Method
Wash rice thoroughly and soak rice in cold water for 30 minutes to enable fluffiness!

Fry onion in butter, add rice and keep stirring to prevent rice from burning;
Add two teaspoon of spice masala, and some or all of the spices above;
Add chopped coriander;
Add water and salt, and a small handful of chopped tomatoes; and
Transfer to rice cooker

Cooking Lamb

Tender Lamb Curry Recipe

Diced lamb pieces marinated with a pinch of turmeric (I read that turmeric is good to prevent old age Alzheimers’ disease), pinch of salt, ginger paste, garlic paste or garlic powder, a pinch of curry powder and optional meat tenderizer (my first time with this!) for 30 minutes.
One onion chopped
Four potatoes peeled and chopped
Three tomatoes roughly chopped
Tiny handful of saffron threads
Knob of butter
Coriander chopped
Curry leaves
Pinch of garam masala

Method
Fry onions and curry leaves in butter
Add diced marinated meat
Add one teaspoon of turmeric powder, cinnamon powder and two tablespoons of curry powder
Fry for two minutes be careful to keep stirring
Add some water and boil for 30-35 minutes
In the meantime, add one tablespoon of boiled water to the strands of saffron threads
After 30 minutes, add saffron threads and water
Add tomatoes and potatoes
Boil for another 20 minutes or so…
Add chopped coriander
If you have lemon or lime, squeeze half a lemon to add tangy to the already delightful savoury smelling lamb now tender and ready to be served!

Serve tangy tender lamb curry on a bed of pilau rice, and bring the spice back into the relationship!!  🙂  Review: Delicious!

Tender Lamb on a bed of Pilau Rice

Going back to basics

 

extra reinforcements !

I cooked another tajine last night but I have yet to put the pictures up.  It was a lovely and interesting mix of lamb and spices in particular, the new spice ‘ras-el-hanout’, which I marinated the lamb in, and a new creation for me – a splash of orange blossom flower water towards the end, which gave the dish an aromatic exotic fragrance.  I also marinated the lamb in extra virgin olive oil with garlic flavour, which smells awfully aromatic and flavoursome.  Alright, here is the recipe: 

 

Marinate diced lamb with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a teaspoon of ras el hanout, salt and a dash of pepper, for at least an hour or more.  Drizzle some olive oil, fry until fragrant – an onion roughly chopped, 6 cloves of garlic smashed.  Add lamb pieces.  Sprinkle some saffron threads already soaked in warm water.  A dash of salt and water to cover the meat.  I used some water and some chicken stock from the packet.  Close the lid and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.  I then added the chopped carrots, shitake mushrooms, tomato and simmer uncovered for a thicker sauce.  This time, I added some red kidney beans towards the end of cooking.  I then squeezed some lime onto the dish.  Garnish with coriander and a teaspoon of orange blosoom water and serve with cous cous.  

The meal was delicious.  For some reason the sauce (soup-like) was extremely tasty, although too thin but I did not want to add flour and water to thicken it.  

 

Lamb with shitake and carrots tajine

 

This morning, I was really tired of studying for this exam next week.  So I plucked up the courage to re-open my unfinished thesis and began to read the last few paragraphs I had written days before.  I really liked the feeling of going back to the basics of making an argument.  I felt like I was touching base again with my unfinished symphony.  However with this exam studying, I feel like  I am distracted from my real work – on the thesis; although I do not want to fail the exam as that would truly be a waste of time, money and effort, I much less want to not finish the thesis.  I am thinking to myself – what sacrifice does my thesis need?