Saffron and Rosewater Chicken Biryani

I bought a bottle of rosewater a few months ago to make a a rose-flavoured cake and also rose cookies for my friend Eleni. Lets just say that I still have a lot of rosewater left over, and I needed to make something that doesn't involve sugar and sweets.

I saw a trailer for Jon Stewart's new movie, aptly titled 'Rosewater', based on a book written by Maziar Bahari titled 'Then They Came For Me'. All I can say is go and watch the movie; buy and read the book. It is very relevant to today's world, with many journalists jailed or in court for writing something that the authorities disagree with, as in Turkey and unfortunately in Malaysia. It is a slippery slope from being a citizen, activist, academician to an enemy of the state.

A lot of biryani recipes out there that uses boneless chicken thighs or chicken breasts. I used whole chicken legs because I noticed that when I make chicken curries, they taste better when it is on the bone. It does take longer to cook, but the gravy flavours nicely this way. So I have decided to make it with chicken legs but if you want to use boneless chicken, please do so.

Ingredients:

Chicken Marinade:
500g of chicken thighs, boneless (or 750g of whole chicken legs - drumsticks and thighs)
4 tbsps of Greek yoghurt
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 thumb sized ginger, grated
1 chilli, de-seeded and chopped fine
1 tsp of chilli powder
1 tsp of ground coriander
1/2 tsp of ground turmeric (or 1/2 thumb-sized of turmeric root, grated)

Gravy
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 piece of cinnamon bark
3 cardamom pods, bashed slightly
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp of salt

Rice
2 cups of Basmati rice, soaked in cold water for at least an hour.
1 tsp of salt
4 tbsp of whole milk, warm
A small pinch of saffron, soaked in the milk mentioned above for at least 15 minutes.
Rosewater (about 2 tsps, or more according to how fragrant you want it)
3-4 tbsp of melted butter (or ghee if you have any)

Garnish (as much as you want)

Crisp fried onions

Toasted sliced almonds

Roasted cashew nuts

Preparation:

1. Marinade the chicken in all the marinade ingredients. Toss and coat thoroughly and chill in the fridge for at least an hour and no more than 4 hours. For the last 30 minutes you can have it at room temperature.

2. In a deep pan/wok, heat the oil. Fry the spices until fragrant. 

3. Add in the chicken pieces to brown all over. Once its nice and browned add in the leftover marinade and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir. Lower the heat to medium low and leave to simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. The sauce should start getting thick and almost dry, but make sure that it doesn't burn at the bottom of the pan. Add water to stop this from happening, but not too much - you do not want too much gravy or this will make the biryani soggy. Once the chicken is cooked and the sauce is ready, take it off the heat and set aside. Cover to keep it warm while you make the rice. (This is when I usually remove all the spices that I can see like the cinnamon bark and the cardamom and cloves - this is so that I don't accidentally bite on it when I eat the rice.)

4. Wash the soaked rice until the water is clear. Cook the rice in 2 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt and when you see 'craters' at the top of the rice, take it off the heat and cover. Let it steam for no more than 5 minutes. The rice is not fully cooked, its part-boiled and this will make the rice fluffy when you cook it again later. It is best to assemble the biryani while the rice is still hot.

Assembly:

1. In a deep pot or casserole pot, add 3 tbsps of water and 2 tbsps of melted butter/ghee at the bottom of the pan. Spoon in 1/2 of the part-cooked rice. 

2. Sprinkle the rice with half of the milk and saffron mix. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the rosewater (or more) onto the rice. My rosewater came in a spray bottle, so I sprayed 3-4 times onto the rice. I love the smell of roses, so I may have used more than 2 tsps here.

3. Pour and spread the chicken mixture onto the rice. Cover with the leftover rice.

4. Sprinkle the rice with the rest of the milk and saffron and rosewater. Garnish the top of the rice with 2/3 of the crisp fried onions, almonds and cashews.

5. Drizzle the rest of the butter on the edges of the rice so it drips down the inside of the pot.

6. Cover with a lid. Cook on high heat for about 2-3 minutes or until you can see some steam rising. (Uncover to check after 3 minutes)

7. When you see steam, cover tight. Lower the heat and cook on low for about 30 minutes.

8. Spoon out onto a plate and garnish with more crisp fried onions and nuts.

9. Serve! This dish goes really well with Pomegranate and Cucumber Mint Raita.

Kalamata Olives Palmiers

Recently, I bought a jar of tapenade from the supermarket and I was severely underwhelmed by the quality. I had them with bread sticks, on bread rolls, but it was rather bland. I remember that I made a tapenade with capers and sundried tomatoes that I brought to my friends' Jennifer's dinner party last year. Traditionally tapenades may contain anchovies, and since Jennifer is a vegetarian I had to improvise. And what a great result.

I have always enjoyed olives, even as a kid. Back in Malaysia, we would only find green ones, stuffed with pimentos. Black olives were always the rubbery and slightly tasteless yet bitter at the same time. But these Kalamata olives are just the best you would ever taste. Peloponnesian olives are generally of very good quality. What a great ingredient to use to make my own tapenade.

The palmiers came about after watching an episode of Baking Made Easy with Lorraine Pascale. I remembered having a few sweet sugary palmiers when I was in Paris earlier this year, and I really liked the idea of having a few savoury ones with some wine or a chilled glass of beer. You can make your own puff pastry, but ready rolled store-bought pastry works great too.

Ingredients:

Puff pastry, rolled into a big rectangle.

Tapenade

300g of kalamata olives, pitted

20-30g of capers (It is salty, so use less or more according to taste)

100g of sundried tomatoes.

1 tsp of dried oregano

A few tablespoons of olive oil

1 egg, beaten (for eggwash)

Preparation:

1. Make the tapenade. You can blend it, but I used my mezzaluna and chopped the olives, capers and sundried tomatoes.

2. Transfer the chopped ingredients into a bowl and add the oregano and olive oil and mix until a smooth consistency.

3. Spread out a layer of the tapenade onto the puff pastry.
4. Starting from one of the long edges, roll the pastry tightly to the centre and then repeat on the other side.
5. Cover the pastry roll in baking paper. Chill in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. If you are short of time, 20 minutes in the freezer works fine too.
6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Also, prep a baking tray with baking parchment.
7. Lightly flour your knife, and slice the pastry roll into 1cm slices.

8. Arrange the slices on the tray, leaving enough space for the pastry to expand while it cooks.
9. Lightly brush a bit of eggwash on each slice.
10. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until its crisp and golden.
11. Remove and you can let cool on a wire rack.
12. Serve!

My dinner, the night I made the palmiers.

Caramel Pear and Walnut Pancakes

People say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I rarely eat breakfast, and settle for a mug (or 2) of coffee - which is bad. But the weekends are the days that I usually make an extra effort. The recent weekend was one of these productive days.

We had a few pears in the fridge and not keen on letting them go to waste I decided to make a fast and autumn-themed breakfast. This is a simple basic American-style pancake recipe, no fuss and frills.

You can even have these as a dessert, because pancakes are not only for breakfast!

Ingredients: (serves 2-3 people)

Pancakes
130g of all purpose flour
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
250ml of milk
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 large egg

1 pear, quartered, cored and sliced.
3-5 tbsp of dark brown sugar
1 tsp of unsalted butter
A handful of walnuts
1-2 tbsp of vegetable oil (for the skillet)

Preparation:

Caramel Pears

1. Heat up a pan on medium heat and melt the butter.

2. Arrange the sliced pears in the pan. Sprinkle the dark brown sugar on top. Leave it alone to heat up and bubble like below.

3. Once the pears are soft and cooked, mix in the walnuts and stir.

4. Remove from heat and set aside.

Pancakes

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, vegetable oil and egg. Gently fold in the flour mix, until moistened, but be sure not to overmix; a few lumps are fine.
3. Heat a large skillet or frying pan on medium heat. Rub the pan with an oiled paper towel.
4. For each pancake, spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter onto the hot pan/skillet, using the back of spoon to spread the batter into a circle.
5. Cook until you see a few bubbles on the surface of the pancake. Flip it over, and cook until it has browned on the underside.
6. Transfer the pancake onto a plate. Keep covered so the pancakes don't get cold.
7. Repeat - start with rubbing the pan with an oiled paper towel. This batter should make approximately 10 - 12 pieces of pancakes - all depends on how big and thick you cook your pancakes.

8. Once ready to serve, add the pancakes on a plate and garnish with the caramel pears and walnuts.
9. Serve it with more syrup if you like, and it even goes well with ice cream!

Matcha Almond Latte

Its Autumn here in Athens. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, if you hate the season) the weather has stayed decidedly warm here in the Med. Not summer warm, but a bit below 20 degrees C at night. And that means warm drinks for me!

I love lattes. And I love coffee. But I am trying to cut down on my caffeine intake. I also have an insane obsession with green tea - specifically matcha. I recently bought a packet of pure matcha powder that I have been using sparingly in desserts and smoothies.

This is personally a favourite of mine, and I have it during the weekends while I have my cat Katiki curled up in my lap, watching TV or reading a book.

It is very easy to make. You can use milk, or substitute it with soy milk, almond milk and even coconut milk. Using coconut milk in a drink is rather odd to me, because back in Malaysia we use it for food, but I have tried it once and it makes a rich and thicker latte. I have decided to use almond milk here because I had a batch of homemade almond milk on hand. 

I have a handheld milk whisk that I bought from IKEA quite a long time ago, and it makes a mean milk froth. It's a great investment, because it makes whipping milk and even cream in small quantities much easier. 

Ingredients: (makes 2 mugs)

2 cups of milk

1 tsp of matcha green tea powder

Sweetener of your choice, according to taste.

What you will need:

A milk whisk, like pictured below.

Preparation:

1. Heat the milk up in a saucepan. Be careful to not boil it.

2. Add the matcha powder and the sweetener.

3. Take the pan off the heat and use the whisk to thoroughly mix.

4. Pour into mugs, and its ready to drink!

Eleni's Rose Sugar Cookies

Today is my best friend's birthday. Happy Birthday Eleni! I was very glad that she loves these soft cookies that I made. During my most recent trip to London, I bought a small portion of culinary rose petals. I decided to make a soft, buttery cookie with rose petal sugar and rosewater. Eleni loved it when I asked her to taste them, so from now on I will call them Eleni's Rose Sugar Cookies!

Ingredients: (makes 20-25 big cookies)

250g butter, softened

150g of rose-petal sugar

Rose petals with caster sugar

The rose petals were ground up with the sugar

2 tsp of rose water

1 egg, beaten

220g of flour

1 tsp of baking powder

a pinch of salt

Sugar crystals of your choice (for decoration)

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour and add the pinch of salt and the baking powder in a bowl. Mix and set aside.

2. Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale and fluffy.

3. Mix the rosewater and the egg in a small bowl.

4. Add the rosewater-egg mix into the creamed butter a little at a time while continuously beating. Doing so prevents the mix to curdle.

5. Add the flour to the buttery mix and fold until thoroughly mixed. The dough will be soft and buttery.

6. Make a cookie dough 'sausage' - on baking parchment, make a cookie dough log and wrap. Refrigerate the dough log for at least 3 hours.

7. Take the time to clean the kitchen. Just before you want to bake your cookies, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

8. When the dough is firm, cut it into slices and arrange them on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle some sugar crystals on to the cookie dough and bake until slightly golden brown. NOTE: they expand and become flat - so make sure there is ample space in between every cookie.

9. Cool on a baking rack.

10. ENJOY!