Chicken Keema Biryani

Chicken Keema Biryani

Biryani is a rich and wholesome dish that takes center stage at any festive meal. It consists of layers of fluffy, aromatic Basmati rice, a rich meaty base and loads of fried onions, herbs and aromatic spices that are steamed in a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. 

This chicken keema biryani uses ground chicken that is cooked first, separately from the rice. I've cut down on the processing time by using a ready-made spice mix called Shan Pilao Biryani mix whose strong and spicy flavours works its magic on the ground chicken which serves as a base layer for the biryani. Basmati rice is soaked for 20 minutes, drained and air-dried before being spread evenly over the chicken base and topped with cilantro, mint and deep fried onions. Heated chicken broth is poured carefully around the edges of the saucepan and this one-pot dish is simmered over low heat for 25 minutes until all the liquids are absorbed by the rice.

This main dish is best accompanied by a cool and soothing Raita along with vegetable sides such as Green Beans Posto and Tomato Chutney.

Hsi Hta Min - Burmese Golden Rice

Hsi Hta Min

As in any other fried rice recipe, it is best to use day old rice that has been refrigerated overnight so that the rice absorbs all moisture. I've used Basmati rice, but jasmine or any other long-grain rice would work just as well. Sticky rice makes it even more special.

Burmese Htamin Kyaw - Burmese Fried Rice

Burmese Htamin Kyaw

Thai and Chinese take-out joints are very generous with their rice portions and there's always a lot left over. Customers have the option of asking for fried rice in place of plain, steamed rice (sometimes for an extra dollar). The rice is simply fried with some soya sauce and not much else. Packed in a ziploc bag and flattened down to a disc, it goes straight into the freezer until it's time to make fried rice.

Fish Sauce

Shrimp Powder with Chili

    

Two essential ingredients for cooking south-east Asian cuisine are shrimp powder and fish sauce. The fried rice I made would have been the run of the mill Chinese fried rice except for the addition of these two condiments that add umami to any dish.

Burmese Fried Rice

Fried rice tastes best if day-old rice is used because most of the moisture in the rice has been absorbed and each grain separates from the others and develops an al-dente texture. This Burmese fried rice sets itself apart from other fried rice because of its umami-saltiness from the shrimp powder and fish sauce, a pungent spiciness from green chilies and faint sweetness from caramalized onions used while frying the rice and as a garnish.

This dish is very simple and easy to make, took under 15 minutes to prepare and goes well with soup or salad. Burmese shrimp fried rice is another fried rice that is a meal unto itself for lunch.

Ingredients:

2 cups day-old rice

1 large onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, diced

2 green chilies, diced

1 Tbsp. dried shrimp powder with chili

1 Tbsp. fish sauce

1 Tbsp. soya sauce

4 + 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

2 stalks green onions, chopped

deep-fried onions for garnish

Directions:

1. Mix rice with 2 Tbsp. oil, soya sauce, fish sauce and set aside.
2. Heat remaining oil over medium-high heat and stir-fry onions, garlic, chilies and shrimp powder until onions caramalize.
3. Add rice and mix thoroughly, reduce heat to medium and leave rice to brown on the bottom.
4. Stir and make a well in the center, add beaten egg and allow it to set.
5. Toss rice with egg to scramble and garnish with green onions & deep-fried onions before serving.

Serve with soup (Buthi Hinjo) or a salad (Nga Hpet Thoke or Roasted Cauliflower Salad or Tomato Salad or Vegetable Dip).

Spanish Rice with Chicken

Coming up with something new, interesting and tasty for our Tuesdate night with a GrandBoy is always a challenge. Spanish rice with chicken came to mind because the boys seem to enjoy eating at Taco Bell. Served with sliced cucumbers and shredded lettuce, the fried rice can be rolled up in soft, flour tortillas and eaten like a burrito. Hope Kole likes his dinner tonight. 

Burmese Shrimp Fried Rice - Pazun Htamin Kyaw

Pazun Htamin Kyaw

This recipe was inspired by Promilaa Bhatia's post on the Burmese Food Lovers' Kitchen in Facebook. Her delicious vegetarian recipe was modified to add shrimp for us non-vegetarian folks. The modified recipe is provided here with her permission and blessing.

As in any other fried rice recipe, it is best to use day old rice that has been refrigerated overnight so that the rice absorbs all moisture. I've used Basmati rice, but jasmine or any other long-grain rice would work just as well.

Burmese Shrimp Fried Rice - Htamin Kyaw

Htamin Kyaw

What makes this fried rice Burmese? The addition of dried shrimp and fish sauce. Day-old white rice from the Chinese restaurant is perfect for making fried rice. A small portion of the sauces, along with dried chili flakes, mixed into the rice helps distribute taste and color throughout the fried rice. Dried shrimp imparts a lovely umami flavor to this dish.

To make a white fried rice increase the fish sauce to 4+1 tablespoons of fish sauce and omit the soy sauce. There's no need to add salt because both fish and soy sauce are loaded with salt.

Bachu's Tuna Fish Fried Rice

Bachu is my youngest brother and the youngest sibling in our family.  I was speaking to him over the telephone recently and he was in the process of fixing dinner for his two teenagers. He sent me a picture of this fried rice and described each step while he was making it. Hope I got it right. It's always easier to cook fried rice with day-old rice, so any time we go to a Chinese restaurant, we bring home the rice and freeze it until I'm ready to make a fried rice. I prefer to mix all the sauce ingredients into the rice, breaking up the lumps at the same time. This ensures that each grain of rice is coated with the sauce and means less stirring later which could turn the rice into mush. Notice there is no mention of salt anywhere in this recipe. That's because the tuna fish, soya sauce and fish sauce are salty enough.

How to Cook Perfect Basmati Rice

Basmati Rice Cooked on the Stove Top

Basmati Rice Cooked in the Microwave Oven

Thanks to my Facebook friends on Kitchen Raagas for introducing me to the perfect way to cook Basmati rice in the microwave oven. Here are the instructions for cooking the rice on a stove top and in a microwave oven. The ingredients are the same for both methods.

It takes 30 minutes (plus 10 minutes resting time) to cook rice on the stove top and 18 minutes (plus 10 minutes resting time) in the microwave oven. The advantage to microwave cooking is that there are no pots & pans to clean. I was also surprised to find out that rice takes only 18 minutes to cook in the microwave oven as opposed to 40 minutes in a rice cooker!

Spanish Chicken Rice

Spanish Chicken Rice Bowl

Spanish Chicken Rice Skillet

GrandBoy #1 is spending the evening with us today, so this dish was made in his honor. I removed his portion before adding the green onions & chili powder. The fajita chicken strips can be replaced with shredded rotisserie or any form of left-over roasted chicken. The rice was cooked and refrigerated overnight which prevents it from becoming mushy even after all the tossing and turning.

Shrimp & Peas Pilaf

For a first attempt, this dish turned out to be a hit! I usually make a Chicken Biryani when company dines, but we needed a break from that. We're fortunate that shell-on shrimp (26-30 count/lb.) are available already cleaned of their digestive tracts.

Khichuri - Rice, Lentils & Vegetable Stew

Yesterday we had 96°F temperatures and today it was down to 69°F. Looks like Fall is on its way, so I decided to make Khichuri for dinner. 

Khichuri, a Bengali one-pot-meal once considered comfort food for the poor, is now a delicacy served during the Monsoon or rainy season when the weather turns considerably cooler. Core ingredients are rice and lentils but vegetables, eggs, poultry or meat are added according to taste. 

For added interest, a cup of coconut milk was added towards the end which imparted an Asian flair to this dish.

Burmese Hsan Pyoke With Meatballs (Congee or Rice Porridge)

Yield: Serves 6   

Prep Time: 5 minutes 

Total Time: 30minutes 

Hsan Pyoke (English translation is Rice Boiled) is a recuperative comfort food for wet/cold weather or when someone is recovering from an illness. I used day-old short-grained, steamed white rice which I've used to make fried rice, as well. This is a quick version of the same soup I made a short while ago, except this time I had all the vegetables on hand, the soup was made in under half an hour, the minced chicken was replaced with meatballs and the soup base was made with a teaspoon of Ajinomoto instead of dried shrimp.

Ingredients

2 cups rice

5 cups water

2 Tbsp. dried shrimp (or scallops), diced

   or 1 tsp. Ajinomoto

10-12 meatballs, quartered

1 heaped Tbsp. ginger, julienned or paste

2 cups diced carrots, celery, onions and peas

Salt to taste

Garnish:

Cilantro, chopped

Deep fried onions & garlic
Coarse Salt*

Lime or lemon juice

                                                                                          

Directions:

1. Cook rice and water until rice is very soft.
2. Add dried shrimp or Ajinomoto, salt and vegetables.
3. Stir well and simmer until vegetables are very soft.
4. Add meatballs & ginger; simmer uncovered to gruel consistency.
5. Adjust salt to taste, remove from heat and pour into serving bowls.
6. Garnish with cilantro, fried onions & garlic, coarse salt, sesame oil & a squeeze of lime.

** Coarse Salt, or Muoi Tom in Vietnamese, is a garnish that contains the following ingredients: Salt, Chilli, Dried Shrimp and Garlic. It tastes great sprinkled on soups, noodles, rice & butter/ghee, lentils or on buttered toast.

Vietnamese Coarse Salt and Ingredients

Burmese Hsan Pyoke (Congee or Rice Porridge)

Yield: Serves 6   

Prep Time: 5 minutes 

Total Time: 45 minutes + overnight

Hsan Pyoke (translated in English to Rice Boiled) is a recuperative comfort food for wet/cold weather or when someone is recovering from an illness. I used left-over steamed white rice from the Chinese restaurant, which I've used to make fried rice, as well. The package of frozen vegetables contains diced carrots, onions, peas, celery and potatoes.  Cooking rice the night before and leaving overnight at room temperature gives this soup a smooth and creamy texture. The minced chicken in this recipe can be omitted or replaced with flaked catfish, salmon or imitation crab and the chicken stock can be replaced with vegetable stock or plain water.

Burmese Coconut Rice - Ohn Htamin

Rice is an essential part of any Asian or Indian meal. In my home, we're particular about what kind of rice we eat. Basmati rice is our favourite, but if that isn't available, jasmine rice comes in at a close second. Packaged instant rice tastes horrible when one is used to either basmati or jasmine long-grain rice. Some people prefer short-grain sticky rice which I have yet to experiment with, and try to avoid because of its high starch content. So the discussion here focuses on long-grain rice.

The easiest way to prepare long-grain rice is to wash it, let it soak for 10-15 minutes and cook it with double the quantity of water in the rice cooker. No need to worry about it catching and burning at the bottom because most rice cookers turn off automatically when the water is absorbed completely. 

Cooking rice on the stove top is really easy to do, but I would suggest setting a timer as a reminder to turn off the stove so the rice doesn't burn. I've blogged about making perfect basmati rice on the stove top and in the microwave oven and my methods have been successful every time.

Now, to get back to this delicious recipe for Ohn Htamin, it forms the base for a festive Burmese meal because it goes so well with any sipyan or Burmese curry. The memories of our childhood in Burma come rushing back at the thought of this meal! The perfect condiment for Ohn Htamin is dry balachaung, also an essential part of the Burmese table. 

Quick & Easy Fried Rice With Bacon And Peas

Fried Rice with Bacon & Peas

Left over white/steamed rice, unless cooked at home, usually turns hard and inedible the next day.  I usually freeze the left over rice in Ziploc bags until I'm ready to turn it into fried rice.

Ingredients:

2 cups cold cooked white rice (preferably short-grain sticky rice)
1 Tbsp. dark roasted sesame oil
2 tsp. dark soy sauce
3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
4-5 slices bacon
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large egg, beaten with salt & pepper
1 cup peas
2-3 stalks green onion, chopped

Method:

1. Remove all lumps from the rice with your fingers.
2. Pour sesame oil and soy sauces on rice and mix until rice is coated well.  Set aside. 
3. Fry bacon until crispy.  Remove bacon, crumble and set aside.
4. In the same pan, heat vegetable oil and saute onion and garlic until translucent.
5. Add rice and crumbled bacon to pan and toss.
6. Make a well in the center of the rice and melt butter in well.
7. Add beaten egg.  When it begins to set, combine it with the rice.
8. Stir frozen peas into rice and garnish with green onions.
9. Serve immediately.