Fish Biryani
Fish biryani is a dish from Cape Malay, South Africa.
Total Time
120 minutes
Servings
6–8
8 cloves garlic
2–3 teaspoons fresh ground red chillies
1 teaspoon crushed dhania (coriander) seeds
1–2 teaspoon crushed jeera (cumin) seeds
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon tomato puree
1 kg fish filets
2 cups uncooked rice
2 cups masoor (red or pink lentils)
2 onions, grated
½ cup oil
1 tomato, grated
1 cup oil
½ cup ghee
8 small potatoes
Few cloves, whole peppers, tuj pieces
4 whole green chillies
4 elachi (green cardamom) pods
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
cup yoghurt
Pound garlic and chiles together to make a paste. Mix in the coriander, cumin, lemon juice, turmeric, salt, oil, and tomato purée to make marinade.
Smear fish filets with the marinade. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
1 hour
Boil the rice and the masoor separately until cooked.
Fry onions in the ½ cup oil until golden in color. Strain out extra oil.
Combine strained onion oil with ghee. Heat, this and use to fry the patties. Keep aside oils in which onions etc. were fried.
Fry fish in separate oil
In a deep bowl add yoghurt, grated tomato, spices and fried onions ( reserve 1 teaspoon of onion for top of rice). Dip fried fish in the marinade for a few minutes. I a large flat bottomed pot, pour the oils that were left aside in which excess oil was poured, add the remaining ghee and oil, the sprinkle some masoor over it.
Arrange fish slices and all marinade over masoor and oil/ghee. Cover with rest of masoor.
Arrange patties over masoor and finally cover the rice. Sprinkle top of rice with the reserved fried onion and hot with ghee.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup water over rice, close lid tightly and put on heat. when pot starts sizzling lower heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
40 minutes