UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
This Emirati biryani is different from most of the Indian and Pakistani ones in that it is made with a spicy meatless sauce, which is layered in between the rice, and is usually served with roast meat. If you are not keen on highly spicy flavors, simply tone down the spices in the recipe to your taste, or even do away completely with the chili and cayenne pepper, which is what gives the sauce its heat. Serve with any roast meat, fish, or poultry; it goes brilliantly with Baby Goat Roast.
SERVES 6 TO 8
Good pinch of saffron threads
¼ cup (60 ml) water
FOR THE SAUCE
¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
3 small onions (10½ ounces/300 g total), halved and cut into thin wedges
9 ounces (250 g) green Turkish Marmara peppers (you can use regular green bell peppers but they are thicker), halved lengthwise, seeded, and thinly sliced crosswise
4 dried bay leaves
4 firm-ripe tomatoes (14 ounces/400 g total), halved and thinly sliced
Sea salt
1½ teaspoons green cardamom pods
1½ teaspoons black peppercorns
1½ teaspoons whole cloves
1 small dried hot chili
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon b’zar (Arabian Spice Mixture)
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 dried limes, halved
FOR THE RICE
Sea salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2½ cups (500 g) basmati rice, soaked for about 2 hours in lightly salted water
2 bay leaves
4 green cardamom pods
4 black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1. Put the saffron threads in the water and set aside to soak.
2. To make the sauce: Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, peppers, and bay leaves and cook until very soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt to taste, cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, hot chili, and cinnamon stick and continue cooking over low heat for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft and the sauce concentrated. Add the ground spices and dried limes and simmer, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. You may have to add a little water at this stage if the sauce is sticking but be careful not to add too much. The sauce needs to be very concentrated.
3. To parboil the rice: Put 4 quarts (4 liters) water in a large pot. Add 2 tablespoons salt and the oil and bring to a boil over medium heat. Drain the rice and add to the boiling water, together with the whole spices. Boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain. Rinse under cold water.
4. In the bottom of a clean round pot, spread one-quarter of the sauce. Spoon one-quarter of the parboiled rice over it. Sprinkle with a little saffron water. Repeat this layering three more times. Wrap the lid of the pot with a clean kitchen towel. Place over the pot and let the rice steam over very low heat for about 20 minutes, or until it is completely tender and steaming hot. As you serve the rice, the sauce will have colored and flavored some of it and you will have a lovely mix of white rice, some saffron colored, and some moistened by the sauce.
