I never did get back on track with my Emirati cooking, did I?

Lamb Biryani was the last recipe I posted but I did get to observe a few home-cooked Emirati dishes (namely, Chicken Machboos and Balaleet) this past November.

And recently, I went to an Emirati restaurant for the first time – Al Fanar in Dubai Festival City – and had a great time sitting outside on the Arabic seating and enjoying all the local dishes.

I hope to take my in-laws to Al Fanar when they visit next week.

Speaking of the in-laws, I never got around to posting the photos of their visit from 2011! So before I get into the Emirati recipe for this week, allow me to share with you some photos of our trip to Liwa last year.

(Below slideshow may not be viewable if you are reading this from an email client or mobile device):

Liwa is located in the southernmost part of Abu Dhabi (the capital of the UAE), almost into Saudi Arabia, on the northern edge of Rub’ al Khali desert. The area is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250 metres (820 ft) and the sand is a beautiful reddish-orange color due to the presence of feldspar.

From Wikipedia:

The Rub’ al Khali or Empty Quarter is one of the largest sand deserts in the world encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi)…more than the combined land areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

It took us about 3 hours to drive from Dubai to Liwa. Along the way, we visited the Emirates National Auto Museum but unfortunately it was closed for some reason so I was only able to take some exterior photos of the place.

We stayed at the Tilal Hotel which was comfortable and nicely furnished and then on the way back to Dubai, we stopped at the luxurious Qasr al Sarab for lunch by the pool.

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This week’s Emirati recipe was prepared last June.

I know, I KNOW, what a delinquent I am at posting these things.

But for once I was able to follow one of Celia’s recipes to a “T”!  Well, except for one teensy weensy change of reducing the oil from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup and I used canola instead of corn as that’s what I had in my cupboard.

If you love shrimp like I do, this is a great Emirati recipe to try! And I hope that you get the chance to recreate this dish as well – for the recipe, please click here.

About this dish, Celia writes:

This is a very popular main course meal. The dried jumbo shrimps are ideal, but fresh locally caught prawns are just as tasty.

Some people add a little more oil at the frying stage which gives a richer flavour, while others may add one or two finely chopped green chillies during the cooking stage. When this is served as a luncheon dish it is normally accompanied by plain boiled rice, but as an evening meal, it is more common to serve paratha or chapati bread, hot from the pavement baker.

For the cook who hasn’t ready access to these types of bread, try pita bread which has been warmed in the oven or microwave. Side dishes of sliced limes and mixed salad would be the normal accompaniments for this modern dish.

I’ve never seen dried jumbo shrimps sold in Dubai but with fresh shrimp readily available, I would much rather use fresh.

First, I fried the onions, with a sprinkle of salt, in vegetable oil for about 5 minutes.

The spices for this dish were bezar, turmeric, ground fennel seeds, loomi powder, cumin, curry leaves, garlic cloves, and grated fresh ginger:

This recipe calls for a “pinch” of ground fennel seeds. Now I’ve always wondered, what exactly is a pinch?

And would those with different finger sizes have different pinch quantities?

I used ¼ teaspoon of whole fennel that I mortared and pestled as I couldn’t be bothered with taking out the blender – which I keep in one cupboard but the spice grinder attachment is in the bowels of a different cupboard.

And on another note, Celia says to cook the onions until “brown” but I find that when my onions are brown, they are more accurately describe as “burnt.” Ah, well.

I thought I had chilli chapatti in my freezer but it was actually chilli nan and in the middle of frying up the shrimp while Wee Scotch was napping, there was no way was I going to leave my apartment in search of chapatti or paratha so chilli nan it was!

The spices were fried for 5 minutes and the fragrance they released was so mouthwatering. Next I added the shrimp with a sprinkle of salt and simmered them for 10 minutes on very low heat with a bit of water, maybe about 1/3 cup.

I served this dish on white rice and chilli nan whose sole purpose were to soak up the flavorful sauce.

And I loved the garlic-ginger combo mixed in with the bezar – I would definitely use it in other variations like with chicken or beef.

These photos of Wee Scotch taste-testing the dish is from last June (when he was one and a half) and as I was editing them, I can’t believe how much my little boy has already grown!

He’s still quite fearless and willing to try anything.

He enjoys his chicken and beef, but shrimp is still his favorite.

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Previous Emirati recipe:  Lamb Biryani (La-ham biryani)

Up next:  Fried Savoury Triangles (Samboosa)

Note:  This post is part of my Cooking Local project.

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Related posts:

1. Emirati Recipe: Meat fried with spices (La-ham nashif)
2. Emirati Recipe: Fried Fish (Sa-mak ma-ga-lee)
3. Emirati Recipe: Mixed Local Spices – Bezar
4. Emirati Recipe: Chicken and Rice (Machboos / Fogga Dejaj)
5. Emirati Recipe: Rice with Chicken in the Bottom (De-jaj ta-ha-tah)

When I started my Emirati cooking project in June 2008, almost three and a half years ago, it was so that I could learn more about the culture of the host country in which I was living.

With a dearth of restaurants to choose from at the time (and I wasn’t even sure how authentic they were), I decided to teach myself Emirati cooking.

In the four years that I’ve lived in Dubai, I’ve made very few Emirati friends (but have been invited to one Emirati wedding) and only recently experienced Emirati home cooking.

Last month, during the week of Thanksgiving, Arwa of La Mere Culinaire invited us to her Emirati home and into her mom’s kitchen for a lesson in Emirati cooking.

Wee Scotch and I embarked on a little adventure as we drove 40 minutes to a part of Dubai that we had never been to. Arwa’s neighborhood is an older but well-to-do part of the city, with many beautiful dwellings that could be labeled as mansions for their sheer size but are colloquially referred to as villas in Dubai.

As my son and I walked into the cul de sac leading to Arwa’s family villa, the first thing that struck me was the sound of chirping from a large aviary. Wee Scotch would normally be over-excited to see so many of his favorite feathered friends in one place but as he was in the midst of a toddler tantrum, the birds seemed to upset him more than excite.

So we quickly entered the villa and  followed Arwa into a sitting room where many of my fellow Dubai Fooderati were already gathered.

Some were beautifully dressed in jalabiyas, which for females are long, flowy, embroidered and colorful garments, robe-like, and are worn at home when entertaining or to parties.

Arwa’s family have a lovely home, well appointed and with several sitting areas for entertaining. This wasn’t Come Dine With Me, so there was to be no rummaging through cupboards nor peeking into boudoirs.

We enjoyed Arabic coffee and tea in the sitting room before moving to the adjacent dining room for a traditional Emirati breakfast of:

Batheeth – beautifully textured cookies made from a flour base, naturally sweetened with dates and flavored with Arabic spices:

Chami – a dish made by simmering yogurt until most of the water has evaporated, leaving behind a crumbly cottage cheese-like texture. It is then drizzled with samen/ghee/or clarified butter:

Dangaw – lightly spiced and boiled chickpeas:

Mahalla – golden-colored crepes that I think were made with dates and flavored with cardamom. I don’t have any close-ups of these but you can see a glimpse of them in the very center of the photo below. They were light and scrumptious:

After breakfast, we went next door to the kitchen where Arwa’s mom warmly greeted us by the door and shook each of our hands.

In the kitchen, we quickly made ourselves comfortable and began snapping photos of everything in sight – the fridge contents, the cooking ingredients, the cooking pot, the tossing in of each and every spice…I think Arwa’s mom probably thought we were crazy-mad but you know how trigger happy us food bloggers are in order to document everything.

I was really excited to find out about the first dish that Arwa’s mom was preparing because it was something that I had actually made before as part of my cooking project and could now have something to compare it to!

She was making Machboos/Fogga Dejaj – or “Fogat Diyay“ as it is known in Gulf Arabic – which is a biryani-like dish that translates as “chicken on top.” The dish is flavored with the quintessential Emirati spice mixture known as bezar.

The exact ingredients and proportions of spices used to make bezar vary from family to family. This is the homemade bezar from Arwa’s family and they were generous to give us some to take home for our own culinary use:

Homemade Bezar from Arwa's family

In addition to the bezar, Arwa’s mom also used a unique spice blend that was predominantly cinnamon with notes of nutmeg and other spices as well:

As Arwa’s mom was demo-ing this dish, one of the things that struck me was that she cut the loomi (dried limes) in half to release more of the flavors (which I hadn’t done in any of my dishes that called for loomi as I thought you just tossed the things in whole):

Loomi (dried limes)

Throughout the morning, we bombarded Arwa and her mom with so many cooking questions, and they graciously answered all of our questions to the best of their abilities with Arwa translating for those of us who didn’t speak Arabic.

Wee Scotch helping Dima take down notes

With all the spices going into the cooking pot, the kitchen was just awesomely aromatic.

Here is a slideshow of Arwa’s mom preparing the Fogat Diyay (may not be viewable if you are reading this from an email client or mobile device):

And during the morning’s cooking session, Arwa’s dad and husband stopped by to briefly say hello to us and probably to make sure that all these strangers that she had invited into their home weren’t crazies off the street. Well, we are crazy, but in a different sense – you know, crazy about food.

The second dish that Arwa’s mom demonstrated for us was called Balaleet which is a breakfast dish made with vermicelli, scrambled eggs, red onion, saffron, and lots and lots of sugar and cardamom.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the dish at first as it was quite sweet for me but the flavor of cardamon kept drawing me back for taste after taste. In the end, I think I decided that I liked balaleet.

While we waited for the lunch dishes to be plated, we adjourned to the sitting room for more Arabic coffee and tea.

Since I don’t drink coffee, I opted for the mint tea.

I loved the beautifully adorned coffee and tea pots and the delicate cups! As Arwa served the tea, she informed us that the tea cups are used with saucers and the coffee cups stand alone.

And now, the finished and plated Fogat Diyay:

I loved the flavors of this dish when I amateurly attempted my own version and I loved it even more when it was prepared by a seasoned Emirati cook – aka Arwa’s mom. I didn’t just have seconds, I went back for thirds! The loomi, now softened, was a big hit with many of us – it tasted very much like Chinese preserved kumquats – and gave a nice citrusy element to the dish.

To accompany the Fogat Diyay, there were pickled shallots, mangoes, and limes. We were served fresh juices with the meal and I had a lovely blood orange and cardamom combination that I must try to make at home.

Now if you are thinking that the photo above is a picture of a glass of water…you are right.

But no, I have not gone so trigger happy with my camera as to take a picture of plain water. This isn’t ordinary water, you see. It’s water that has been perfumed with frankincense. The incense gave the water quite a strong aroma and flavor and I would imagine that is is something that should be sipped, not gulped as I found it quite overpowering for a first-timer.

Arwa explained to us how the water is infused with the scent of the frankincense. I think she mentioned something about taking a water jug and putting it upside down over the burning incense. Except, now that I think of it, how does the water not come spilling out if it’s upside down?

Frankincense water and Frankincense in a box

After lunch, we adjourned back to the sitting room where, if we chose to, perfumed ourselves with incense…

…and fragrances that were mixed and blended by Arwa’s aunt:

Some of the ladies lifted up their abayas so that the incense could waft up through the fabric. Wee Scotch saw this and kept lifting up his t-shirt indicating that he do wanted to do the same. Arwa obliged and even placed some perfume on his wrists when he stuck his arms out, mimicking us.

In true Emirati hospitality, Arwa and family made sure that we left laden with generous parting gifts. In addition to the bezar, we were also gifted dates from their farm (vacuum-packed and flavored with what looked like fennel and sesame seeds), laban (Arabic buttermilk) flavored for drinking, and a gift bag with UAE trinkets and UAE flags.

Wee Scotch waving two Emirati flags

It was certainly very generous of Arwa and family for not only inviting us over to learn about Emirati food and culture but to also send us off with such wonderful gifts – much of which originated from their family farms.

Many thanks to Arwa and her mom for their graciousness and for teaching us about Emirati cuisine, spices, culture, and showing us true Emirati hospitality.

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Fellow Fooderati in Arabia members who were also present and their account of the event:

• Dima @ Dima’s Kitchen
• Marta @ Marta’s Kitchen
• Nadia @ Nadia Masood
• Sally @ My Custard Pie
• Sara @ The Hedonista

Related posts:

1. Cooking Local
2. Emirati Recipe: Chicken and Rice (Machboos / Fogga Dejaj)
3. Emirati Recipe: Meat fried with spices (La-ham nashif)
4. Emirati Recipe: Rice with Chicken in the Bottom (De-jaj ta-ha-tah)
5. Emirati Recipe: Fried Fish (Sa-mak ma-ga-lee)

“Where are the Emirati restaurants in Dubai?”

When I first moved here, almost four years ago, I used to ask this question a lot.

I soon stopped asking because I would get the same responses over and over. Either, “I don’t know,” or “Emirati food is in Emirati homes,” or “Local House in Bastakia.”

There are scores of Lebanese, Turkish, Moroccan, a few Iranian plus other Arab nations but local Emirati restaurants? My almost two-year old toddler can count how many there are in Dubai. He can currently count to two, sometimes three, by the way.

Back in my working days, an Emirati colleague of mine told me about a now defunct Emirati restaurant by Safa Park and also recommended Local House. He made me write down three dishes that he said I must order when I get there: chobab bread, rigga pancake (?), and veal harees. At that time, the now famous camel burger hadn’t appeared on the Local House menu yet.

Part of the reason why I started my Emirati cooking project was because there was a lack of Emirati cuisine to sample. I still haven’t made it to Local House and since starting this project I often wonder if I should visit there but have been held back by many a friends’ negative review of the place. I think I will give it a try the next time I have a visitor in town to accompany me.

Some good news I’ve heard recently is that two new Emirati restaurants have opened up this year and I can’t wait to try them: Emirati N More (in the Cassells Al Barsha Hotel) and Al Fanar Restaurant & Cafe (in Festival City’s canal walk). If you’ve been to either, please let me know if it’s any good.

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It’s been a few months since I last posted an Emirati recipe attempt and it’s time to get back on track.

The last Emirati dish I posted was an Emirati Chicken Biryani and as it was the first time I had every made biryani, I wondered how and if the preparation and cooking process differed from Indian biryanis. In response, Mishti from Stovetop Dancing replied with this informative comment:

“Yup, this comes pretty close to the Indian Biryani. Although Indian biryani is almost never cooked with boneless biryani (except the contemporary invention of chicken tikka biryani). Apparently when chicken is cooked while on the bone, it is juicier; and since biryani is mostly dry, this helps counter that in a mild way.

You were right in taking out the whole spices, we always do this.

There are two ways of making it the Indian way. The “kachchi” biryani where chicken and rice are cooked together and “pakki” biryani (like the Emirati one) where the rice is almost cooked, chicken is also done and then they are layered and put on “dum” meaning pressure. The latter is much more common. For this, we seal the utensil in which the biryani is cooking with a flour dough. The vapour causes the dough to become like a chappati and it smells great In India, biryani is always served with raita, a yogurt based salad.

I think I was once told that Biryani originated in Persia and travelled to India with the Mughal empire. Also an interesting snippet was that Mumtaz Mahal (wife of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in her honor) served biryani to the Mughal army since it was “complete nutrition” and the eggs were thrown in as extra protein for the soldiers. Who knows?  ”

Thanks Mishti for “geeking it out on food”!

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So my last Emirati biryani (chicken), which started off pretty disastrous and I thought it was going to be a complete failure, ended up being a huge success.

Whereas today’s Emirati biryani (lamb), started out very well, with great flavors, and properly cooked rice – so I had high hopes that it would top the last biryani attempt – but it ended up being a huge disappointment.

If you would like to try your hand at Emirati lamb biryani, please visit this link for the recipe and I hope that your attempt will be better than mine. Please come back and comment to let me know how you get on.

About this recipe, Celia writes:

A very popular daily meal, usually made in large portions for special occasions such as Eids, weddings and engagement parties. Serve with salad, limes, yoghurt and fresh herbs.

Right. It seems that I am forever changing the serving size of these recipes so let me begin to tell you about some of the changes that I made.

My eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw that the original lamb biryani recipe called for 6 cups of basmati rice. I was only making this for a small lunch party, not the large celebrations that the recipe was probably intended for.

For the previous biryani, I used 2 cups of rice and that served 10 people. Which would mean that 6 cups would serve 30!

I don’t have enough guinea pigs friends in Dubai to serve 6 cups of rice. Plus I didn’t want leftovers for a whole month. So I thirded (is that even a word?) the recipe and used 2 cups of basmati rice which I rinsed a few times and then soaked for a couple hours. Is the soaking supposed to make the rice fluffier, I wonder?

I used 1 lb (450 g) of boneless leg of lamb that I cubed and boiled until tender (45 minutes). Instead of whole blanched almonds, I used slivered almonds because I was too lazy to blanch and peel the whole ones.

Sauteing the onions

I bought yellow split peas for the first time. The bag from the grocery store (Carrefour) was labeled “Moong Dal” – they were the only peas in the peas/dal aisle that was yellow and split so I hope they were the right ones.

Celia’s instructions said to “boil and drain the yellow peas.” Since I have never prepared yellow split peas before, I wondered if I was supposed to (1) rinse them first? (2) throw them in the pot when the water is boiling? (3) throw them in the pot when the water was cold and bring to boil? (4) boil them for 5 seconds? 1 minute? 10 minutes?

Conundrum.

About to mix in the sultanas, almonds, peas, and tomatoes

A quick Google search resulted in me rinsing the split peas, putting them in water (enough to cover the peas), bringing the water to a boil and simmering the peas for 20 minutes.

No idea if that’s what I was supposed to do or not but that’s what I did.

Cooking the onion-split pea-tomato mixture

“Boil cloves, peppercorns, cardamom and cinnamon in the water and add salt to taste. Once it has started to boil, add the rice.” For my chicken biryani, I had wondered if my rice would have been more fragrant if I had boiled the spices in the water first before throwing the rice in. But here Celia tells me to do exactly that.

I only boiled the rice for 5 minutes this time, instead of 10, and thankfully it did not come out overly cooked, sticky, and falling apart like the last time. Again, Celia does not mention if I’m supposed to remove the spices after draining the rice.

This time I decided to leave them in. Except for the cloves because I had discovered them on my kitchen counter while I was draining the rice so I never threw those into the pot in the first place. Sigh.

Well, better late than never. So in went the cloves with the already drained rice.

Drained rice and the forgotten cloves

I fried the meat in oil for a few minutes and tasted a few pieces – they were very good! It made me think that my biryani was going to come out special.

Frying the lamb

When adding the oil to the pot for the layering, the recipe didn’t mention whether I should heat the pot up first so my oil wasn’t fluid and just sat in one small area.

Maybe I was supposed to add more oil until it did cover the pot? I decided to not do that and heated the pot so that the oil softened enough to coat the bottom.

Layering the Biryani

I layered as instructed.

But I wasn’t sure which layer I was supposed to end on – rice? meat? tomato-onion mixture? I decided to use the rice as the top layer.

Saffron was soaked in rosewater diluted with tap water. I was supposed to “drizzle the remaining oil on top, then the saffron.” Here, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to drain the saffron and discard the rosewater – OR – if I was to drizzle both the saffron and rosewater on top of the biryani. Hmmph.

I decided to go halfway and poured half of the diluted rosewater onto the biryani plus all the saffron. Except the saffron just clumped in one small pocket of rice. I was hoping that it would dissolve as it cooked (it didn’t).

Soaking the saffron in rosewater and water

“Cover with a cloth and tightly-fitting lid.” I didn’t have a clean cloth that wasn’t reeking with fabric softener so I used a few layers of dampened kitchen roll. I don’t know why I dampened it because I now notice that the instructions didn’t say “wet cloth” just “cloth.” Arg.

After simmering for 20 minutes, I removed the biryani from heat and let it rest for a bit.

Finally it was biryani sampling time. I had high hopes. False hopes now. The rice wasn’t too bad but the lamb, once moist, tender and tasty, came out dry, a little tough, and somewhat flavorless.

I did not enjoy the texture of the split peas and I couldn’t really taste the almonds. Maybe that’s why I was supposed to use whole, blanched almonds.

However, the next day, the almonds firmed up and added a nice crunch to the dish.

I notice that Celia’s picture from this recipe has sliced egg in it. But it wasn’t called for in the recipe nor the notes so my lamb biryani has no egg.

Maybe this post should be re-titled: “Trials and Tribulations of a Clueless Girl in Dubai Attempting to Cook Emirati Lamb Biryani” Nah, too long

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I made this biryani back in June and Wee Scotch had not only started to throw toddler tantrums but was starting to get quite picky with his food so he refused to eat this lamb biryani no matter how hard I tried to bribe him with sweets and candy (not that I do that often!).

Not to worry! Wee Scotch’s girlfriend was quick to step in to pose for the photos and save the day.

Scotch said that the lamb biryani was “good” but I think he might have just been humoring me knowing all the effort that I put into making it.

We had TONS of leftovers and I ended up throwing out all the lamb (too dry) and using the rest of the biryani as a side dish for a chicken curry.

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Previous Emirati recipe: Emirati Recipe: Chicken Biryani (Biryani de-jaj)

Up next: Shrimp Fried with Spices (Ro-be-yann nashif)

Note: This post is part of my Cooking Local project.

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Related posts:

1. Emirati Recipe: Chicken Biryani (Biryani de-jaj)
2. Emirati Recipe: Fried Fish (Sa-mak ma-ga-lee)
3. Emirati Recipe: Meat Stew (La-Ham Murraq / Saloona)
4. Emirati Recipe: Chicken and Rice (Machboos / Fogga Dejaj)
5. Emirati Recipe: Shrimp Fried with Spices (Ro-be-yann nashif)

I can’t help but think of biryani as the Indian equivalent of Chinese fried rice. Both dishes are made of, well, rice, and both are ingrained into their respective cultures.

Not surprisingly, biryani is quite a popular dish in Dubai and besides the obvious joints, can also be found in many buffet stations of hotels and restaurants. Unfortunately, this also means that it’s mass produced and often comes out dry at the end so I’ve never been a big fan.

Which is why I was looking forward to making my first ever biryani for this week’s Emirati cooking project because home-made (should) always tastes better. I’ve never made an Indian version either and have no idea if the preparation and cooking process is the same. Someone enlighten me, please?

If you would like to attempt Emirati chicken biryani as well, please visit this link for the recipe.

About this dish, Celia writes:

Although a dish of Indian origin, biryani is also considered a traditional UAE meal. It was originally brought to the country in the early part of this century by Indian traders and has since become popular in every household. It is a particular favourite for parties, weddings, eids, condolence meetings after a death and on special prayer days when many people visit.

While spices vary according to the individual, it is always served with sliced onion, radishes, watercress, green lemon herb, sliced limes and fresh or stored dates, and eaten in the Gulf home with the right hand.

The original recipe called for 4 cups of basmati rice and normally 1 cup of rice at my house can last for days so I halved the recipe and prepared it with 2 cups of basmati rice.

I served this dish at a luncheon for 5 and still had leftovers for Scotch and I for a further 2 nights. That would mean that 2 cups of rice made about 10 servings! After all that biryani, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see another rice dish for a very long time.

chicken in marinade

What makes this chicken biryani Emirati in nature is of course the use of bezar. I started off by preparing the marinade ingredients (bezar, onions, ginger, garlic, fresh coriander, green chilies, yogurt, salt) in a mini food processor and then added the chicken.

I left the chicken in the marinade overnight. Because I was serving this dish for a luncheon, I decided to debone the chicken and cut it into small pieces. That wasn’t the best decision when it came time for frying the chicken but initially it seemed like a good idea.

I loved the smell of the marinade mix – coriander is just so…refreshing. (Note to self: Must think of new synonym for coriander other than refreshing.)

Left: onions being browned. Right: mixing the nuts in with the onions

Next I fried the onions in ghee. Then added the spices which turned the onions a pretty yellow. When the onions had wilted and were slightly browned at the edges, I threw in the nuts and cooked them for about 5 minutes. This onion and nut mixture was then set aside to be later used as garnish for the biryani.

Meanwhile, I also boiled and peeled 3 hard boiled eggs. At least that’s something I know how to do well – whew!

I was supposed to only simmer the rice until it was “nearly cooked” but not knowing exactly how long that was in terms of minutes, I ended up overcooking the rice. By the time I removed it from the stovetop and drained it, it was already soft and clumpy and the grains were breaking apart. This didn’t bode well.

Since I always cook rice for 20 minutes whether it’s basmati, jasmine or Uncle Ben’s, I figured “nearly cooked” would be 10 minutes. But later, when reading the instructions on the packaging (I used India Gate basmati rice), it said to boil for 10 minutes. WHOOPS.

So 10 minutes wasn’t nearly cooked at all but fully cooked. No wonder the rice came out the way it did.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the spices (cinnamon bark, curry leaves, peppercorns and cloves) that were in the rice after I had drained it. The instructions didn’t say leave them in nor take them out. I ended up taking the spices out before layering the rice with the meat and the onions. In hindsight, it probably should have stayed in to give the dish more flavor, huh?

futile attempt at browning the chicken

Now remember that I had deboned and cubed the chicken? Well, trying to “seal them on both sides” was nearly impossible as all the marinade liquid also went into the hot oil and it essentially became a chicken steam bath. Ah well.

So with clumpy, dry-ish, and breaking apart basmati rice plus the steamed chicken pieces, I began to layer the biryani as directed: rice then chicken then rice then chicken and finally more rice. I’m not sure if I was supposed to end with rice as the top layer but that’s what I did.

Layering the biryani

I didn’t have a respectably clean cloth to cover the pot with, as instructed, so I dampened some paper towels and used those instead.

After simmering for 25 minutes, I removed the pot from the heat and allowed it to rest while my friends arrived and I prepared the salad inspired by Anja’s Mango Arugula Salad with Feta and Orange Ginger Dressing. I would like to say that thanks to Anja, I gave Feta cheese a try and found that I actually enjoyed it. Although I did use Saudi Feta which is more acidic and not as overpowering in flavor as the Greek kind.

Finally, once everyone was seated at the dining table, it was time to serve the Emirati biryani. I kept my fingers crossed and hoped that it would taste halfway decent and you know what? It did!

Hip Hip!

Hurray!

Emirati Chicken Biryani

The chicken was tender and moist – I didn’t taste any spiciness from the chillis though. And I loved the garnish of the fried onions with the nuts which brought the biryani to a whole new level. The bezar really lent a nice spice-taste to them.

I must confess a few more goofs. When I first served the dish, I forgot about the onions and didn’t remember to bring them to the table until we were all having our second serving of biryani (yay for seconds!).

And I totally forgot about the sliced, boiled eggs until everyone had left and I found then neglected by the stove. Not so sure about the point of the eggs though. Extra protein?

So I was very happy and relieved that this recipe came out successful even though I had a rocky start.

Wee Scotch was more interested in stacking eggs than eating biryani. I had laid newspaper under his chair in case he knocked the biryani over.

And you know what? He did knock that bowl over. But he managed to miss every single sheet of newspaper and so rice and chicken ended up all over the the tile and carpet.

Little tyke.

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Previous Emirati recipe: Fried Fish (Sa-mak ma-ga-lee)

Up next: Lamb biryani (La-ham biryani)

Note: This post is part of my Cooking Local project.

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Related posts:

1. Emirati Recipe: Lamb Biryani (La-ham biryani)
2. Emirati Recipe: Rice with Chicken in the Bottom (De-jaj ta-ha-tah)
3. Emirati Recipe: Chicken and Rice (Machboos / Fogga Dejaj)
4. Emirati Recipe: Meat Stew (La-Ham Murraq / Saloona)
5. Emirati Recipe: Fried Fish (Sa-mak ma-ga-lee)

As part of my Cooking Local project to learn more about Emirati food and culture, I am attempting to cook through Celia Ann Brock-Al Ansari’s The Complete UAE Cookbook.

I have completed 8 recipes so far out of…oh…73. Crikey, at the rate I’m going, I might be old and withered before I’m finished.

Out of the 12 fish/seafood recipes, I have now completed 4. Only 8 more to go but some of them seem quite daunting. For example, Shark with Spices (Yar-yurr / Je-shed) – I have to buy a whole baby shark, then I have to cut it up into cubes.

There’s usually baby shark for sale at LuLu’s hypermarket and I watched a lady buy one just yesterday but the thought of doing it myself? Just plain scary. Some people can’t touch raw chicken because the thought of it makes them squeamish, others can’t eat lamb or veal because the thought of eating a youngling makes them sick – I feel the same way about baby shark at the moment, both squeamish and sick to the stomach at the thought of eating a cute little shark.

So not only will I have to hurdle the task of touching the shark (perhaps the fishmonger can do all the prep work?), but I’m not sure I can even eat it. I mentioned this shark recipe to Scotch the other day and I think he turned pale in the face. I’m going to have to give myself a pep talk.

Suck it up!

You’re Chinese!

You can eat anything!

Right. I think I can…I think i can…

Anyway, I might be putting the shark recipe off for as long as I can. Unless I can get any volunteers to help me (Ahem, ahem. Hint, hint).

Today’s Emirati recipe doesn’t involve anything crazy, just a simple fried fish which was super easy to make. I bought sea bream from Waitrose and the fish guy did a superb job in cleaning it (thank you fish guy!) – oftentimes when I bring my fish home from Carrefour, I find myself still pulling scales out of the fish. Here is Wee Scotch inspecting the fish for me and reporting back that not a scale was to be found:

"fishie cleared of scales, mama!"

About this dish, Celia writes:

Fried fish is served daily in many homes throughout the UAE. While some prefer to eat it dry with white boiled steamed rice, others may make a tomato gravy to serve as an accompaniment. Personally, I like both.

Sliced limes are a must for presenting this dish – the juice brings out the full flavour of the fish. Fresh herbs are also served, as are radishes and often saloona is served as a side dish.

My sea bream weighed 0.55 kg (1.2 lb), cost per kg was 51 dhs ($13/lb), so close to half of what the original recipe called for so I halved the rest of the ingredients and used the following proportions:

Ingredients:

1.2 lbs (550 grams) sea bream
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon bezar, to coat
salt to taste

Since the fish guy took care of the gutting and descaling, all I did to the sea bream was rinse, pat dry and with paper towels, make three slits on both sides of the fish so that the inside would cook evenly, and then I sprinkled on sea salt and bezar.

Sea bream coated with salt and bezar in a lemon-garlic marinade

The fish was placed in a marinade of lemon and garlic and turned every once in a while. After marinating for the 2 hours, I removed the fish from the lemon-garlic and patted it dry.

"grr...my mama's gonna eat ju up!"

I heated a large pan with enough sunflower oil to cover 1 cm of the bottom and fried the fish until it looked done, then placed the fish on a plate with paper towels to absorb some of the oil.

I served it with white boiled rice but unfortunately forgot to buy limes that day. Oh well, it still tasted wonderful – the skin was crispy, the flesh was very tender and I could taste the Arabic spices and lemon throughout. A bit oily but with the rice to soak up the oil, it was perfect.

I enjoyed this dish so much that I ate it all for lunch and forgot to save some for Wee Scotch!

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Previous Emirati recipe: Chicken and Rice (Machboos / Fogga)

Up next: Chicken Biryani (Biryani de-jaj)

Note: This post is part of my Cooking Local project.

*   *   *   *   *

Related posts:

1. Emirati Recipe: Baked Fish (Sa-mak bil fern)
2. Emirati Recipe: Fish Cakes (Sa-mak Koufta)
3. Emirati Recipe: Meat fried with spices (La-ham nashif)
4. Emirati Recipe: Shrimp Fried with Spices (Ro-be-yann nashif)
5. Easy-Peasy Recipe: Fish in a Bag!