Salmon Biryani

Chilly gloomy day again, not as cold as yesterday though but dull anyway. Mom came over early with plans to make biryani, thats pretty much the only reason I decided to get out of bed. Indian food is really exciting, and though I really don't have any indian/pakistani or south east asian roots (other than the fact I was born in Pakistan) my family make some good biryani, if I do say so myself.

The really great part of all this is that now we use the prepared spice mix which cuts time and allows us to enjoy perfect biryani everytime anytime, hooray!
Helping mom out in the kitchen we first began to mix all these ingredients into a large bowl:

- 8 thawed and chopped salmon steaks (cut into 2X2 inch squares with scissors)
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- 6 cloves minced or grated garlic
- 2 tsp dried mint
- 1 heaping tbsp minced ginger
- 1 box Shan Chicken Biryani spice mix
- 1/2 cup packaged fried onions (or freshly prepared by frying 5 onions chopped thinly and turned in oil until golden)
- 1/3 cup plain tomato sauce
- 1 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 3 tbsp oil

Mom Mixed the above gently with large spoon "so salmon pieces stay whole and do not break apart or mush together" she said. Then we covered with plastic cling wrap and set aside to marinade for 2 hours.

One hour through the marinated process she washed and soaked 4 cups of rice (scela or golden basmati) in a large bowl with cool water (rice amount indicated on spice mix package)
Cloves, pakistanti cardemum, cinnamon sticks.

After two hours are up she goes on to boil a large pot of water with some pakistani cardimum, cloves and a few cinnamon sticks along with the salt once the water reaches a boil. Straining the rice she adds it to the boiling water in the large pot.

1 19 oz can of lentils drained(or prepared homemade boiled black lentils)

1/2 cup thawed frozen peas (optional)

1/2 cup oil heated in small pot on the stove

1 cup hot milk (heated in microwave)

Meanwhile she spread salmon and spice mixture (masala) into a large lasagne pan (steel or glass) - strained lentils go nicely spread on top then the thawed peas.

Once the rice is boiled in the water for 15-20 minutes she scoops it out of the water with a slotted spoon and lays it on top of the mixture in the casserole dish, once it's all spread she lays the saffron on top and uses either food colouring or cumin and turmeric powder to create little coloured areas in the rice by dabbing the powder then spreading it with the back of a spoon in certain areas. Finally the hot oil is spooned evenly over the top and then the milk as well. It's covered with oven safe clingwrap then foil on top and set inside a preheated 350 F oven for around 40 minutes.
** Optional: sometimes we add a few whole hard boiled eggs between the rice and masala just before baking.

Meanwhile mom makes a yogurty sauce to go with it by thinning out the yogurt with a bit of water then adding a tablespoon of mint chutney from a jar.

I await impatiently for it to come out of the oven though it must cool down entirely or else as mom says "the flavours don't settle" so more waiting ... ... ..

FINALLY it's out and mom stires it a bit poking at the rice here and there while yelling "ready eat?" to my sisters in their room.

Now I'll be spending the rest of the day guzzling down tons of cold water!

Lanterns

Yesterday late in the evening it snowed a lot, it was actually the first heavy snow fall of the season. I followed my sisters outside on the balcony and watching the snow flakes falling from the dark sky just for a few moments, even the cat enjoyed it! Pretty cool!

This morning the whole golf course is covered in white, beautiful but cold, and ...ohh, how much I hate the cold, I'm dreading having to go out in a little while.

Not a day goes by without my longing to return to the middle east so I thought this would be appropriate for such a day, lovely photos of some middle eastern styled lanterns that just may let off enough warmth to warm some hearts all the way across the atlantic.

Incense

Forget Glad plug-ins, natural incense is so much better and can freshen a home up instantly. In the middle east incense is very popular, as a child I remember my mom using it on special occassions like the holidays, it was always the indian bakhur sticks that we were used to, they smelled good and I liked watching the fumes burn off making beautiful smokey designs in the air.

Later on after visited new regions and made new friends I've discovered how important this tradition is. It began on my first visit to Dubai, while shopping I took notice of all the special incent stores full of all types of bakhur, oud, oils, mabkharas and so much more. I sought out to learn about the basics from my khaleeji friend, she was kind enough to give me the basics after sending me a lovely box in the mail containing a few different kinds as well as the most beautiful mabkhara (incent burner) I've ever seen.

From my own family backround I never really noticed Bakhur being of such important significance, which led me to wonder if this was only a big deal in parts of the khaleej, egypt, syria and morocco where I've seen them use it on TV in soap operas, movies and music videos.

After my short visit in Dubai I moved to Yemen and there I had met more friends, it appeared to me that the women of the gulf are just "obsessed" with sweet scented stuff, every home I visited was freshened up with bakhur, even while I was there as a guest they brought a large steel bowl full of hot coals and it smoked up the whole living room that we could hardly see each other through the greyish fumes.
They explained to me that in Yemen it is a must for guests to send notice before 'dropping in' so that the house can be prepared.

Well after that I went home to my own apartment and pretty much adopted their tradition, I practiced lighting the little disks of coals watching not to burn my fingers, once it sparked and a firey red glow began to spread through it I dropped it into the little iron bown inside the incent burner. The bakhur I used was an indonesian or malaysian woody incent, I flaked the pieces of wood as my friend instructed me and once I laid the little pieces on top of the burning cole it began to smoke and fumes spread throughout the house.

Another time I was visiting friends I noticed something unsual, this time when they brought the huge iron bowl they asked if anyone wanted to perfume their clothes, I politely declined as I was not familiar with this so instead I sat and watched the other women who volunteered. They began waving their hands towards them drawing the burning bakhur all over their clothes and bodies, then they even undid their hair and waved it around in the huge clouds burning in the middle of the sitting room.
It was really interesting to watch, and since then I pretty much burned bakhur in my home every three days or twice a week and if I recieved word of guests coming over then I immediately lit the coles and began the ritual which is really enjoyable and relaxing!

My room