Biryani, Keema Naan – Recipes
Team Building – Recipes
We hope you enjoyed your team building event at Food Sorcery cookery school, if you have any questions for chef just ask lovetocook@fodsorcery.co.uk
Chicken Biryani
Ingredients – Serves 2:
You will need an ovenproof saucepan and tin foil or a lid (or both)
- – 150g Basmati Rice
- – 1 ½ tsp salt
- – Juice of half a lime
- – 200g boneless chicken thighs (It’s about 3 thighs)
- If you fancy a veggie dish, substitute with cauliflower and chickpeas
- – Tablespoon of garlic & ginger paste
- – ½ tsp chilli powder (optional)
- – 1 tsp salt
- – 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
- – 1 tsp garam masala
- – 2 tbsp lime juice
- – Small pot of natural or plain Greek yoghurt
- – 20ml vegetable oil
- – 2 mild chillies, whole
- – 2cm piece fresh root ginger
- – Handful crispy ready-fried onions (shop bought crispy shallots are gluten free)
- – 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
- – 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
For the topping:
- – 15g butter
- – 2 tbsp double cream
- – 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- – handful of dried cranberries, or raisins or both
Method:
- Turn on oven to 180°C
- Ideally, marinate the chicken for a couple of hours, but you can cook it straight off.
- Peel and cut the root ginger and the chillis into thin matchsticks and then combine with the rest of the marinade ingredients in the oven-proof saucepan.
- Rough chop the chicken thighs and mix all the ingredients together in the pan.
- Part cook the rice – so drain the rice and add to boiling water for 4 minutes. Take off the heat and drain and squeeze half a lime over the top.
- While the rice is getting ready, start to heat the pan with the marinating chicken/ yoghurt mixture and in a small pan gently heat the butter and cream, stirring in the turmeric powder.
- The yoghurt/ chicken mix will be gently bubbling, take off the heat and cover this with the rice, making sure it’s an even layer. Pour over the cream/ butter/turmeric mix and then the raisins/ cranberries and if you like some extra crispy onions.
- You need to seal with foil as best you can – use at least 2 layers and if you have a lid that fits, pop this on too.
- Pop into the oven for about 40 minutes. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes then mix and serve immediately, ensuring each portion has a mix of the rice and chicken.
Veggie Keema Naan
For the filling: Ingredients – Makes lots! So enjoy as a dhal and use left overs for your breads
- 300g red lentils
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 2 onions, finely sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
- thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
- 5 curry leaves (optional)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 dried red chilli, left whole
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 400g can coconut milk
- coriander leaves, sliced ginger and sliced green chilli, to serve
Method:
- Rinse the lentils until the water runs clear, then drain. Heat the oil in a large, shallow pan and cook the onions over a low heat for 10 mins until starting to brown. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for another 30 seconds. Scatter in the curry leaves, if using, and all the spices and cook for a few minutes more, then stir in the tomato purée and cook for a minute longer.
- Stir in the lentils, ensuring they’re well coated in the spices, then pour over the coconut milk and 850ml water. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, then simmer for about 30 mins until the lentils are soft and soupy. Scoop out the whole chilli and discard, then season generously with salt. The dhal can now be left to cool, then frozen in portions, or as one batch in a large plastic container. Defrost completely before reheating in a pan over a low heat, adding more water to loosen if needed.
- Serve with a sprinkling of the coriander, sliced ginger and chilli, and drizzle with a bit more oil.
Allow to cool before filling the naan
For the Bread:
Ingredients – makes 2 large or 4 small breads
- Naan or plain flour – 300g.
- Salt – 2g
- Sugar – 20g
- Vegetable oil – 40ml
- Warm water – 60ml
- Milk – 60ml
- Yeast – 3g
Method:
- Pour all ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly with a spoon and then your hands for 3-4 minutes to form a large dough ball.
- Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest and rise for 10 minutes
- Divide mixture into 2 or 4 balls and use a rolling pin or your hands to flatten to 4-6mm thickness, it needs to be about as big as your hand. Remember to flour your rolling pin, hands, and surfaces.
- Spoon in your Keema Filling. You don’t want it too wet. Spoon about 2 tablespoons into the centre of the dough circle.
- Using your fingers, begin to pinch in the sides of the dough towards the centre whilst at the same time pinching all the sides together at the centre, so you end up with the dough all the way around the lentil mix, pinch it together so it is sealed.
- Using a mix of your rolling pin and weight from your hands, roll out the Naan until your desired size. Try to avoid having the keema rip through the dough. If small holes appear, you can cover them by using some additional dough.
- When it’s at your desired size, sprinkle over some nigella or onion seeds and sesame seeds. Use a rolling pin to simply apply pressure to get the seeds to stick to the dough
- (optional) Use the end of your rolling pin/a wooden spoon to pierce the Naan with holes all around the Naan
- For the pan method: Transfer the Naan to pan heated on medium. Cook the Naan and flip it on the other side. Keep doing this until the Naan has browned sufficiently
- Brush with warm butter immediately after taking off the heat
Food Sorcery Chocolate Fondant
Who can resist the scrumptious taste of chocolate, chef showed us how to make the perfect melt in the middle pudding.
Ingredients – Makes 4:
- 100g butter, plus extra for greasing
- 100g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped or broken into small chunks
- 100g plain flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 25g cocoa powder
- 25g melted butter
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 medium egg yolks
- Serve with Vanilla ice cream, crème fraiche, mint & berries
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 190˚C/170˚C fan/Gas 5
- Grease 4 ramekins with butter.
- Dust inside of ramekins with cocoa powder
- Put the butter and chocolate into a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water underneath) and leave until melted, stirring occasionally
- Remove from the heat, sift over the flour and then whisk it in
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until combined, then whisk this into the chocolate mixture, until smooth and well combined
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the ramekins.
- Leave to set in fridge for minimum 20minutes but can be overnight
- Bake for 12 minutes – the fondants are ready when you shake each one gently and only the middle moves a little
- Remove from the oven, and gently loosen the edge.
- Carefully invert each fondant onto a plate. Serve with crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream, mint and berries.
We hope you enjoyed the class!
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