Kabuli Pulao

One of my all time favorite Afghan recipe is Kabuli Pulao.

Making a Pulao is so fun. It is like making a baby. There are steps involved. You have to make it in different places and then everything comes along.

This recipe is quite lengthy and has different stages but it is easy to make and the only hard work involved is cutting the DAMN CARROTS.

INGREDIENTS FOR MEAT:

1 kilogram lamb

1 large onion or 2 medium onions

6 garlic cloves

1 glass of water

INGREDIENTS FOR RICE:

10 cups water

4 cups rice

2 tablespoons salt

INGREDIENTS FOR RICE GRAVY:

4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoons Salt

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon garam masala powder

meat broth (from the cooked lamb)

INGREDIENTS FOR GARNISHING:

4 carrots

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup water

6 tablespoons oil

1 cup raisins

First of all we will boil the rice.

Cook it until is 3/4th done. Because we have to cover and cook it again.

If you cook it completely right now it will get softer and soggy afterwards.

The rice is done. Time to cook the lamb.

In a pressure cooker add the lamb meat, one onion (without cutting it) and garlic cloves.

Add one to two glass of water. Cook it on whistle for 15 minutes.

Separate the cooked lamb in a bowl.

With your wooden spatula mash and SMASH the cooked onion and garlic until they dissolve with the broth to some extent.

Take the meat broth out in a separate bowl.

Now it is time to caramelize the carrots and prepare the garnishing.

In a non  stick deep pan we will put carrots on low heat. Add 1 tablespoon sugar to it and 1/4 cup of water.

Cover it with a lid.

On a second burner we will add 6 tablespoons vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook the raisins on medium low flame until they become small fluffly balls. LOL.

Then we add the raisins to the carrots and mix them gently.

Place the carrots and raisins in an aluminum foil and wrap it properly just like in the pictures below.

Time to prepare the rice gravy. This will give the rice flavor and color as well.

Melt 4 tablespoons of sugar in a non stick pan on medium low heat and add 1/2 cup of oil.

Add the meat broth which was extracted from the pressure cooker to this mixture.

Add 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon cumin powder and 1 tablespoon of salt in this mixture.

Let everything combine and keep your utensil in movement during all this process or the sugar won't mix properly.

Time to move to the final stage of this recipe.

Put the cooked rice in a pan and drizzle all the gravy on them.

Mix the rice properly and place the carrot/raisin aluminum parcel on it.

Wrap the lid of this pan with kitchen cloth and cover the pan.

Cook for 5 minutes on high heat and 10 minutes more on low heat.

That is it. Kabuli pulao is ready to serve.

The traditional way to serve Kabuli Pulao is to put a layer of rice on the tray, put a layer of cooked lamb on the layer of rice and cover the layer of lamb with another layer of rice. On top of this savory mountain add the carrots and raisins for garnishing and flavor boost.

Masala Gurday Kaporey

There is chicken and then there is mutton but mutton has a lot of other things that people cook and eat with joy.

Some of those parts disgust many unfortunate people but those same parts are enjoyed by a huge number of public.

These different parts are paaye, brain which is also known as maghaz, siri which is the head part, kidneys aka gurdey and kaporays. PLEASE DON'T ASK ME WHAT KAPORAYS ARE I AM NOT GOING TO TELL YOU THAT SEARCH ON THE INTERNET.

So I wanted to make Masala Gurdey Kaporay for a while and I saw this simple recipe from youtube but that recipe did not have tomatoes in it so I added the tomatoes and a couple of spices and made my very own version inspired by it.

Ingredients:

500 grams gurday

500 grams kaporay

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

4 green chilies sliced

salt as per taste

1 teaspoon red chili pepper powder

1 teaspoon black pepper powder

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

3 medium tomatoes diced

2 onions thinly sliced

2 tablespoons of chopped coriander

2 tablespoons chopped mint

First of all we heat up 4 tablespoons of oil in a non stick pan and fry the onions in them till translucent.

Now we add ginger garlic paste and a cup of water to the pan. Let it cook until the water is dried.

When the water dries add the chopped tomatoes.

Mix them well and add all the spices over here.

Cook until the water of the tomatoes is dried half way.

Turn the heat to high over here.

Add the gurday and kaporay here. Stir throughly until they are covered with the masala.

Turn the heat to medium low. Cover the dish and let it cook for 15 minutes.

Uncover the pan and add the chopped green chilies.

Finely chop the coriander and mint. Add it in the pan.

As the oil separates from the masala, you should turn off the stove and stop cooking.

Masala Gurdey Kaporay is ready to be served.

Eat it with naans or rotis, have some mint raita with it and you're good to go. Ladies and gentlemen, a desi fovarite Masala Gurday Kaporay.