Malaysian Style Nasi Biryani or Spiced Rice with Chicken

If you are ever in Amsterdam, or rather near Amsterdam/ Schipol and in need of some tasty food then Restaurant Anak Blitar BV in Hoofddorp is your place. On a recent trip to visit my brother in Amsterdam we went looking for a supermarket/ a cafe/ anything open for Sunday lunch before we flew home and we weren't getting on to well till we came to this place. It really doesn't look like much from the outside, but when you go in there is a counter the length of the restaurant with gorgeous looking dishes of every possible rice, noodle, vegetable and meat. You can pick combinations of anything and they are heated and brought to you on a woven wicker plate. A dozen different rice or noodle dishes; all sorts of veggies; little corn fritters and spring rolls; and meat and fish dishes from crispy little fried whitebait and salted duck to sweet and sour chicken and lamb. I had stir fried noodles with veggies; some sort of kale with tofu and chilli; an amazing aubergine dish with melt in your mouth aubergine chunks in a tomato spicey sauce and a portion of Indonesian coconut chicken. And I've been hankering after spicey food ever since.



So last night we cracked open the Cook Malaysian recipe book I've had for ages and we gave the spiced rice with chicken a shot. Compared with the traditional Indian Biryani I've blogged before which took several happy days of cooking, this dish took only about an hour from start to finish (with two pairs of hands sharing the work).



Ingredients:

(with some adaptations for what we didn't have to hand!)

Chicken portions (about 900g)(we used boneless, skinless thighs)
1 clove garlic
5 cm piece ginger
2 chillies (we used 4 or 5)
1 tbsp poppy seeds
10 cashew nuts
10 almonds
2 tbsp ghee (we used butter and olive oil)
5 cloves
5cm piece cinnamon stick
1 cup shallots, sliced (we used onion)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup yoghurt
1 - 2 cups coconut milk (we made our own up with 1 pack creamed coconut and 400mls hot water)
400g washed rice

(should serve 4)

Method:
1. Grind garlic, ginger, chillies, poppy seeds, cashew nuts and almonds.

2. Heat ghee and fry cloves, cinnamon and shallots till shallots golden.
Add chicken pieces, 1 tsp salt, ground ingredients and curry powder, stir to mix and cook covered for ten minutes.
Then add the yoghurt and simmer until chicken is tender and mixture is thick.

3. Add coconut milk and the other 1 tsp salt to the rice and cook (stirring so it doesn't stick to the pan)
until the milk is mostly absorbed.

4. Make a well in the centre of the rice and pour in the chicken mix. Cover and cook over a very low heat until
the rice is finished cooking.

Serve!

My top tip would be to cook the rice in an oven proof dish with a good lid (we used a le creuset) and then
for the last bit put the dish covered in the oven on a low heat, rather than finishing on the stove top.
It might not seem like there is enough liquid to cook the rice, but the steam in the pan seems to be enough.



We didn't serve with anything on the side and there wasn't really a need. The combination of sweet coconut-ty rice,
dry, salty spice; crunchy nuts and tender chicken was perfect. That being said there might not be quite enough for a
full second dinner to share so next time we might try young Vandi's Indian Spinach on the side. Will report back.