My friend Saira makes the best fish biryani, a couple of weeks ago she brought over a plate and it was delicious! Especially since she did not add cilantro! I am not a fan of cilantro, I feel sick from smelling it in the market believe it or not! If you like cilantro by all means use it, but if your like me, use parsley. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do, it really is filled with flavour and it is such a bright and wonderful dish to serve.
What you will need:
- 2 onions or shallots
- 4 cloves of garlic
- paprika
- salt to season
- 4 tbsp lemon
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley or cilantro
- fish biryani mix such as Shan
- 1/2 cup water
- boneless fish of your choice, salmon is preferable
- 2 cups basmati rice
- A pinch of saffron
Marinate fish with the lemon juice, 2 grated cloves of garlic and 1 tablespoon of biryani seasoning and a little salt for one hour .
Rinse rice, set aside. You can allow your basmati to soak in water while you make the sauce.
Meanwhile prepare the sauce.
Slice onion and saute in a pot with 1/4 cup oil, add the garlic and tomatoes cook until tender, add tomato paste, 1/4 cup water, parsley or cilantro and 1 tablespoon biryani seasoning cook until it thickens, takes about 15 minutes. If your pot is large enough then you can keep this in it otherwise transfer to a larger pot.
If you want you can add more biryani seasoning to the tomato and onion mixture, taste after a tablespoon if you want it more spicy add a teaspoon at a time, a tablespoon is good for me but you may like more.
Fill a large pot with water bring water to a boil, season with salt, taste it make sure it tastes as salty as you want, boil until rice is almost done, tender but not fully cooked, drain in colander and spoon the rice over the tomato/onion mixture in the pan. Add the saffron (if using) over the rice.
Cover and rest on top of the stove for 10 minutes, heat and steam will finish cooking the rice. While the rice is resting, fry the fish add paprika to fish at this time. Combine the tomato/onion mixture and rice gently. Transfer to serving dish, and place fish on top, garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro. Enjoy!
*There are plenty of other brands that sell seasonings for biryani, but in my experience Shan is consistent with quality and flavour. I only recommend it because I use it myself, and want you to experience the same flavour of the food as you follow my recipe.
Gorgeous, Donika I can almost smell those lovely spices xxx Dor