This chicken biryani is our homage to Britannia’s chicken berry pulao, using cranberries in place of the more authentic Persian barberries, which are tricky to find. (Despite much cajoling, Mr Kohinoor has never shared his wife’s famous recipe.) It is prepared in the kacchi style, originating from Hyderabad, in which marinated raw meat goes into the pot, to be cooked at the same time as the rice.
For the rice
300g basmati rice
2 tsp fine sea salt
Juice of ½ lime
For the base
500g skinless, boneless chicken thighs, each cut into 3 pieces
20g ginger paste
25g garlic paste
1 ½ tsp deggi mirch chilli powder
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp ground cumin
1 ½ tsp garam masala
2 tbsp lime juice
100g full-fat Greek yoghurt
30ml vegetable oil
3 green chillies, each cut into 4 long strips
3cm fresh root ginger, cut into fine matchsticks
1 quantity crispy fried onions
6 large mint leaves, chopped
5g coriander leaves, chopped
For the topping
20g unsalted butter
3 tbsp double cream
1 quantity saffron water
35g dried cranberries
For other Dishoom recipes, please see Dishoom: from Bombay with love, our cookery book and highly subjective guide to Bombay.
We’re turning page after page of Ayesha Erkin’s recipe book Date of the Day, featuring 30+ recipes for the modest date – timely for breaking fast and after. Our dear friend Ayesha has now kindly shared a recipe for you to make at home. Try it this Iftar or any time you need a salty-spiced sticky treat.
The holy month of Ramadan is upon us, when Muslims around the world fast daily from dawn till dusk. It is a time of private worship and spiritual discipline, but also of shared joy and abundant feasting. Families and communities come together at suhoor, the pre-dawn meal, and at iftar, the evening meal, to break their fasts with copious, delicious dishes. Join us on 7th April for our own Iftar celebration – for an evening of feasting and live music.
We often find it too easy to hurtle through the days, in an attempt to outpace the bustling city – be it London or Bombay – which always seems to be running away like a steam-engine train on a rickety track. Occasionally, it does us good to pause for thought, to disembark the carriage and sit on the platform awhile.
The month of Ramadan may be a period of fasting but it’s equally synonymous with feasting. Iftar – the evening meal with which Muslims break their fast – is an occasion for eating favourite dishes and indulging in the naughtiness of moreish snacks after a day of abstaining, and these cheese-and-pastry twirls make the perfect snack.