Abah was in a place where halaal lambs are plentiful and quite cheap. His host, one Uncle Prof KJ , kept making lamb soup as it is ( I suspect) about the only cooking method he knows!! After a few days, Abah decided its time to show-off his skill in the kitchen... (as well as wanting to escape eating another meal of lamb soup!!).
So, in one of Abah's frequent calls,skypes and emails,( cant remember which one as he did all these every so often) he asked for the recipe for lamb pilau. So, I wrote down the recipe and emailed it to him.
At the same time, I was pondering on what to write for October entry...and beginning to regret my promising Adik and Abang to post at least one entry per month. I cant go back on my words now.
Suddenly, it struck me! I could just copy/paste this recipe for my October entry... Hemmh, what a relief! But then, as I have editted last month's entry to include a recipe, this blog will look like a cooking blog with two consecutives entries on recipes...takpe la ya, Abang, Adik...Mama memang takde idea ni!
So, here goes;
LAMB PILAU
Ingredients
Lamb (obviously!)
Onions (thinly sliced; quantity- gram to gram with lamb)
Basmathi rice (get the best u can)
Skinned and chopped ripen tomatoes (use the canned ones or failing to get it, scald the fresh ones in boiling water, the skin will come off quite easily)
Coriander seeds (lightly crush in lesung batu, does Abg Din has it?)
Black peppercorn (ditto)
A piece of cinnamon bark
A couple of black cardamom (if using the white ones, tambah skit)
Green chillies (cut up)
Ginger (lightly pound)
Cilantro (its daun ketumbar ya laling,lots of them, roughly chop)
Salt and water ( water and rice quantity must be in equal ratio)
Cooking oil
How to go about it:
Heat up the oil, add onions. Let it fried until very brown. Just one degree away from burnt state. (This is important, as it will give the colour to the dish, we dont want a pale pilau,okay)
Add some water. Cover for a minute to sweat out the colour and sweetness from the onions. Add lamb. Put the lid back on until u see the meat has absorbed the brown colour of the onions.Add tomatoes and garlic, cover for 5 min.
Add all dry spices and salt, cover and let it simmer until the lamb is tender. Add ginger, chillies and cilantro, turn off heat and let it be at least for a couple of hours ( this is optional, just to let the meat absorbs the spices etc. U cud just go to nx process)
My style is; roughly one hour before serving, add more water to the pot ( remember to take away the amount u already added). Bring it to boil and add washed and drained basmathi. Cook till the rice is fluffy.
Serve with salad,pappadom and raita.
Good luck and dont burn down KJ's kitchen...hehe. Let me know how it turn out ya!
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That's about it....
But, rummaging through the pictures file, I found these;
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| the spiced pappadom that both of you dont really like...always preferring the plain ones. |
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| salad of diced tomatoes,cucumber and shredded iceberg lettuce. Dressed with homemade vinaigrette. (3 parts olive oil to 1 part of malt vinegar,salt and pepper) |
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| When I cook large portion like this, I will finish them off in the oven ( after most of liquid has evaporated) to avoid burning at the bottom |
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| the raita which you guys loooove. (Just plain yoghurt with mint sauce or chopped cilantro. Salt and sugar to taste.) |
Looks like I have a proper entry after all!!( Now, wont you say your Mama IS clever, kids?)
Come to think of it, I wish both of you will master cooking this dish as it has always been the dish that I'll cook for any Da'awah Jamaat that happen to come to our mosque, especially for those from the foreign countries. And they always appreciate it so much and end up making special do'a for us, Alhamdulillah...and all masturat jamaats that came to our house were subjected to eating this too... and the session of recipe-taking (after the program end) was always inevitable!
I would like it very much that you two shall continue feeding the jamaats even when Abah and me are not around anymore....
p/s
after all the effort I made to write the email most explicitly, Abah called and said, "payoh weh, tak jadi la buat..". hemmm, why am I not surprise! ( and this is despite the fact that he was always hands-on whenever I cooked a large portion)
