Cookbook:Fish Biryani

Fish biryani is a dish from Cape Malay, South Africa.

Marinade

 * 8 cloves garlic
 * 2–3 teaspoons fresh ground red chillies
 * 1 teaspoon crushed dhania (coriander) seeds
 * 1–2 teaspoon crushed jeera (cumin) seeds
 * Juice of 1 lemon
 * 1 teaspoon turmeric
 * 1 teaspoon salt
 * 1 teaspoon oil
 * 1 teaspoon tomato puree

Biryani

 * 1 kg fish filets
 * 2 cups uncooked rice
 * 2 cups masoor (red or pink lentils)
 * 2 onions, grated
 * ½ cup oil
 * 1 tomato, grated
 * 1 cup oil
 * ½ cup ghee
 * 8 small potatoes
 * Few cloves, whole peppers, tuj pieces
 * 4 whole green chillies
 * 4 elachi (green cardamom) pods
 * 1 teaspoon jeera (cumin)
 * 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
 * cup yoghurt

Procedure

 * 1) Pound garlic and chiles together to make a paste. Mix in the coriander, cumin, lemon juice, turmeric, salt, oil, and tomato purée to make marinade.
 * 2) Smear fish filets with the marinade. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
 * 3) Boil the rice and the masoor separately until cooked.
 * 4) Fry onions in the ½ cup oil until golden in color. Strain out extra oil.
 * 5) Combine strained onion oil with ghee. Heat, this and use to fry the patties. Keep aside oils in which onions etc. were fried.
 * 6) Fry fish in separate oil
 * 7) In a deep bowl add yoghurt, grated tomato, spices and fried onions ( reserve 1 teaspoon of onion for top of rice). Dip fried fish in the marinade for a few minutes. I a large flat bottomed pot, pour the oils that were left aside in which excess oil was poured, add the remaining ghee and oil, the sprinkle some masoor over it.
 * 8) Arrange fish slices and all marinade over masoor and oil/ghee. Cover with rest of masoor.
 * 9) Arrange patties over masoor and finally cover the rice. Sprinkle top of rice with the reserved fried onion and hot with ghee.
 * 10) Sprinkle 1/4 cup water over rice, close lid tightly and put on heat. when pot starts sizzling lower heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

Notes & Tricks
On no account must the oil used for frying the fish be used in biryani.