Another man’s meat is another man’s poison (pun very much intended). Never have I ever imagined cooking food that everyone else would devour but me. Yes, that was the story of my life when I cooked, meat biryani. I was very much excited about trying out the new recipe and had even planned of how I’d write about the whole experience. Little did I know what was waiting for me. So I’ll first give you the recipe before I narrate my ‘ordeal’.

SPOILER ALERT!! I did not use rice.

MEAT BIRYANI RECIPE

Ingredients

• 1kg meat
• Cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon of ginger (ground)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• A pinch of salt
• 500g tomato paste
• 5 tomatoes (grated)
• 1 large onion (sliced)
• Spices (of choice)
• 1 bell pepper, green (pilipili hoho)
• 1 branch coriander (dhania)
• 500ml yoghurt (PLAIN) / mala

Method

Boil your meat with ground garlic, ginger and a pinch of salt, this helps soften the meat. Put aside after it is well boiled. In a fresh pan, fry the onions with little oil, till golden brown and put them aside for later use.

In a fresh pan, or if you want to reduce the amount of dish washing you’ll do later, you can use the cooking pot you used to boil the meat and put the meat in another bowl.  Here you’ll add a little oil, tomato paste, grated tomatoes and let them cook for a while. You’ll then add your preferred spices, like a pinch of each not too much and let them mix.

You’ll know it is ready when the oil will be at the top of the mixture. Remember to keep your cooking pot covered with a lid at all times because of the paste. Once the paste is ready, add your meat as well as the golden brown onions you had prepared earlier.

Stir.

Then add the PLAIN yoghurt/ Mala. Note that I put the plain in caps. I think this is the point I went wrong. I just saw yoghurt on the recipe and well, being a lover of vanilla yoghurt, I thought, oh how compatible it would be with my meat. Haha, behold, I did not like the aftermath, despite receiving very nice compliments. I still do not believe my friends to date (no feelings attached).

Potato lovers we got you covered. So if you had boiled your potatoes earlier and wondered how your meat would look without them, here is where you’d add them, including your coriander(dhania), cut, and bell pepper (pilipili hoho),sliced. Remember to always keep the lid on while cooking.

In case you see the paste sticking to the cooking pot, you could add a little bit of oil. Let it cook for 30sec to 1 min; feel free to serve with your preferred dish when hot! You could also apply the same concept while cooking chicken.