Biriyani Dinner

Lucien Crochet Sancerre 2005
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2006 Napa Valley

We decided to cook another Indian dish from the cookbook: Indian Home Cooking. We love rice dishes and especially biriyani. Biriyani is a dish where the rice is cooked and then mixed with vegetables or meats and then baked in the oven. We decided to make Chicken Biriyani with Cream and Garam Masala. The dish is a Mogul dish. The Moguls were the Muslim rulers of Northern India. The dish has a lot of different spices that added at different times. We cooked the chicken on Sunday and let it marinate till Wed. On Wednesday we cooked the rice and layered the chicken mixture with the rice and baked the dish.

Kevin and Billy joined us. We all loved the dish! It was delicious. Definitely we will make it again. We have now made several dishes from the cookbook and they are all wonderful. We will make more. When we return to New York City we will definitely eat at the authors restaurant: Devi.

For the first course we once again made the Roasted Squash Puree on Toasted Bread. We followed a suggestion from Bea they she had observed at when Nancy Silverton was cooking at Silverlake Wine. We previously used to cut the bread in thin slices and toast under the broiler in the oven. She suggested that we brush the bread with olive oil and grill on the Panini maker. It was much better that way. We topped the puree with bacon that we had been give from Canale. Canale is now open for weekend brunch. We had their homemade bacon, it was delicious. Try the brunch!

We started with a great Salad with Jamon Iberico, Black Olives, Spring Herbs, Walnut Oil, Burrata, Balsamic Vinegar. The Jamon (ham from Spain) is exceptional. We purchased it at The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

For dessert we had Oatmeal and Date bars that we had baked. We all felt it was a great dinner with great wine and friends.