Leftover Kebab Biryani

Eid-ul-Adha leftovers Biryani

Now before you turn away from this recipe HEAR ME OUT.
For some of us Eid-ul-Adha is very meat heavy due to the nature of it (Qurbani Meat overload). There’s only so many Kebab recipes you can plough through.
Over time I must have tried lots of Kebab recipes with various chutneys. However I’ll be honest; I get fed up of food and so do the girls. In the end is sits around in the fridge drying out.

So last year (or maybe the year before) I decided that I wanted to create a recipe to use up leftover kebabs from the platters I create. A Pulaw in my humble opinion wouldn’t have worked so I considered it’s cousin; Biryani.

The way I would explain the different between a Biryani and Pulaw is this: A Pulaw is a one pot rice dish where you create the base and cook the rice in the stock created. A Biryani is where the rice is steamed between layers of the meat/vegetable base. A lot of Biryanis are tomato sauce based and can be tangy and very fiery.

This is a medium heat tangy Biryani which I serve with a range of Raitas and Chutneys.

The kebabs I’ve used this Biryani include: Tikkas (chicken and meat), Seekh kebabs and even liver kebabs (just shows how versatile this recipe really is).

So to make enough to serve 5/6 you will need:
450-500 grams (Cooked) leftover kebabs
300 grams rice
250 ml passata
150 ml low fat plain yogurt
5 TBSP oil
6 heaped TBSP fried onions pre-soaked and drained
1 TBSP garlic and ginger paste or just garlic paste.
3 TBSP fresh coriander leaves-chopped finely
Cooking salt-to your own requirements
2 heaped TBSP mint leaves-chopped finely
5 dried plums (available in most South-Asian food stores).
2 heaped TBSP ground coriander seeds
2 heaped TBSP ground cumin seeds
2 heaped TBSP chaat masala
Juice of 2 limes
.4 green chilies sliced (lengthways)-I prefer bullet chilies as they keep their shape well.
3 heaped TBSP fried onions (Do not pre-soak)
4 TBSP Screw pine water (Kewra water)
Powdered food dye (available in Asian food stores; I use a little bit of red and orange to compliment the original colours. You can leave out the dye is you wish to).

1) Heat the oil in a large pan on a medium heat.
2) Add the onions and fry for one minute.
3) Add the garlic paste and fry for 30 seconds.
4) Add the salt and spices and fry for 1 minute.
5) Now add the passata and stir well. Add the dried plums.
6) Now add the yogurt and stir well. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes. You’ll notice it gets thicker and you may see a bit of oil separation. Don’t worry that’s normal .
7) Add the kebabs, half the coriander leaves and chilies. Stir well to cover the kebabs.
8) Add the water and bring to the water. Then reduce the heat to simmer.
8) Reduce the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for 5 minutes.

Leftover Cake Pudding

Stylemesisteradmin
July 19, 2019

No this is not an April Fools joke. Recently we had THREE cakes to mark the youngest child’s 6th Birthday and when you have that much cake sometimes you have leftovers. And when you have leftovers they can be somewhat drying.

When we think leftover cakes we think Cakepops. But this time I wanted to make something less laborous (we all know I like shortcuts).

So after a bit of experimenting I opted for this….Cake Pudding…like Bread and Butter Pudding but with leftover cake.

This is amazing. I know I’m biased but it really is amazing!

To make enough Pudding to serve 4 you will need:

1/2 a double layered 20 CM cake. Ours was Chocolate flavoured and was ‘filled’ with Caramel flavour frosting.

500 ml milk

2 eggs

50 grams castor sugar (plus an extra TBSP for sprinkling).

100 grams chocolate chips

Optional: a tub of Caramel or Chocolate Frosting (we didn’t add any extra as the cake already had a layer in it OR about 3 heaped TBSP of Nutella or other chocolate based spread.

1) Remove the icing/frosting off the cake. Slice the cake up. Generally the thinner the slices the better. Just don’t make them too thin or they’ll fall apart.
2) If you wish to use the optional ingriedent of Nutella/Caramel spread it on half the slices. Then make ‘sandwiches’. So one slice of nutella’d cake with 1 slice of non-nutella cake.
3) Place the cake in an ovenproof dish (I used an old fashioned rectangular tin). I placed them so the point of the rectangle was at the top (and would be a bit crispy when I sprinkled on the sugar).
4) Whisk together the eggs, milk and sugar. Pour over the cake slices.
5) Sprinkle on the chocolate chips.
6) Place in the oven at 170C/Gas Mark 4 for 35-40 minutes.
7) Remove from the oven and serve with cream…ice-cream or whatever takes your fancy.

Alternative: if you wish to make a ‘chocolate’ custard mixture you could add the nutella to the milk mixture and whisk it in. Or if you want even more chocolate you could still apply nutella to the cake and also make the chocolate ‘custard’ mixture too.