Pilau Biryani

I was lazy to cook something from scratch today - still feeling a little tired from yesterday's outing. I was browsing my kitchen cabinet when I realised that I have 2 box of Shan's rice and spice mix I bought a couple of months back. I usually stock a few boxes for 'emergency' cases. I highly recommend this brand for those who do not have the time nor the skills to come out with a great tasting biryani. The package I bought comes with the rice, spice and also the colouring (in powder form). You can get this at Mustaffa.

the packaging

Instructions can be found at the back of the package. But I will just write down how I made it. I only used half of the rice.

Ingredients
1 packet pilau biryani rice & spice mix
500-750g beef/mutton/chicken
1 medium onion, thinly sliced and fried in ghee or butter
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
1-2 glass water
1-3 tbsp
1 cup evaporated milk (original uses yoghurt but I didn't have any)
Small handful mint, chopped

Method
1. Wash and soak rice for 30mins
2. Put water, ginger paste, garlic paste, meat and spice mix into a pot and cook over the stove until meat is tender
3. Add milk or yoghurt into the meat gravy and simmer till the gravy thickens
4. At the moment, boil about 6-10 glasses of water in a pot and add soaked rice
5. Add 1 tbsp salt into rice mixture and boil till rice is almost half cooked
6. Drained rice and put aside
7. Transfer meat gravy into a deep casserole dish
8. Cover the meat with the drained rice
9. Sprinkled colour powder (provided) over the rice
10. Sprinkle fried onions over, cover the casserole dish and cook in the microwave oven for about 5mins. Check for doneness as different microwave oven has different power
11. Use the rice paddle to mix the rice and meat
12. Sprinkle chopped mint and serve with salad/raita and pappadums