Thai Biryani

I love Thai food - the fresh, light taste of it, the numerous vegetables that go into it and the mixture of the familiar and the exotic in the spices used. one of my favourite one-dish meals is Thai curry rice. This is a dish typical of Thai muslims, and thus has overtones of Biryani while not being as heavy on either spices or the stomach. It makes a great end to the week, served up with minty cucumber raita, and is also a good party dish. Our Sunday meals often consist of this, followed by fruit, with the after-effect of making us feel extremely virtuous due to the high health quotient.

Mussaman curry rice
Ingredients
5 small shallots/ 3 large red onions, diced
Rind of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 inch Thai ginger
4 green chillies or dried red chillies
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 inch lemon grass
5 Kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp oil
2 cups boiled mixed vegetables - beans, carrots, broccoli, peas, potatoes, cauliflower, small eggplant...( cut the vegetables into 1 inch tall, slim fingers)
1 cup brown basmati rice or plain basmati rice
Salt to taste
3-4 spring onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed ( do this with a mortar and pestle, not a blender as that would make the pieces too fine)

Grind together the onions, lemon rind, cinnamon powder, ginger, chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and lemon grass.
Put the oil on to heat in a large wok.
Add the kaffir lime leaves and cook for one minute.
Add the ground paste and cook, stirring occasionally until the paste turns pale brown.
Mix the paste together with the vegetables, the rice and salt to taste.
Top the dish with the spring onions and peanuts just before serving.


This makes enough for 3-4 people of reasonable appetite.