I do love biryani. Most of my students hadn’t had it, and they liked it! Love introducing folks to new, delicious foods. 🙂
I do love biryani
Last day of classes potluck
Last day of classes potluck; I brought chicken biryani. Lovely to end the semester with lots of shared food.
(Let’s see AI do that! 🙂 )
Sautéing sultanas and cashews in ghee for biryani.
Sautéing onions, curry leaves, cardamom, and cloves for biryani.
Adding spiced marinated chicken to sautéed onions.
Chicken Saag (Curried Spinach) with Rice
You’re tired, you want a good rice and curry meal, with both protein and veg, and you want to put minimal effort into cooking. Here’s my favorite hack — this got me through a fair bit of grad school. Also when the kids were little and I was exhausted. 20 minutes, no chopping.
Right now, it looks like you can make this for about $10-$15, depending on grocery prices in your area. I buy 12 pack cans of saag and keep them in the pantry — about $4 / can on Amazon, possibly significantly cheaper at your local Indian grocery.
Vegetarians can use a can of cooked chickpeas or a packet of frozen paneer instead of chicken. I haven’t tried it with green jackfruit, but I think that would work well too. Lamb and shrimp also work just fine, and are traditional.
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Chicken Saag (Curried Spinach) with Rice
(20 minutes, serves 2-4, depending on appetites!)
- Have leftover rice.
(If you don’t have leftover rice, you can either make rice, or use naan, roti, paratha, etc. Those can be bought frozen and toasted to deliciousness very quickly.) - Heat about 2 T oil, add up to 1 T cayenne (to your taste, you can skip it entirely if you want), stir for 5-10 seconds on high.
(You probably want a vent fan going, as it’s likely to make you and everyone else around cough otherwise.) - Dump in 4-6 boneless skinless chicken thighs. (You can trim them if you like, but you don’t actually have to.) Stir for a few more seconds until well-coated in chili oil and lightly seared.
(Still cooking on high.) - Dump in one 15 oz. can saag and stir in. (I like Jyoti, but there are various fine brands.)
(Still cooking on high.) - Rinse can and dump water (about 1/2 can) into pot. Stir in and bring back to a boil.
- Cover, lower heat to medium, and let cook 5-10 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
(You can wander away at this point and plop onto the couch for a bit — just set a timer if you’re likely to forget.) - Uncover, raise heat back to high, and cook another 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until spinach sauce is thick and happy. If you want, break up cooked chicken with your stirring spoon. Taste and adjust salt, etc. if needed, but I actually don’t do anything else to this; I like it as is.
(Heat up your leftover rice if you’ve got it now, adding a few sprinkles of water before sticking it in the microwave, to help it hydrate. Or toast frozen bread now.) - Serve chicken saag hot over leftover rice. (Or with bread!)
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Link to Jyoti saag on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0fvvjVvL
Deviled Chili Eggs
When I come home tired, still have to do taxes and deal with hours of annoying computer issue, and we’re out of leftovers, but I NEED a tasty hot dinner to fuel me — 20 minutes of cooking gets me chili eggs and rice. That’ll do.
Taxes and computer work done, bed now.
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I’m going to give you the recipe, but also the sequence for making the meal — hope this isn’t confusing. After a little practice, this is just about 20 minutes, start to finish.
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1) Start rice (I typically do 2 c. white rice, 4 c. water, a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, when it boils, turn down to a simmer, cover, and set timer for 15 minutes).
2) While rice is coming to a boil, start eggs (I typically do 8 eggs in enough water to cover, bring to a boil, when it comes to a boil, put on a lid, turn off heat, set timer for 15 minutes. You probably need a second timer, unless you’re very deft with your timings.)
3) Make chili eggs — recipe below:
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Deviled Chili Eggs
(20 minutes, serves 8.)
This is not what Westerners call deviled eggs! It’s one of the first dishes I learned to make; very simple, can be made quickly, terrific to serve to vegetarians, and adds a nice punch of pungent spice to your meal. As a bonus, the devilled onions are terrific as a condiment on their own, added to a grilled chicken sandwich, for example.
3 medium onions, sliced (feel free to buy sliced or diced onions if that makes your life easier; frozen diced onions work too, but have to cook a few more minutes to get the moisture out)
3 TBL vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp cumin seed
2 TBL (less or more to taste) cayenne
3 TBL ketchup
1 rounded tsp salt
8 boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half
1. While eggs are boiling, slice onions and sauté in oil on high with mustard seed and cumin seeds until onions are golden/translucent (not brown), stirring constantly (about 5 minutes).
2. Add cayenne and cook 1 minute. Immediately add ketchup and salt; stir until well blended and cooked through, about 3-5 more minutes. Remove from heat.
3. When egg timer goes off and eggs are cooked, cool eggs in cold running water, then shell and slice in half. Arrange on a plate and spoon chili onions over, turning gently to coat.
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4) When rice timer goes off, turn off rice. Serve hot with chili eggs.
Time to make the marshmallows…
Time to make the marshmallows…
Cooking is soothing
Cooking is soothing. I may have eaten my weight in Sri Lankan style bbq chicken and white rice yesterday and today. I regret nothing.
A little healthier in January, but still delicious!
Grilling up some shrimp for the week — will be tossing it into Caesar salad, having it over couscous, putting some in a quesadilla, maybe adding to a Thai green curry with lots of veggies…
…yes, I am also trying to eat a little healthier in January. But still delicious!
I needed a little Sri Lankan food today
I needed a little Sri Lankan food today; Jaffna crab curry (pulled from the freezer) and rice at the potluck.
Tentatively plan to make the potlucks a monthly thing again, last Sunday of the month, 12-6. About fifteen people today, nice to catch up with old friends and new.
Danish Abelskiver for brunch
More cooking in 2026; I was running so harried from Sept – Dec 2025, I almost never cooked. Way too many very simple sandwiches and too much fast food (which I normally rarely eat).
For the sake of my budget, my health, my tastebuds, and my peace of mind, hoping to do a lot more cooking in 2026.
Among other things, I promised a gluten-free Sri Lankan cookbook, and I think that’s next on the book project list. Shouldn’t take much work; most of Sri Lankan cuisine is already gluten-free.
Danish Abelskiver for brunch — I liked the ones with apple best; Kavi liked lemon and powdered sugar; Kevin liked them with cherry jam; Anand liked his with bacon and maple syrup.
Ethiopian is my second favorite cuisine
Traffic was going to be hellish coming back through a (mild) snowstorm from the Chicago Botanic Garden, so we broke our trip at Ethiopian Diamond. Enough leftovers for tomorrow’s meals too, yay. Ethiopian is my second favorite cuisine (right after Sri Lankan).
I really really wish we had an Ethiopian restaurant closer than a 45 minute drive away. But then I remember when I lived in Salt Lake City (for three years!), and there wasn’t one in the entire state of Utah, and realize I should count my blessings.
