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Brilliant Beetroot Biriyani

Beetroot Biriyani

Despite being someone who has never been a huge fan of Indian food, I’m a total convert to this biriyani. Just sitting here writing up this recipe, my mouth is watering and I’m wondering where I could pick up more fresh beetroot on my travels today. I’m sure the family won’t mind eating the same thing again either!Beetroot Biriyani

Cook time is quite long because the beetroot needs to be roasted first, and then rice has to boil, but the hands’ on time is pretty quick, so  you have time to be doing other things in between too. Like prepare the sautéed beet greens to have on the side.Beetroot Biriyani

It’s a great ‘everyone tuck in meal’ and it turned out to be one of those where the pots were scraped clean!

This is a brilliant recipe – quite possibly my favourite beetroot or biriyani recipe – but if you need more beetroot recipes, click here!

Brilliant Beetroot Biriyani
Recipe Type: Dinner, Mains
Cuisine: Indian
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 5
Ingredients
  • 500g raw beetroot, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely sliced
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • seeds from 4 cardamom pods
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tbsp garam masala
  • 250g basmati rice
  • 500ml veg stock
  • 100ml plain or Greek yogurt
  • small bunch of coriander or parsley
  • Mango chutney (to serve) (optional)
  • Sautéed beet greens (to serve)
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Drizzle oil over the beetroot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat, then tip into a roasting dish and cook for 25-30 mins or until tender.
  2. While the beetroot is cooking, heat the remaining oil in a deep frying pan (or a wok) with a lid.
  3. Fry the onion over a medium heat until golden.
  4. Add the ginger and half the garlic, and cook for 1 min.
  5. Stir through the bay, cardamom seeds, turmeric and garam masala, then cook for 2 mins.
  6. Stir in the rice and beetroot.
  7. Pour in the stock and place a fitting lid on the pot
  8. Boil for 20-25 minutes, keeping an eye on to make sure it doesn’t dry out or burn to the bottom of the pan.
  9. Put the remaining garlic in a food processor and whizz, then add the yoghurt till it’s well blended. Set aside.
  10. Remove rice from heat and stir through.
  11. Season to taste and serve.

 

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Campfire Cheese with Foraged Herbs

Campfire cheese

It sounds a bit odd – making cheese on the campfire. You probably want to manage your expectations on this one – you’re not making a fine camembert, but it’s still a brilliant activity and a tasty spreading cheese to have on crackers or toast.

Campfire cheese uses a basic chemistry concept: irreversable changes. You can read more about making it into a lesson/life lesson/ conversation here. Continue reading “Campfire Cheese with Foraged Herbs”

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Camping Food: Fireside Chocolate Brioche

Fireside Chocolate Brioche

As much as I love camping, I love eating good food. Being out in nature and eating pot noodles? Just not my thing. If the air is clean I feel like my tastebuds are enhanced, and I want fresh, tasty, good food as much as possible.

One of my best campfire breakfasts is a fireside chocolate brioche. When that comes off the fire it is warm, with melted chocolate chunks and it smells like sweet heaven.

I haven’t  yet mastered making dough out in the wild, (we normally go for non-electric pitches too!) but the secret to a simple fireside brioche breakfast is Jus-Rol. They last really well in a cool box for a few days, and if you’re camping in the UK they are easy to find in most supermarkets anyway, so picking a couple up every few days isn’t a big deal. Fireside Chocolate Brioche

To make a fireside brioche you need some equipment, and you’ll need a fire. On an open fire it takes a little longer, but it does work. It does need to be over an open flame. We do it on a mini gas burner* and it works quickly. Either is fine. You do need the heat though. Don’t put it IN the flame as you’re likely to have a cooked outside and a raw inside.

To make fireside brioche you will need: 

Fireside Chocolate BriocheA sharp knife, though you could tear them but it will be a bit messy

Two camping cooking pots – they need to fit inside each other with a lid that can go over both. (These are great to have in your camping kit anyway as they save space and mean you can cook real food!)

Two spoons,  or rocks or even twigs of similar size. They idea is that they create a little space between the pots for the heat to move around the bottom and sides but the space must be small enough that you can still fit the lid over both pots, creating an oven effect.

Jus-Rol Chocolate Brioche (also works well with cinnamon swirls)

Method

To make the chocolate brioche you need to open the Jus-Rol package, and cut the roll into six equal sizes. If your pots aren’t non stick you will need to oil or butter the smaller one first. Place the six rolls in the smaller of the two pots, five around the outside, one in the middle.Fireside Chocolate Brioche

Place two spoons or twigs into the larger pot. They need to be fairly equally sized to keep the smaller pot resting on them fairly straight.DSCN5679 (Copy)

Place the smaller pot inside, and put the lid in place.

Fireside Chocolate Brioche

Put the pots on the fire and leave. Remember, remember lifting the lid will cause the heat to escape like in a fire. Depending on how much space there is at the top, the top of the brioche may not look like it’s cooking. Fireside Chocolate BriocheWhen you can see the edges are browned and it’s starting to smell like fresh bread, you can tip it out gently and pop it back in upside down if you really want to, or just tip it over and serve it upside down.Fireside Chocolate Brioche

The top needs to be cooked obviously, but it will be a very light colour.

Fireside Chocolate Brioche

Put aside to cool slightly, but serve warm, ideally.

Happy Camping!