Hello Autumn and the ‘everything with pumpkin in it’ craze. We have pumpkin lattes, pumpkin cake, pumpkin Oreos so why not pumpkin biryani. The idea is to use the pumpkin to cook the biryani in and to present it to the table creating a wee bit of theatre as everyone digs in.
The first key step is to roast the pumpkin and then par cook the rice. Once the pumpkin is roasted you can scoop out some of the pumpkin and combine it with the rice. Finish cooking the biryani inside the pumpkin.
Serves: 4
Time: 2 hours
Difficulty: Take your time
1 Pumpkin (Medium)
1 Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
1 thumb sized piece of Ginger
200g of Basmati rice
300ml of Chicken Stock
3 Chicken Thighs
2-3 tablespoons of Tikka Masala Curry Paste
Small stick of Cinnamon
4 Cardamon pods
Natural Yogurt to serve
- Cut the top off the pumpkin and remove seeds. Coat the inside lightly with oil and roast at 210 degrees celsius (410 degrees Fahrenheit) for 45 minutes. Remember to roast the top.
- Dice the onion and sweat in a pan with a little oil on medium heat until softened. Dice the garlic and ginger and fry for one minute. Add the curry paste and cook for another minute.
- Par boil the rice for 10 minutes then strain. Please note this is the crucial part if you over cook the rice then the rice won’t absorb all the stock. Giving you a wet mess.
- Dice the chicken.
- Now scoop some of the pumpkin flesh from the pumpkin (making sure not to collapse the pumpkin) and add to the rice and onion mix. At this stage add the cinnamon and cardamon to the mixture.
- Now return this mixture to the pumpkin and put the chicken thighs in the centre.
- Put the top back on the pumpkin and bake for 45 minutes at 210 degrees Celsius (410 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Serve whole to the table with yogurt on the side.
Recipes from my kitchen, Edinburgh, Scotland 