June 6-8 Indian Spiced Chicken Meatballs and Pulao

June 6    Brussel Sprout Pulao with indian spiced chicken meatballs and raita
June 7    Fried rice (from last  night's pulao), pan fried rainbow trout
June 8    Dinner out with The Neighbours


The Kid and I are on our own again this week as Shack is back on the film and they are now shooting so we will be lucky if we see him again before Little Shack finishes high school. Speaking of Little Shack, he really enjoyed the tandoori chicken we had over the weekend and he also liked the aloo jeera from last week so I am striking while the iron is hot. I really want to turn my kid into an indian food fan so I will have him on my side from now on when it comes time to selecting restaurants. I know it's terrible that I am manipulating my innocent child like this but it's for a good cause.

I am going to be very honest with you and recommend that you do not use leftover caulflower and brussel sprouts for this and instead just throw in the frozen peas and maybe some carrot or something because they were totally overpowering but I am sharing the recipe as I made it because that is what we are supposed to do. I could have lied and pretended that it was fabulous and that I never make mistakes, I suppose, but The Kid would no doubt rat me out at some point. I think he would have liked the rice much better if I had used just peas but it made really tasty fried rice the next night. The rice itself was delicious but this version just ended up tasting way too cruciferousy (if that is even a word).


We have eaten the indian spiced chicken burgers I made at supperworks already so I wanted to do something else with them this time. I thawed them out and then mixed them both together and made little meatballs out of them. I baked them and served them alongside the pulao with some raita. I can't give the recipe for the chicken burgers because I can't remember exactly what went into them but you could do this with any chicken burger recipe you have and instead of making burgers, form them into little 1 1/2" meatballs and bake them in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes at 350. These were a huge hit and I think I might try to make a variety of little meatballs for The Kid this summer. Might be a good way of introducing some lamb into his diet. Hmmmm.

Brussel Sprout Pulao
adapted from the Vegetable Pulao from eCurry
serves 3-4

1 cup basmati rice
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbls melted butter
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp clove powder
4 green cardamoms
1" stick cinnamon
1/2 tbls coriander powder
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch saffron
freshly ground pepper (6 turns)
salt to taste
1 cup of leftover roasted brussel sprouts and broccoflower (it looks like green cauliflower) ( do as I say, not as I do when it comes to this step and leave these out and sub in some finely diced carrot or zucchini)
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
fresh cilantro to garnish
toasted almonds for garnish

Rinse the rice a few times until the water runs clear and then cover them with cold water and soak for about 15 minutes. Drain and put aside.

Gently crush the saffron threads and soak them in a tablespoon of hot water.

In a heavy sauce pan, melt the butter and the cinnamon and cardamom and once the spices start to sizzle, add the cumin seed. When the seeds sizzle, add the coriander powder, the clove powder, the paprika and freshly ground pepper and stir them all around for a few seconds before adding the leftover veggies. Stir the veggies for a couple of minutes until they get hot and any water clinging to them evaporates. Next, throw in the drained rice and cook, stirring the whole time, for another minute. By now everything should be coated in the buttery spices.

Scrape the contents of that pan into your rice cooker. Add the salt, the saffron and 1 1/2 cups of water and stir it all together. Cover and let cook. Once it's cooked, take off the lid and let it sit for five or ten minutes before serving it - you don't want it to steam and overcook the rice and make it all mushy.