KABSA

With my earlier days in Saudi Arabia, I was exposed to a variety of dishes from Arabian cuisine. Among all the tasty and delicious foods, one of our (as in me and my siblings) favorites was Kabsa. I don't remember any one weekend we didn't have Kabsa. If I want to compare it with a dish of our cuisine, it would be very similar to biryani but it has a very unique taste. When we moved back to Bangladesh, I think we missed Kabsa more than the people there. Just kidding!! One of fondest memories of Kabsa was when we gave away the leftovers to my sibling. It's silly but she basically hated every other food, making her the skinniest person I know. So a few days back, we were planning a late dinner and somehow Kabsa popped up in our conversation. I did try it once before and it turned out a lot better than I expected. But this time I barely had half the ingredients and also, I wanted to own the recipe. And henceforth the experimentation started.

First off, I washed the rice and soaked it for about 20 minutes. In a separate pot, I added in some chopped onion and as soon as it started getting that beautiful brown color, I added in ginger paste along with the chicken. I waited for the chicken to turn a little brown and then added my seasonings. Here, I went absolutely berserk. I added in some salt, mixed spices and red chili powder. I had to add tomato paste and chopped up tomatoes but since I didn't have any tomato paste, I just went with chopped up tomatoes. Somehow, I couldn't get my hands on dried lemon, so to calm my soul I threw in a whole green lime to my concoction (imagining myself as a wizard, preparing my potion!). Once everything were mixed were, I added in water. I let it cook for 25 minutes. I was in a fairly good mood, so I danced around with my hubby for 25 minutes. To my surprise, my hubby got used to my craziness while cooking. After 25 minutes, I took out the chicken and let it broil in the oven for about 15 minutes or so, just to get that exquisite sear on the skin. And to the concoction, I added in my soaked rice and let it cook for 45 minutes. Though it didn't take that long, since the type of rice I used cooked faster. And after 45 minutes or so, voila! Kabsa is ready to be served. It definitely didn't taste as authentic but it was really close to that. Plus, remember the whole lime I added earlier, it didn't really add any extra flavor. I believe slicing the lime up and adding it, would have been a better choice but (of course there is a but!) cutting that cooked lime in half and squeezing out the juice. Oh YUM! Totally made up for all the other missing ingredients. The late night dinner was a total success, perfect chicken, perfect rice with the perfect zing!

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped onion

0.5 tsp ginger

1 pcs chicken quarter

1 tsp salt

0.5 tsp mixed spices

2 cups chopped tomato

1 pcs lime

2 cups water

1 cup rice