Quoting John Mccoy to Jim Weller <=-

also called black cod but isn't really a cod either.

It almost makes you wish they were labeled by the scientific
name.

Buying herbs and spices in Asian food stores can be tricky too. We
have one pan-Asian store here owned by Vietnamese immigrants and
staffed by Filipinos. They have small a mixed selection of Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Vietnamese foods. When the Indian
store shut down they also added a few South Asian herbs, spices,
pulses, and Basmati rice. And when our Moslem population became
significant they filled 3 chest freezers with frozen Halal meats
from an approved Calgary supplier. They pack a lot of stuff into
2500 sq ft!

I shop there about quarterly for noodles, rice, chile sauces,
pickled things, dried mushrooms and such. Once I came across little
bags of dark brown wrinkled lumpy things that looked for all the
world like hard dirty prunes. The crude label had Chinese characters
on it and also said (sic) Amomium which didn't mean anything to me.
The teenaged cashier couldn't help me but I bought a bag anyway as
it was on the spice shelf and just two bucks for two ounces. After
opening the bag at home and smelling them I googled around until I
found out that Amomum is the scientific name for the cardamoms and
so I deduced I had black cardamom seeds which I had never
encountered before and started grinding them up and using them
appropriately. I still have a couple and even after 2 years the
smoky resinous camphor aroma is still potent.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Layered Chicken Biryani with mint and coriander leaves
Categories: Indian, Chicken, Rice, Nuts, Dairy
Yield: 6 Servings

1/2 kg Chicken
300 g washed and soaked
Basmati rice
200 g beaten yogurt
200 g chopped onion
150 g sliced tomato
30 g fried cashew nut
10 g Green chili
10 g Garlic
10 g Ginger
10 Cardamom
10 Cloves
6 Black cardamom
5 Cm cinnamon
1 ts Cumin seeds
1/2 bn Cilantro
1/2 bn Mint leaves
2 Bay leaf
1 ts Turmeric powder
2 md Lemon
1 ts Garam masala powder
1 ts Nigella
10 Peppercorns
Few strands saffron
1/8 c Milk
Salt to taste
1/4 c Ghee
Skin of 1 lemon lemon zest

Remove the skin and cut the chicken into large pieces. Heat ghee
and fry onions until golden, remove and crush them roughly. Grind
ginger, garlic and green chillies to a paste. Marinate the chicken
in yogurt, along with fried onions, ginger, garlic and chilli
paste, salt, a little chopped mint and coriander leaves, a few
whole spices and half the lemon juice for an hour.

Tie the remaining whole spices and lemon skins in a cheese cloth
and immerse in plenty of salted water. Boil the rice in it for 6
minutes (rice should be under done). Drain and keep aside. Heat
the ghee (save 1 Tbsp ghee for later), add the whole spices,
chicken with marinate, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Stir
well. Cover and simmer until cooked and dry.

Grease a baking dish with remaining ghee. add the chicken and
spread it evenly. sprinkle remaining lemon juice, lemon zest,
garam masala, mint and coriander leaves. spread the rice on top.
heat milk and dissolve the saffron in it. sprinkle saffron
flavoured milk on the rice. top it with cashews. Cover with foil
and bake at 325 f for 12-15 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Very delicious. Great party dish. Submitted By Rashmi Singh

MMMMM



Cheers

Jim


... "Russia is good! Canada is bad! Burgers are pancakes!"

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