Prepare this Tanzanian dish for the New Years! HERI Ya MWAKA MPYA!

HERI Ya MWAKA MPYA (Happy New Year!)

If you're anything like me, you are constantly seeking to expand your culinary abilities. Add a new dish to your repertoire. Ring in the new year with another tried and tasted recipe from Tanzania. A delicious interpretation of the dish Bilriani Rice accompanied by goat stew. The concept behind this dish requires patience, which allows for some creativity on your part. You can make a delicious, colorful dish with that WOW factor that your dinner guests will admire. Many elements of the dish are modifiable (the protein that you use, perhaps chicken instead of goat), a bit more salt to taste, and seasonal ingredients (if fresh papaya is hard to come by, substitute it with live yogurt). Fresh papaya (enzyme activity) and yogurt (live bacteria) both serve to soften tougher meat such as goat when used as a marinade. In Tanzanian cuisine sliced carrots and green peppers are a welcome addition to many stewed dishes, but feel free to add your favorite veggies.

Ingredients that you will need:

Meat marinade,

1 lb mbusi (goat meat) in chopped pieces

1 quarter papai (papaya) &/or 1 cup yogurt

Grated/mashed ginger

Mashed 2 cloves garlic

For the Bilriani sauce,

½ 1b potatoes

1 – 2 onions

Approx. 4 tblsp tomato paste

1 – 2 green peppers

1 – 2 sticks of carrot

2 – 3 tomatoes

2 tblspn bilriani spice*

½ tsp curry powder

2 tblspn Soy sauce

For the rice,

1 ¼ cup jasmine rice

½ liter water

1 tsp salt

¼ cup oil

1 – 2 onions

Approx. 1 tsp each non-powder spices: whole cumin, cloves, whole black pepper, cinnamon sticks

Optional, can add powdered spices** to the rice for a spicier flavor.

Technique:

1^st marinate the goat meat in the papaya/yogurt, ginger, and garlic for 2 hours

Mashed fresh ginger, papaya, garlic (Some would be portioned for use in this recipe)

2^nd slice/ dice veggies, potatoes in preparation for cooking

3^rd [2 hours later] in a pot boil the marinated meat, adding just enough water to cover, until meat becomes tender

4^th In a separate pan fry the potatoes, onions, add tomato paste, peppers, carrots, diced tomatoes.

Add the bilriani powdered spice* and curry powder

Add the soy sauce

5^th Add all ingredients to the pot of boiled meat, simmer until all ingredients are cooked (sauce should be thick)

[and meanwhile…]

Start preparing the bilriani rice

6^th In a separate pot add the salt to the water then bring to a boil

7^th Add the jasmine rice

8^th Cook the rice in a boil for 10 minutes, then strain/drain well

9^th Fry the diced onion on medium heat until soft and translucent with a dark brown color (watch carefully to avoid burning) in ¼ cup oil. Optional: add the non-powder whole spices: cumin, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon sticks. For spicier rice, optionally: add the powdered spices.**

10^th Incorporate the rice, fried onion and spices into a pot (suitable for baking) or in a rice cooker; stir thoroughly. Add a tiny amount of food color directly onto the rice in alternating color strips (refer to illustration of what the pot of rice might look like, from the top, after adding food coloring in sections). Leave some of the rice uncolored. Cook rice until finished cooking (10-15 minutes if baked).

The rice depicted here was wholly colored red.

11^th Stir the cooked rice so that the colored rice is distributed throughout the uncolored rice, for a potpourri effect. On the side, or in a separate dish, serve the goat meat in the sauce. Enjoy!

Note: For the powdered spices that I mentioned above, I use used prepared spice mixes purchased from Tanzania. However, with a spice grinder you can simply make these spice mixes for yourself from scratch. 

* For the Bilriani sauce I add 2 tablespoons of ‘Zanzibar Taste’. This special mix can be prepared by grinding whole spices into a powdered form in the following ratio of most to least: Cinnamon, Clove, Cumin, Cardamom, Ginger, Coriander, Black pepper.

**For the Bilriani rice I might add 2 tablespoons of ‘Zanzibar Biriani Masala’ for a more spiced version of the dish; however, this addition is optional. I would make a spicy rice to accompany a simple protein, not the spicy version of protein described in this recipe. You can make a spicy bilriani rice dish by including the powdered form of the following spices (in the ratio of most to least): Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Black Pepper, Ginger, Coriander, Cumin.