Christmas Pilau from Nesbitt Video Productions on Vimeo.
I did post this recipe for the first time in December 24 2009 in English and January 22 2010 in Swahili. A few people had hard time with it. I have decided to make a video so that those few people can see how easy it is to prepare this dish.
I have changed the instructions from the first post I did in December 2009 to make the process easier.
As I said on the video, traditionally, we start to sauté onions, then garlic, and ginger, then pilau masala then Rise, but, it uses a lot of oil; to help use less oil, I have started with rice first and onions.
Christmas Pilau Ingredients
- 1 cup Basmati rice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup Onions (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp Crushed garlic
- 1 tbsp crushed ginger
- 2 tbsp Pilau masala Click here to get the ingredients for pilau masala
- 1 cup Cashew nuts
- 1 cup Sultanas/raisins.
- ½ tsp Saffron (can be replaced with ¼ tsp turmeric)
- 2 to 3 cups Boiling plain chicken broth or (chicken flavor cube mix in 2 cups of water)
- ¼ – ½ cup Coconut milk (canned or the first(heavy) discharge of fresh prepared coconut milk)
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Crushed Cilantro/Coriander leaves/dhania
- Vegetable oil
Preparations
- Heat oil on medium heat. Then, add rice and onions. Stir until the translucent color of rice starts to turn white.
- Add garlic, ginger and pilau masala. Continue to stir until the garlic is cooked. Then add saffron. Stir for a minute.
- In a separate bowl, mix boiling coconut milk with ½ cup of hot chicken broth.
- Add the coconut mixture to the rice.
- Cover the pot and turn heat to medium-low settings. Cook until the liquid is absorbed. Taste to see if you need to add salt.
- (Now you can tranfer to a baking dish if you are going to bake the rice).
- Then Add the rest of chicken broth, add cashew nuts, raisins/sultanas and cilantro/coriander leaves, mix well, cover or put in 350F oven to dry or until cooked.
- Serve hot with Kachumbari
–MINGI(Lots of) LOVE–











Looks great, we are preparing a full xmas buffet in dar es salaam, hams and turkey and many classic dishes inc. Beef wellinton even though its 30+ we will all have soup. Love and all the best from dar
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Brendan,
I do miss Christmas in Tanzania. Have fun. I will celebrate Christmas with my Daughter, cousin and my nephew only. We won’t cook much.
Have fun with the buffet, I wish I was there.
Mingi Love and Merry Christmas.