Hello Diners!

This month our good works take us to Nairobi, Kenya, in support of orphaned, unaccompanied, and separated refugee girls and young women. RefuSHE’s mission is to protect, educate, and empower these young women to build healthier and more resilient futures for themselves and their children.

For this month’s recipe, I’ve chosen to bring you East African Pilau. It is a traditional, beautifully fragrant rice dish made with many aromatic spices that add an amazing depth of flavor to the rice. The combination of these spices is called Pilau Masala. You can purchase this spice blend or make it yourself if you have all the spices needed for it.

You can also choose to make it with either beef or chicken. This is a festive dish that you will always find at parties, special occasions, and religious holidays. To round out this meal you will want to pair it with another very traditional Kenyan salad called Kachumbari, which is always served as an accompaniment to Pilau. Since Pilau is often served for special occasions, I decided that Friday night was as good an excuse as any! But this was SO delicious and easy to make that I can see myself making this dish often, or whenever I want to feel special!

East African Pilau

Ingredients

This is a festive dish that you will always find at parties, special occasions and religious holidays. To round out this meal you will want to pair it with another very traditional Kenyan salad called Kachumbari, which is usually served as an accompaniment to Pilau.

Pilau Spice Mix
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground cloves
Mix all spices, makes about 1 ½ tablespoons

For the Rice
1 pound of beef, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 ½ cups basmati rice, rinsed
1 teaspoon Kosher salt, or ½ teaspoon fine salt
3 cups beef stock or water
Optional: handful of frozen peas

Directions
Choose a heavy bottom sauce pan and heat on medium heat. Drizzle in a tablespoon or two of oil and brown the beef cubes for a minute or two, remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onions to the pan and stir to scrape up all the brown bits from the meat. Add additional oil if necessary to keep things from sticking. Let the onions sauté for 5 minutes until they become translucent, then add the garlic and ginger and stir for another minute. Next add the spice mix, give that a stir to let the spices bloom, then add the chopped tomatoes. Let this mixture cook for a few minutes so that the tomatoes can break down.

Finally add the rice, stock, and beef cubes to the pot. Stir well, bring to a boil, cover the pot, then turn down to a low simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat but still leave the pan on the warm burner. Remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. If you choose to add the optional peas sprinkle them on the top of the rice now.

Place a tea towel over the pot to absorb moisture, place the lid of the pot on the towel and wrap the towel around the lid. Now let the rice finish steaming and cooking for 10 more minutes. Remove lid and stir in the peas if using.

Notes:

• I used a premium rib eye steak for this dish. Other types of beef would be fine as well, including sirloin or chuck. I would say that if you use a tougher cut of meat, make the pieces smaller so that they can tenderize more easily.
• I used basmati rice for this dish but whatever you have on hand can be used.
• You can purchase the spice blend Pilau Masala, or make it yourself if you have all the spices needed for it. If using the blend called for in this recipe use all of it; if you are using a purchased mix then add about 1½ tablespoons.

Recipe and photo credit: Linda McElroy