Fish Biriani Potjie

Cooked this at a potjie competition, first time everything – competition,fish potjie, biryani. I had a whale of a time and came third. I used swordfish – Roger

Potjie No: 3 Pot guide
Serves: 10
Cooking Time: 1 hour
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Ingredients

1 kg firm fish fillets (use any firm fish such as kingklip or snoek)
Cooking oil for frying
10 ml salt
4 large onions, thinly sliced 8 cloves garlic, crushed
1 stick cinnamon
2 whole cloves
4 green chillies (or less for a more delicate flavour)
5 cardamom pods
5 ml turmeric
5 ml cumin seeds
2 ml fennel seeds (optional)
1 small knob root ginger, chopped
3 medium tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 kg uncooked rice
2 threads saffron dissolved in 250 ml boiling water

Method

• Heat oil in potjie.
• Season fish with a little salt and fry lightly until golden brown.
• Remove fish from oil and set aside.
• Add onion and garlic to potjie and sauté until transparent.
• Place all the spices and the ginger in a pestle and mortar and grind to form a fine masala.
• Add tomatoes and masala to sautéed onion and garlic and place fish fillets on top. Sprinkle rice and remaining salt over fish.
• Pour in saffron water.
• Cover with lid and simmer slowly for 1 hour or until the fish is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
• Add more boiling water if necessary.
• This dish should not be too dry.