if you’ve been following me on Instagram, you already know that my kitchen is basically my favourite place to exist. it’s where i make coffee at odd hours, attempt recipes that i love, and somehow always end up having the most fun.

so i’m bringing it here.

Off the Page is the Substack home for all my recipes, where i cook straight from my cookbook collection.

on Instagram you get the reel. here you get everything else, the full recipe, the measurements, the notes, and honestly whatever i learned along the way.

it’s free to read.

welcome to my kitchen. make yourself comfortable 🫶🏾

Episode 1: Chicken Biryani

my first taste of indian cuisine started with garlic naan, and chicken tikka masala, and this changed me.

since then, i’ve been meaning to try more indian cuisine and also bought 2 more indian cookbooks.

i started today’s episode with chicken biryani, because it is one recipe that i have seen online that didn’t look easy to make

was it easy? absolutely, this was a pretty straightforward recipe.

here’s exactly how i made it.

a note on ingredients: the spices used here are a little difficult to find, especially saffron, but you can leave it out and just use turmeric only.

to make your curry paste, you’ll need the following:

• 50g coriander seeds

• 60g ground cumin

• 30g fennel seeds

• 30g fenugreek seeds

• 4 dried chillies

• 1 tbsp chilli powder

• 1 tbsp turmeric

• 150ml white wine vinegar

• 250ml oil

how to make it:

• grind the whole spices into powder (coriander, fenugreek, fennel seeds, dried chillies) and add it to the remaining ground spices.

• mix the spices with the vinegar and 75ml water to form a thin paste.

• heat the oil in a large heavy-bottom pan and stir-fry the paste for 10minutes or until all the water is absorbed.

• the paste is cooked when the oil rises to the top.

• cool slightly and spoon into sterilized jars or containers.

a note on things i’d do or tweak: the process was straightforward, and if i were to make this again, i’d cover with a tin foil when placing it in the oven, add salt to the rice while cooking, bake it in a shallow oven dish as opposed to using my deep oven dish and use more chicken.

i think that this would have been so good if the quantity of chicken i used was a lot. i’d also add more chillies, i wanted more heat, which was added with the spicy tomato chutney i used.

made this? tag me @thelifeofamaka on Instagram so i can see it 🫶🏾

love, Chiamaka 💕