Akni

Name: Akni
Cuisine: Bangladesh
Ingredients: 4 cinnamon sticks; 4 tsp whole cumin seeds; 1 cup sunflower oil; 2 tsp crushed ginger or 1 tbsp ginger/garlic paste (you can buy it in Indian food stores); 3 cups basmati rice, washed in a sieve; 2 lb leg of lamb cut into bite-sized pieces – a butcher will have to do this for you. Make sure all the fat is taken off the meat or use a 5-lb chicken, skinned and cut into pieces, not too small otherwise it will overcook and break up; 1 medium-sized tin of chopped tomatoes or 5 fresh tomatoes, chopped up; 6 peppercorns; 3 onions, sliced; 1 large pot plain low-fat yoghourt; 2 tsp crushed garlic; 2 tsp salt; 4 green chillies; 5 cardamom pods; 5 cloves; 4 potatoes, peeled and cut into largish chunks; 5 cups water

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Settler's Cookbook

By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Published 2009

About

Ingredients

2 lb leg of lamb cut into bite-sized pieces – a butcher will have to do this for you. Make sure all the fat is taken off the meat or use a 5-lb chicken, skinned and cut into pieces, not too small otherwise it will overcook and break up
3

Asia
Bangladesh
Main course
Gluten-free

Method

Cook the meat or chicken over a low heat in yoghourt mixed with ginger, garlic and fresh chillies in an ovenproof saucepan with a lid. When almost cooked, remove from heat.
Add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, peppercorns and cardamom pods to a mug of water.
Parboil the potatoes.
In another pan (yes, this is a problem with the dish – a pile to wash