Once upon a time, on a tiny island full of contradictions, lived a girl,Alyna.
When shewas born, the gods blessed her with an extraordinary capacity for wanton boredom, Her parents tried everything.
Conventional bribery,
organized religion,
alternative religion.
Nothing worked…
untilshe discovered the ‘Akni’,
the‘Akni’ sometimes called the ‘yakni’, took pity on the 20 something year old who couldn’t quite tell you where the kitchen was. So one day sitting in a very tiny kitchen in London, fed up with boiled eggs and mashed potatoes, seduced by the memory of its many fragrant colours… lulled into false security… she said “it’s a one pot dish… how hard could it be?!?’ and chopped an onion.
Thus begins mylove of cooking.
My grandmother was Syrian. We called her Thetho and she was every inch the matriarch. Every meal was a celebration, every samosa a symphony of cheese & parsley or dhal & coriander or minced beef &green peas… for everything spicy there was something sinfully sweet and there was always, always something ready and waiting for guests-in-waiting.
From her I learned to always be ready… you never quite know who & what is coming your way.I thought I was going to be a lawyer and one bingo conversation betweentwo Parsee ladieslater I was born for advertising.
One of those Parsee ladies was and continues to be my mother…
Thetho taught mum to cook. Mum went on to grow a family, of which I am the eldest born, in the only way she knew how… loudly, completely and joyfully. From her I learned to try something new often and to make today the most important day of my life…everyday.
The other Parsee lady was/is the lovely aunty Ramba, mother of the very loud Laila; the cachumber to my Akni. We are the same in many many ways and different in many more ways. A near 20 year friendship has seen many he’s-so-cute curries, we’re-on-a-diet biriyanis and oh-no-she-didn’t chocolate biscuit puddings… from her I have learned to call it like I see it.
My grandmothers Akni, my mother’s Akni & my Akni although from the same recipe, taste completely different. And so it should. While three generations of Safadi-Jilla-Haji Omar women have cooked this dish, none of us have thought to write the recipe down, and if we did we never look at it. Because the Akni, at least the one you cook for the people you love is written in pinches and bunches and eye-full’s and screaming matches and effortless i-love-you’s… so I cant promise that the recipe below is perfect… I just know that it has been perfect for me.
You will need;
2 full garlics (the whole gediya)
about 4-6 inches of fresh ginger (or about 2 table spoons of the minced ginger)
3 green chillies
a heap of Cumin (about 3 tea spoons… I think J )
Pound this all together until it becomes a nice grainy rough paste
Chop up about 8-10 onions – Start frying the onions in a large container… remember it’s a one pot dish so make it large enough for 4 cups of rice + and all the other stuff
Fry the onions in ghee (ghee makes everything fabulous) throw in some cloves ,cardamoms (about 6-8 of each) & a stick of Cinnamon. Then add the garlic/ginger/chillie/cumin paste – fry it all together until the onions become opaque and the paste starts smelling cooked.
Add a spoon of turmeric to the mix
Then chop up 8 large tomatoes and add to the mix – keep frying it all up together
Then add salt to taste
Add half a tub of curd
Keep mixing & allow it to cook
by this point you have the base for pretty much everything – I like to add a couple of spoons of tomato paste to the mix at this point for extra body…
the next step involves adding the protein & the veg
add 6 quartered potatoes &
8 carrots chopped into lengthwise chunks &
about 2 handfuls of green beans – roughly chopped into 3 equal parts
throw in a bunch of roughly chopped coriander leaves
taste for seasoning through out the cook.
the order of what happens next depends on which protein you use, if its fish/sea food hold the protein till the end, if its Chicken or more especially beef or lamb add it now… I use about 2 kgs of prawns or if it’s a mix of prawns & fish (slice through the bone, don’t fillet) – I make it a kilo of each. If its beef (cube or rough cut chunks) again 1.5KG’s should do. If its chicken I use 15 skinless thighs. The quantity depends on you really.
If you are cooking with Beef/lamb add it ahead of the veg
Chicken about 5 minutes after the veg
If its sea food – add it once you think the potatoes / carrot are par boiled
Once the base is nearly well cooked add 4-5 cups of washed good basmati rice – use the really good (albeit expensive Basmati for the best results)
So the idea is that everything cooks together (it takes about 25/30 mins on a low flame)
Once you finish – chop fresh coriander into the rice
theAkni is nothing without the cuchumber– it bring the freshness to the dish
which is basically freshly onions sliced very fine
tomato (I like it without the seeds) also chopped into lengthwise slivers
Coriander leaves
(I also like to add salad cucumber & pomegranate – but that’s really up to you)
lime juice
salt
pepper
Hard boiled eggs are lovely to add in if you like – boil / shell then deep fry for a few seconds until the skin is golden
Fresh pineapple is also a very nice side for this dish… I sprinkle salt & chili on it
It should not take more than an hour and a half to cook everything.
The success of the Akni, in the end a question of perspective and a sense of humor.
