Traditional Zanzibar pilau: Swahili beef rice with cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and cumin

Zanzibar was for centuries the spice island, the port where Arabs, Persians, Indians and Africans traded cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and pepper, and the Swahili cuisine that was born there is the result of that mixture. Pilau is its feast dish: rice cooked in meat broth with all the spices the island exports, served at weddings, at Eid and on Fridays after prayer.

A relative of Indian pulao and Persian pilaf, Swahili pilau is darker and more aromatic: the onion is fried until almost brown, the whole spices are toasted in the oil, and the meat, with potato, cooks in the broth in which the rice then absorbs everything. The ground spice blend, pilau masala, is bought ready-made in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa and is easy to make at home.

It is a one-pot dish of a little over an hour that feeds many. The side is always kachumbari, the raw salad of tomato, onion, chili and lime that refreshes the perfume of the spices.

Recipe card

• Origin: Zanzibar, Tanzania
• Category: Main course, rice with meat
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation time: 25 minutes
• Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 600 g beef (topside or chuck) in 3 cm cubes
• 3 cups basmati or long-grain rice, rinsed and soaked for 20 minutes
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 garlic cloves and 1 piece of ginger, 4 cm, blended into a paste
• 2 large potatoes in pieces
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 6 cloves
• 5 green cardamom pods, crushed
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon pilau masala (or 1 teaspoon each of ground cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, plus 1/2 of pepper)
• 5 cups hot water
• Salt to taste
• Kachumbari to serve: 3 tomatoes, 1 red onion, 1 chili and cilantro, chopped, with lime and salt

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the onion on medium-high for 12 minutes, stirring, until deep golden, almost brown.
2. Add the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and peppercorns and fry for 1 minute, until fragrant.
3. Add the garlic and ginger paste and sauté for 1 minute.
4. Add the beef and brown for 8 minutes.
5. Add the tomato, pilau masala and salt and cook for 5 minutes.
6. Pour in the hot water, cover and cook on low for 30 minutes, until the meat is tender.
7. Add the potato and cook for 10 minutes.
8. Drain the rice and add to the pot, stirring once. The liquid should cover the rice by 1.5 cm; adjust with hot water.
9. Cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for 20 minutes, until the rice absorbs the broth. Let rest 10 minutes and fluff with a fork.
10. Serve with the kachumbari on the side.

Tips and variations

• The very dark onion is what gives pilau its brown color; do not stop frying too early.
• Chicken pilau cooks for 20 minutes before the rice; goat, for 1 hour.
• A cup of coconut milk instead of part of the water is the more coastal version.
• Remove the whole spices when serving or warn people: biting into a clove is a strong surprise.
• Leftovers reheat in a steamer or in a covered pan.
• A handful of raisins at the end is common at parties.
• Serve with a slice of lime and fresh chili for those who like it.

Zanzibar pilau is the perfume of the spice port in a pot of rice: cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and tender beef. With fresh kachumbari on the side, it is the Swahili coast at the table.