chicken Biryani

While we have many spices and ingredients  available, I though I would try out this packaged mix for Chicken Briyani. Besides as I season usually free hand, I am curious to taste the blend of this mix.

READY ! those red balls are frozen peeled tomatoes from the garden this year, The chicken is frozen.

Simple enough ? I’m substituting peanuts for cashews. No raisins.

Mix the seasonings with the yogurt, sloppily a bit.

Heat oil…

cooking the onions….

Add the rest of the ingredients and water….

mix …

cover….

Simmer 10 minutes

prepare the rice …

chop peanuts

Add rice to chicken mixture…

Melt the butter….

drizzle the butter (or ghee) over the mixture add the nuts.

Cover and cook 15 minutes

SERVE !

I like the flovor, yes, spicy like I would make it . Now I would replicate the spice mixture from what I have on hand.

 

recently…

Not really any new recipes lately that I’ve documented yet. More to come !

 

shopping

revamping the grocery purchasing method. Almost all non perishables are bought on line and delivered to door.

Pros

• no transportation cost
• no driving to store, parking, picking groceries, loading to from vehicle.
• virtually 24 hour shopping
• easy reordering of frequently used items
• free shipping*

Cons

• limited availability of some items
• pricing more expensive on some items
• no in store shopping experience
• no fresh food items**

The biggest advantage is the convenience and reduced time and labor of having staple items delivered. It may become monotonous to constantly buy household items like toilet tissue, Kleenex, dish washing and laundry  detergent and lugging them home. The list expands to kitchen staple items , baking goods and bathroom items, tooth paste, hygiene needs, hair care products.

Retailers offer delivery services like the well know Pea Pod service of the Stop & Shop retailer. Target has also jumped on the bandwagon expanding into the grocery online and delivery sector. Others like Amazon may offer cost effective solutions to grocery delivery under their Prime subscription service.  Not to mention others like Jet and Boxed are also worth a look. You might do better on some direct to consumer sites that some food purveyors offer if their brands are  competitively priced and the brands you use.

*free shipping: currently most of the online big box retailers offer free shipping, to an extent. A minimum purchase amount is needed, usually $25.00 or $35.00 to get the free shipping. Not all of the items qualify, usually if an item is offered by a reseller on the site then shipping cost for that item(s) may be added on. Lately, some of the big box online retailers have curtailed shipping some single items, now, to qualify for shipping  multi packs must be ordered.  The pricing of these multi packs may be more than the unit price of the single item only offered for store pick up.

Limited availability: Some items previously purchased are out of stock or no longer offered by the retailer but available through a much inflated cost by a reseller. A specific brand of microwave popcorn is no longer offered but a reseller on the site charges an exorbitant price for the same item. Why a retailer cannot ship an item that is stocked and put on the shelve in the brick and mortar is a mystery, possibly an algorithm is at work to minimize cost of the free shipping offered by the retailer.

** While fresh food usually is not offered, it depends on location, Walmart for instance has a grocery shopping site within their main site. Here all the kitchen items are offered from items like celery, fruit and vegetables, to all the other items usually found in the pantry. The catch is only certain locations are available for the service and shipping , my address not available. If you want to pre-shop online and drive in a pickup the items, no problem. Some  third party delivery services may be available but you have to factor in the cost.

An example of an item offered with only shipping offered on the 4 pack

“best value”appears the same price as 4 of the singles

Shipping not available for the 10 lb bag .55 cent per lb

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shipping not available for the single 4 lb bag at 56 cents per lb

Shipping available for either 2 or 4  of the 4 lb bags at 87 or 86 cents per lb versus the 55 cent price per lb of the 10 lb bag  or the 56 cents per lb of the single 4 lb bag  not available for shipping. May not be a big deal to some but staple items frequently used can add up and cost comparisons by percentages can give a better overall analysis when figuring per unit cost if this item is constantly purchased.

Lets face it, if the new consumer is introduced to grocery shopping via online rather than spending time at the brick and mortar and is also enamored with delivery, then the retailer has to be competitive in it’s execution and pricing. There will be some that still value the in store experience but find other ways of social interactions. They may eventually relegate the duty of shopping to their mobile device smart assistant and have those items appear at the home.