Growing up the smell of pilau only meant one thing, visitors were coming. This meal is served in almost every Kenyan wedding and many other special occasion. For my West African friends, pilau is very similar to jollof rice. There many different ways to make pilau and over the years the ingredients in my pilau recipe have been influenced by different friends. For this pilau i used beef, rice, pilau masala, galic, onions, coconut shavings, tomato paste and salt to taste.
I love to use bones when making pilau, reason being i prefer to save most of the meat for the stew so using bones still gives the rice that rich beef flavor without crowding my rice with meat. The process from start to finish takes about 2 hrs including the preparation, this is mainly because once the pilau comes to a boil i like to put the heat on low, cover it and let it cook slowly. The other option is to let most of the water boil out then place it in the oven, both methods require time. The hardest skill to master when making pilau is how much masala to use, too little and you don't fully get the taste, too much and it tastes a hot mess. What has worked for me is one huge teaspoon of masala per cup of rice.
My recipe for beef stew varies with whatever is in my refrigerator and whatever vegetable's I'm craving at the time. For this recipe i choose to use carrots, green pepper, onions, tomatoes and to spice it up i used cayenne pepper, curry and corn starch to thicken the stew. If to be served with plain rice i usually add garlic and tomato paste but because the rice already had both i opted out of it. Other vegetables I regularly use on my beef stew include celery, potatoes and peas. I recently tasted beef stew that had sweet corn in it and it was pure genius. I will have to adopt that in the near future.