For Women’s Month, Leopard’s Leap are celebrating the women who taught us how to cook and this week we are taking a leaf from Kamini Pather’s book.

We all have memories of a grandmother, mom or aunty teaching us how to make something in the kitchen. Often, the beauty of these timeless lessons lies in our ability to make them our own. Having strong foundations that inspire us to explore and experiment is where great cooking comes from and lucky for us, South Africa has deep rooted culinary traditions from which to draw infinite knowledge and inspiration.

SA’s Culinary Powerhouse Kamini Pather

Kamini started her career in the food industry when she won the second season of MasterChef SA. Since then she has been the host and executive producer of her SAFTA winning food-travel show, Girl Eat World.

Winner of a SA Style Award as well as a Glamour Women Of The Year Award, Kamini Pather has also hosted radio segments on some of the well-loved radio stations in the Western Cape. She was a guest judge on Top Chef, has an online cookery course with Yuppie Chef and has contributed to the monthly meals at Ucook. Her mantra is quick, healthy and delicious food that is carb-conscious and made for small batch cooking.

Kamini’s thoughts on Biriyani …

I love a good biriyani. Whether it’s meat or vegetables, the unctuous flavours that seep into the hero ingredients always leave a person feeling deeply satisfied. The fact that everything is cooked on low heat, over a few hours and then topped with rice to steam through makes this layered dish feel like opening a present – the anticipation is palpable!

In its own right, biriyani is a perfect dish, but I always want to eat it more often during my day-to-day life. But one of the issues I have with this dish is that recipes always cater for a family-sized portion and more often than not, I am only cooking for 2. The other issue is the daring use of double carbs. The days of manual labour are so done, friend. I don’t need to be eating rice and potato in the same dish.

This cauliflower rice biriyani merges the worlds of intensely flavourful lamb that is marinated over-night with the light and lower carbohydrate count in the cauliflower. It also increases the number of veggies in this dish, adding another notch to your 5-a-day count.

Don’t be alarmed, while this recipe takes two days to prepare; the first day is really just creating the marinade and allowing time to have its way with the lamb – no grunt work from you. And the next day is a cinch. Believe me; this will be worth it.

Get the recipe for Kamini’s Cauliflower Rice Lamb Biriyani

Pair with…

Kamini pairs her Biriyani with a Leopard’s Leap Chescato. The Chescato is a new addition to the Leopard’s Leap range and is a wine for all seasons and occasions. The sunshine of Chenin Blanc meets the vibrancy of Moscato, making this a perfect wine for days spent in the sunshine or keeping warm in front of the fire. It’s the perfect choice for wintery Malay-type curries, like Kamini’s Biriyani, and has the added benefit of being low in alcohol, making it a perfect weeknight drink. 

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