Lamb Biriyani

I am back to the cooking, taking pics and writing about it mode.

I always had the idea that a biriyani is a difficult item to make all by myself unlike fried rice or pulau. The name biriyani somehow conjures up delicate, elaborate and time consuming effort behind it. So when we visited a friend’s place and they had prepared biriyani for us I was quite wonderstruck that they would go to so much trouble for us. You see, we sort of forced an invitation on them because we were visiting their state and they graciously invited us for dinner even though both were sort of sick. So this was an extra surprise. When I expressed this feeling of awe at the extent of their hospitality, the friend sheepishly informed me that actually a biriyani is the most trouble free dinner preparation as it can stand on itself on the dinner table with the simple accompaniment of some raita, papad and pickle. I realized then that this is true because if you prepare plain or even fried rice, then you have to have at least one or two fish and meat items, a dry vegetable item, a gravied curry and other such accompaniments including cutlets or even appam and stew. At least that is how it goes in my head. Ever since that, I have dazzled many a group of friends and family at dinner with my “elaborately prepared” lamb biriyani:-) They are all probably onto it I know but are always kind to shower me with good words of praise.

My husband is not a great fan of chicken as I’d mentioned earlier and I don’t really look forward to seeing beef in a biriyani. So we settled in on lamb as the ideal meat for “our” biriyani. We don’t use any other meat but the lamb available in regular grocery stores. I did try it with the goat meat available from ‘halal’ stores but somehow did not come out as well as the lamb.

My recipe started out heavily dependent on KMM’s recipe for biriyani but evolved over time to a proper creation.

In The Lamb Mix
Lamb – 2 lbs, cut to decent sized pieces.
Cinnamon stick – 2” piece
Cardamom – 4 crushed
Cloves – 12 to 14
Ginger – 1 ½”
Garlic – 4 pods
Green chili – 2 (each sliced into 4 pieces)
Masala powder – ¼ tsp (this can be made in house by adding together cinnamon powder, cardamom powder and cloves powder together in equal or reasonable proportions)
Onion – ½ big red onion sliced thin lengthwise
Grated coconut – ¼ cup (mix with a little water to hydrate if dry – hydrating & coconut optional)
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coriander powder – 2-3 tbsp
Kashmiri Chili powder – ½ tbsp
Chili powder – 1 tsp
Milk – 2 cups (warmed in microwave)
Water enough to cook lamb
Salt to taste
Oil – as needed (I use olive oil and find that 1 tsp of ghee will do a lot towards enhancing taste. Adding more ghee than this does not seem to benefit and rather gives the food a heaviness that we don’t prefer)

For Marinade:
Vinegar – 2 tbsp
Slat to taste
Chili powder – ¼ tsp
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp

How To Do
Wash the lamb pieces and marinate 1 hour or more (in fridge if more) with salt, vinegar and the marinade powders.

Chop the ginger, garlic and green chili together. Heat oil in a large pan and roast cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Add masala powder here and fry for a short time before spices go burnt. Remove from heat when in doubt and keep sautéing. Add the chopped stuff and sauté on low heat for a while. Add onions, salt and curry leaves and stir together till onions give up looking stiff. Add the coconut and fry for a short time and add the remaining curry powders. Roast on slow heat till the mix rolls around or the aroma fills the air. This is an important part. Be patient while the gravy gets nicely roasted and you will be well rewarded in taste. Add the ghee at any point in the above steps.

Now add the lamb pieces and blend well together. Fry mildly for 5-6 minutes making sure the pieces are stirred for even exposure. Add the warm milk and enough water just to reach the top of the pieces and stir together. Check salt and add if needed. Wait till it boils at high heat and then cover and cook in medium heat. Lamb takes longer than the other meats which gives you time to do productive stuff like finishing off that half read paper or to down a glass of orange juice to hydrate yourself from all the proximity to heat:-)Cook about 18-23 minutes. Cook more if needed. Meat needs to be fully cooked. Make sure that gravy is concentrated rather than watery. The last step can be open and cook for 5 minutes or so to reduce water if needed. Remove from heat.

In the Biriyani Mix

Basmati rice – 6 cups
Black Raisins – 6-7 tbsp (only because I love them so! Add or remove as you please)
Turmeric powder – 2 tsp (add or remove based on your color preference)
Shallots – 10 sliced thin
Curry leaves – 1 or 2 sprigs
Ghee or olive oil – as needed
Salt to taste

How To Do

For Rice:
Cook the rice in a rice cooker following the exact water requirement for the cooker. Usually when I cook basmati rice I always add lots more water than recommended as otherwise I find the rice very dry and hard cooked for our palate. But for the biriyani preparation this non-sticking but cooked format is ideal. Don’t forget to add some salt to the water when cooking.

For Flavor:
Heat oil in a pan and sauté the turmeric powder, add sliced shallots and sauté some more and add curry leaves and stir together. Add the raisins and salt - remember the rice has some salt already - and sauté the whole mix till the raisins fluff up to a ball and the onions are an appetizing crispy brown. Remove from heat.

Take a large bowl and mix the prepared onion/raisin mix with the rice using a fork so as the rice gets colored evenly yellow. At this point my daughter likes to help herself to a healthy dose of the rice. She prefers it this way before the meat gets added on. My son is not into colors when it comes to rice and I make sure that I set aside some untouched white rice for him:-)

Layering and Oven
Preheat oven to 250 Deg. Take a baking pan and coat with melted butter. Place the lamb pieces first. Keep all the gravy and some small pieces for the next layer. Then add a layer of the prepared rice. Now spread the gravy and remaining lamb pieces and top off with another layer of rice. The oven step is just to bring out the flavors and blend. So cover with an aluminum foil and keep in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Turn off oven and keep inside till you are ready to serve. No need to mix the layers as that will happen on its own when serving. Enjoy with raita, papads and lime pickle for the full experience. Remember, only lime pickle goes with biriyani. OK, you are free to select a pickle of your own choice having toiled this far:-)

How to make this an easy and tasty task:
Marinate and prepare the lamb curry 2 or 3 days ahead. Keep in the fridge. Sitting in curried state makes it tastier. Make the flavor mix also 2 or 3 days ahead and keep in the fridge. May not necessarily increase the taste but reduces effort on D-Day.

Now all you need on the day you plan to make the biriyani is just cook the rice, heat up the lamb and flavor mix and do the layering and oven step from above. Raita is best prepared the day it is being served, but papads can be made as early as one day ahead if your climate is not humid.