Lamb Biriyani with Raita: Instapot

My Instapot is a 3qt size so as to co-exist peacefully with the rest of the kitchen gadgets that reside on the countertop to make our everyday lives a bit easier. This has not stopped it from being the modern akshayapatra of our household. There is nothing it cannot do on its own! This week it was time for some lamb biriyani. I started off thinking I can use the same recipe used in the chicken biriyani version of last week. How naive was I! Lamb is a whole different animal both literally and figuratively. It has a different cooking time so to match that with the cooking time for rice, a marinate step is essential. Reading a few recipe blogs helped me to decide on a course of action most comfortable for me.

This time the steps were from spicecravings where I also picked up an easy way to sauté/caramelize the onions for this recipe. Essentially I followed what I did for the chicken biriyani for flavors etc and followed most of the steps from spicecravings for the actual cooking. Results were outstanding! I don't know if I'll want to eat out for biriyani anymore when I have my own personal biriyani pot😊

In the Mix

lamb - 1.25 to 1.5 lbs cut into medium sized pieces. 
(beef can also be substituted for lamb)

basmati rice - 2.5 cups

water - 2.25 cups

mint leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

cilantro leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

ghee - 1.5tbsp

olive oil - 4-5 tbsp

for garnish and cooking

cashew nuts - optional

raisins - 1/4 cup

1/2 big onion

shallots - 6

addon -1

cloves - 6

cardamoms - 5

black pepper corns - 1.5 tsp
garlic - 8 pods
ginger - 1.25" thin piece


addon -2
kalajeera - 1.5 tsp (or shahjeera)
cinnamon stick - 3/4 crushed
bay leaf -1
bombay biryani masala - 2 tbsp
salt to taste

addon-3
green chillies - 5 sliced

addon-4

garam masala - 1.5 tsp

turmeric - 1/2 tsp

paprika/kashmiri chili -3-4 tsp

How To Do

Cut the lamb to medium sized pieces, wash and set aside. I had about 50:50 ratio of bone-in to boneless pieces. 

In a pestle, crush all items from addon-1 in that order. Cloves, cardamom, pepper, ginger, garlic. Transfer to a bowl, add the meat pieces along with all items from addon-2. Kalajeera, cinnamon stick, bayleaf, biriyani masala and mix well together. Add salt to taste and marinate overnight in fridge or at least 1-2 hours for better results.  Before cooking, take the meat out and  keep at room temp for at least 30 minutes.

Soak the rice for 20-30 minutes, drain and set aside.

Turn on oven to 425 degrees and wait for it to reach temperature. Mix the onions and shallots with salt, 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp ghee and spread on a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes stirring in between making sure the onions don't get burnt. Reserve half of the onions for cooking and keep the rest to be used later for garnish.

Turn on the sauté function of the instapot, add 1 tbsp of ghee and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the raisins until they swell up, then the cashew nuts if using and keep with the onions set aside for garnishing.

Add 1-2 tbsp more of olive oil to the instapot pan and sauté the green chili from addon-3. sauté for 1-2 minutes, then mix in the reserved onions, add salt as needed and sauté for another 1-2 minutes. Check and make sure that the sauté function is still on while this is going on.

Now add the meat mix and sauté well on both sides for 4-5 minutes. Always check the bottom of the pan and scrape with a wooden spoon to make sure that there is no sticking to the bottom while sautéing. Now add items from addon-4 garam masala, paprika, turmeric and mix well together for 2-3 minutes. Check salt.

Spread rice on top, add water and check salt for taste. Do not mix but make sure the meat stays below the water level. Sprinkle mint and cilantro leaves on top. Close the lid and pressure cook on high for 7 minutes. Pressure release at normal for 10 minutes and release any remaining pressure manually. 

Now mix lamb and rice together into a serving dish, garnish with raisins and onions and enjoy endlessly with papads and raita.

All I can say is that the magic pot is here to stay.

Raita

I realized that I have not posted how to make raita anywhere. 

Need the following:

   big red inion - 1 sliced this

   carrot - 1 small diced to small pieces

   tomato - 1 medium diced to small pieces

   1-2 green chillies - sliced to thin disks

   cilantro - 1 tbsp chopped

   salt to taste

   vinegar to taste

   yogurt - enough to mix up the above

Take the onion in a bowl, generously pour vinegar and salt and mix/squeeze all well together. Wash/drain with cold water. Now check salt and vinegar and add both just enough to taste. To this add carrot, tomato, cilantro and green chilies and mix well together. Add in enough yogurt to cover all, check salt again  and enjoy with biriyani of any kind. 

Chicken Biriyani Instapot Edition

Like the air-fryer, instapot is another invention of the decade that has impacted how my kitchen activities evolved. Biriyani while highly palatable, had always evoked the image of a labor intensive dish in my food prep plans and so it never made it into a regular menu item. That is, until Mr. Instapot took a foothold on the crowded kitchen counter.

It was an uninspiring Monday of a lazy  3-day weekend and I was walking around musing on dinner ideas for the coming week. Too lazy to go to the grocery store and equally lazy to wash dishes. That is when the idea that has struck many a harried mother the world over occurred to me too. Make something with whatever is in the kitchen. Being an engineer by profession, I'd say laying out and executing a project plan is way easier than coming up with a dish plan on a whim. Not a natural cook by any means, I found that food videos and blogs inspire the latent cook in me. So watching and reading is what I did.

I had chicken legs at home and rice and the instapot too. I liked Vahchef's idea of a flavorful chicken biriyani in a cooker and myheartbeet's instapot steps were well laid out and precise. Decided to combine both with a bit of overlap in flavors and steps and voi-la born the biriyani that hitherto will be a constant go to product, er dish in my humble kitchen.

In the Mix

chicken legs - 6 

basmati rice - 2 cups

water - 2 cups

mint leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

cilantro leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

ghee - 1tbsp

olive oil - 3 tbsp

for garnish

cashewnuts - optional

raisins

2 shallots

addon -1

cloves - 4

cardamoms - 3

black pepper corns - 1 tsp
garlic - 5 pods
ginger - 3/4" thin piece


addon -2
kalajeera - 1 tsp (or shahjeera)
cinnamon stick - 1/2 crushed
bay leaf -2
biryani masala - 1 heaped tbsp
salt to taste

addon-3
green chillies - 5 sliced

shallots - 6 sliced thin

addon-4

garam masala - 1 heaped tsp

turmeric - 1/4 tsp

paprika/kashmiri chili -2 to 3 tsp

How To Do

Soak the rice for 20-30 minutes, drain and set aside.

Halve each of the chicken legs, wash and set aside.

In a pestle, crush all items from addon-1 in that order. Cloves, cardamom, pepper, ginger, garlic.

Transfer to a bowl, add the meat pieces along with all items from addon-2.

Kalajeera, cinnamon stick, bayleaf, biriyani masala and mix well. Add salt to taste and set aside for 30 minutes.

Turn on the saute function of the instapot, add 1 tbsp of ghee and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the raisins until they swell up, then the cashew nuts and set aside. Saute 2 sliced shallots for 4-5 minutes and set aside all for garnishing later.

Add the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil to the instapot pan and add the shallots and green chili from addon-3. Add salt as needed and saute for 6-7 minutes. Check and make sure to select the saute default timer does not get turned off.

Now add the meat mix and saute well on both sides. 6-7 minutes. 

Add items from addon-4 garam, masala, paprika, turmeric and mix well together for 2-3 minutes. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot so the BURNT won't show up later on. Deglaze with bit of water if needed. Check salt.

Spread rice on top. Add water. Do not mix together. Sprinkle mint and cilantro leaves on top. Close the lid and pressure cook on high for 7 minutes. Pressure release at normal for 10-12 minutes and release any remaining pressure manually. 

Garnish with raisins/cashews and onions, remove to a serving dish and enjoy unashamedly with papads and raita.

Unfortunately picture taking couldn't be done before the dish did its disappearing act. So that will have to wait until it gets made again which can't be that far off going by the glowing reviews.