A plate full of hot, fragrant rice and lamb cooked with crispy onions and spiced mint coriander sauce. Taste best with chicken 65 or chicken curry 🙂 Weekend it is! 🙂 go for it! Comfort and happy feeling! 🙂
Biryani is one of the most popular dishes in India. The best thing about biryani is that it tastes great even the next day and the day after. It will save you from cooking for next three days and it will never be like you taste leftover food! Awesome right?
There will be no one saying NO to biryanis, let it be Tomato biryani, vegetable biryani, chicken biryani, shrimp biryani, palak biryani, chickpea briyani, potato biryani, paneer biryani, dum aloo biryani, cashew biryani, lamb biryani, egg biryani, mushroom biryani and so on! I have a biryani collection and it is one of the highest viewed pages.
Biryani is not strenuous at all to prepare like many of them believe. It’s just time-consuming and it need that little extra special care when we do it. Try to use all the ingredients listed, each ingredient has a special role in the biryani and compliments one with another. It is worth to do all this for the final taste. I have three lamb Biryani recipes – Ambur Lamb Biryani, Hyderabadi lamb biryani & Restaurant Style Lamb Biryani.
I made this long back, saved this picture and recipe in my draft and just forgot to post it. However I made this a week back for my love and it reminded me to post it. He said he loved it 🙂 Best feeling! Cooking always makes me happy and it makes me feel complete if I cook for him. “Happiness is cooking for him” – is surely my slogan. That’s the beauty of love I think :D. Biryani makes him happy, and it makes me love him more to see his smile :). I made this with chicken kurma as he said he wants that combo. I wasn’t actually sure about the combo, but he said it was good. Probably you guys should try 🙂 Usually he says biryani is good with chicken 65. 😉 enough of my love – here goes the recipe:
- • • Oil – 1tbsp
- • • Bay leaf – ½
- • • Cinnamon – 1 thin piece
- • • Cloves – 3
- • • Cardamom pods -2
- • • Basmati Rice – 2.5 cups
- • • Lamb – 400 gms (I used neck)
- • • Biryani Masala – 1 tbsp
- • • Garlic – 4, chopped
- • • Green chilli – 2, slit into two
- • • Red Onion – 2 medium sized, sliced
- • • Tomato – ½, medium sized, sliced
- •
- for garnish:
- • • Saffron – ½ tsp dissolved in ½ cup warm milk
- • • Ghee – 2 tbsp (or oil)
- • • Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp, chopped finely
- • • Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
- For fried onions: (comes to 2 tbsp)
- • • Onions – 1 small onion, ½ cup, sliced thinly
- • • Oil – to fry (3 - 4 tbsp)
- For rice masala:
- • • Khus khus (white poppy seeds) – ½ tbsp.
- • • Cumin seeds/ jeera – ½ tbsp
- • • Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp.
- • • Garlic – 4 pods
- • • Ginger – 2 inches
- • • Green chilli – 7
- • • Mint – ½ cup, chopped finely
- • • Coriander leaves – ¼ cup, chopped finely.
For Fried onions: or you can use store brought ones:- Heat a pan with oil, add the sliced onions and cook in medium heat till turn golden brown. Stir in the middle so that it does not stick to the bottom. Set aside.
- For lamb: Add lamb, salt for lamb, then add water till it the lamb is correctly covered, not more or less. Cook for 1 hour and cook it covered in medium low heat or put it in a pressure cooker for 5 whistles. Water will not be evaporated totally, which is good. Store the water.
- For masala:
- Grind the garlic, ginger, mint, coriander, poppy seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, chillis with two tbsp. of water into a smooth paste.
- Now take a big pan, add oil or ghee in medium heat, add the spices (cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves), and add garlic , sliced onions, chillies and sauté for a minute till they get translucent. Now add the tomatoes, grinded paste, biryani powder and sauté them till the raw smell leaves and little oil oozes out, probably 2 minutes.
- Now add the rice, cooked lamb without water and mix well. Sauté for a minute to allow the masala to get mixed.
- Now add water from lamb and then normal water( Quantity of water to be added is for one cup of rice , it is 1.5 cups of water). Mix well and close the lid tight and keep it in medium heat for 10 minutes and keep it in low for 15 minutes.
- I always close my biryani pan with foil to make it sealed, then a plate and then something heavy (like mortar and pestle).
- Now add the marinated fried onions, chopped coriander, lemon juice for garnish and Drizzle the saffron milk over the rice. and Switch off, and keep it closed for another 5 minutes. They will help the rice to get the saffron flavors and vice versa.
3. If it is spicy in the end, squeeze some lemon, it will reduce the heat and enhance the flavors also.
2. Adjust your salt level as per your taste.