Lamb Biriani

CLICK ON ANY OF THE GARDEN SCENES TO ACCESS GALLERY. EACH ONE CAN BE VIEWED FULL SIZE BY SCROLLING DOWN AND CHECKING BOX AT BOTTOM RIGHT.

AARON AND EACH COOKING IMAGE CAN BE ENLARGED WITH A CLICK, OR TWO IF REQUIRED.

Whilst not exactly sunny, the sky did brighten somewhat this morning, whilst I wandered around the garden, particularly pleased to see that all the camellias and daffodils had survived the recent inclement weather.

Aaron cleaning decking

Among other tasks today, using his pressure washer, Aaron cleaned much of the winter’s mould from the decking and garden chairs. As usual, I gave him an A4 print of this photograph.

Jackie spent much of the morning preparing her first ever lamb biriani. This was made with four lumps of neck fillet and two leg steaks totalling 800 grams in weight.

With her sharp knife close enough to her fingers to frighten the life out of me, she cut the meat into manageable pieces.

Biriani ingredients

Next she laid out basmati rice, ground almonds, ground ginger, Knorr lamb stock cube, tikka paste, mushrooms, garlic, onions, Greek yoghurt, salt, pepper, milk, and olive oil.

Lamb precooked

While pre-cooking the lamb in a pressure cooker,

Slicing onions and mushrooms

the onions, mushrooms, and garlic were all sliced quite small.

Garlic crushing

Jackie crushes the garlic with the flat of a knife before

Garlic slicing

chopping it up.

Frying onions , mushrooms, and garlic

Onions, mushrooms, and garlic are fried together.

Cooking meat, spices, stock

The pre-cooked meat, ground almonds and ginger, and tikka paste with a little oil             are mixed with stock from the pre-cooked lamb,

Biriani fragrant mixture

and stirred over the heat.

Yoghurt addition

Any natural yoghurt is then added.

Saffron rice

Meanwhile, basmati rice is boiled before adding pinches of saffron and a little milk.

Boiled egg,rice, onions, meat biriani mixes

An egg is boiled hard. This; the saffron rice; the meat; and the onions, mushrooms and garlic are all set aside until the final stages.

The Culinary Queen took the bare bones of this from a magazine in the waiting room outside the x-ray department of Lymington Hospital whilst I was being twisted about and photographed. She wrote them on a Feedback form. Naturally she added her own stamp.

Here is her list of ingredients

and a description of the method.

Lamb biriani

Finally, having blended the rice with the onion mixture and the meat, and garnished the whole with boiled egg, cucumber, and tomato, this is what Jackie served up for dinner this evening. Mixed fruit crumble and custard was our dessert. The creator drank Hoegaarden, and I drank 16 Little Pigs 2016.

 

 

104 comments

  7. Derrick, your garden is coming along nicely. I love the magnolias and daffodils. And tell Jackie she had my mouth watering with her lamb biriani. I haven’t had that for awhile.

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  11. Oh my – I’m almost tempted to go to all that effort it sounds so delicious – I can almost smell it! I’d be making the rice yellow with turmeric however…… Excellent photography Derrick!!

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  15. Nice recipe! That photo with the knife so close to her fingers was scary, indeed! Love the whole process of cooking. Felt like we were there watching!

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  21. There’s no way the Culinary Queen will cut herself, did you not notice how her fingers are bent in and the knuckles act as a guide? Even if she is cackhanded, (well lefties are called that here).
    Must admit that’s how I’ve obtained quite a few recipes,doctors surgeries and womens magazines an excellent source. About the only thing my mobile phone camera is useful for, saves me the bother of writing them down.
    Now if I was to prepare this dish I’d change the name slightly; I’d drop a couple of the ‘i’s’
    Lamb Brian? hmm doesn’t sound right,might have to give it a miss. the War Office doesn’t like lamb much anyway. 🙁

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  22. Is there any other way to chop garlic? I use a small cleaver and give it a good wack before chopping, I like the cleaver for this work, perhaps you should buy Jackie one I’m sure she’d love it once used to it 🙂

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    2. Hi Brian, I have got a cleaver somewhere and will get it out and use that next time. My Dad always called me cack handed too, I took after my Mum, she was forced to use her right hand when she was a child, and wrote right handed, though she could use both hands for writing

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      1. My dad would have been cackhanded too had it been allowed back in 1909 when he started school. It was damned stupidity, no wonder poor old Percy smoked himself to death.
        I’ve not been using a cleaver for that long but I wouldn’t use anything else now, especially for chopping onions garlic carrots and celery, wallop wallop wallop all done 😀

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      2. Hello again Jackie, I just noticed the eggs in the big picture at the top, and noticed that between the yellow and the white there was just a tinge of grey; and was wondering; did you just let them cool naturally or did you leave them in a wee bit too long? I always drop mine into a bowl of really cold, ice water, lots of ice, which stops the grey and makes them look so much nicer.

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          1. I thought that was the problem.
            By dropping them into ice water it stops the cooking process immediately, and leave there for 5 or 6 minutes and the shell just peals away and you have perfect hard boiled eggs

  26. Both Aaron and Jackie have been very busy and have had spectacular results. Although we are vegetarians, the ingredients of Curry and other other such fare remain the same. Of course, the version of vegetarin biryani goes in not a dissimilar fashion. I could even smell the spices!

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  29. Both the garden and biryani look good. Slight variations on the recipes used by us but everyone has their own biryani recipe. The best thing about a dish like that is that you can do whatever you like to it. Please tell Jackie that the turmeric rice will work just as well.

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  33. I’m going to put this post in my keep file foolishly imagining that I will cook it one day. Your camellias look fabulous, mine are still in bud except for a few blooms that came out in February.

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  39. Jackie was sure busy preparing that meal. Nice to get things pressure washed. What a differrence it makes!

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  41. Well now.. that looks very good… were there left overs… ? is this a dish that is just as good the next day, should there be any left?

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    1. There was enough for eight. The two of us enjoyed it two days running and put the other half in the freezer. Jackie says she would greatly reduce the yoghurt next time. Thanks a lot, Dymoon

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  42. I love the lamb with bismati rice which is so much naturally sweet and pairs well in this and other dishes. The recipe sounds delightful, Jackie! Smiles, Robin 🌞✨

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  43. I agree with everyone who commented; it looks wonderful.
    BUT I must admit that the first thing I thought of when I saw the first picture of preparing the recipe was “That’s a lot of pots to wash afterwards!” Yep I know, I am too pragmatic.

    Reply

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