Lamb biryani

I had really been looking forward to seeing the Gypsy Kings at Kenwood House as part of the English Heritage Picnic concerts. The blurb on the website promised "a glorious summer's evening to remember" . . . "there's no better way to enjoy a perfect summer evening" they said. What they failed to mention is that there are probably better ways to spend a drizzly, cold summer's evening. Yes, of course, it rained. But in true stoic British fashion, we all packed our umbrellas in with our picnic blankets and went regardless!

Anyway, we did have a most unusual encounter. The family in front of us was big and loud and fun and had been eating all this wonderful looking and smelling lamb biryani all night. The contributor of the lamb biryani kept offering it around to the family and I couldn't help but think, mmm lamb biryani, I could eat some lamb biryani!

Imagine then how bad/excited I felt when towards the end of the night, she said we've got too much and turned around and offered us some. Of course, we declined, but she gave us some anyway along with a homemade chapati. It was delicious - better than any Indian restaurant she told us and she was right. Delicately spiced, soft tender lamb and amazingly for an outdoor picnic concert in the rain, still warm.

I was inspired. So, I decided to make some myself. A bit of internet research and I chose this recipe. The list of ingredients was long and the method even longer, but I was happy to invest the time. It paid off! This version was hotter and spicier than the first one and not as saucy, but the meat was meltingly tender. The depth of flavour was quite lovely and even though the rice looked quite dry, it was all very moist.

You would need to allow a good 4 to 5 hours to make this, but it makes a huge quantity (we have frozen lots of leftovers), so you get a bit of a return on your investment.


Lamb biryani
UKTV Food
Prep time: 1 hr, plus marinating and soaking Cook time: 1 hrs 50 mins
Serves 8-10

½ tsp strands Saffron
¾ tsp cardamom seeds
2 blades mace
4 Onions
6 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for deep frying
8 cm Ginger, peeled
6 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 lime, juice only
750g Lamb shoulder, cut into 4cm cubes
Green cardamom
6 Black cardamom
5 cm cinnamon sticks
½ tsp Cloves
2 dried Bay leaves
1 tbsp Garam masala
3 green chillies, deseeded and sliced
200 ml Greek yogurt
450g Basmati rice
handful mint leaves
2 tbsp Butter

1. Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside until ready to use.

2. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the cardamom seeds and mace to a powder and leave on one side; you'll need this later when layering up the rice and meat.

3. Slice 2 of the onions then sprinkle them with salt and set aside for 20 minutes. Squeeze out any excess water from the onions and pat them dry with paper towels. Deep-fry the sliced onions in hot oil until golden and drain on paper towels. Set half aside for garnishing the biryani.

4. Transfer the remaining fried onions to a food processor, pour in 3 tablespoons of hot water then purée; you should have about 2 tablespoons of onion paste.

5. Finely grate half of the ginger and combine with the garlic, chilli powder, and lime juice in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the onion paste and add the lamb. Mix everything together and leave to marinate for 1 hour.

6. Dice the 2 remaining onions. Heat 6 tablespoons of oil in a large casserole pan set over a medium heat and soften the diced onions for 5 minutes, without colouring.

7. Slice the remaining ginger into fine strips and set aside. Add the green and brown cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaves to the pan. Fry for about 30 seconds, until you get a warm, spicy aroma.

8. Tip in the meat and its marinade and add the garam masala, green chillies, and ginger strips. Bring to simmering point and gradually add the yogurt, a tablespoon at a time. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the lamb is tender and the masala thickened; the sauce should be well-reduced and almost clinging to the meat.

9. Cover the rice with cold water and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Ten minutes before the meat is ready, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drain the rice and add to the pan then cook for 5 minutes - it should be half-cooked and still have bite to it. Drain the rice in a colander.

10. Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3. Put half of the hot meat in the bottom of a clean casserole pan. Cover with half of the freshly boiled rice and sprinkle with half of the ground cardamom and mace spice mixture and half of the mint.

11. Top with the remaining meat and rice. Scatter over the rest of the spice mix, mint leaves, and the sliced browned onions that you fried in step 3. Dot the surface with butter and drizzle over the saffron and its soaking liquid. Cover the biryani with wet greaseproof (waxed) paper and a well-fitting lid.

12. Bake for 40 minutes, until the rice is perfumed and perfectly cooked. Gently fluff up the grains with a fork and serve straight from the pan.