From Donuts to Delirium

When it comes to food, I am a simple girl… seriously!!! I don’t tend to go for things that are overly complex. My idea of food heaven is scrambled eggs and a slice of cheese on a toasted bagel, or crispy fish and chips with tarter sauce, or maybe just some crusty bread with overpriced French butter. Occasionally I do have a hankering for something “fancy,” but for the most part, if  I had to eat bagel sandwiches every day for a month for dinner, you would not hear a peep of complaint from me. Simple uncomplicated flavours are where its at for me (although I do insist that the ingredients that make up my meal are of the best quality).

Mr P likes the best too, but no egg and cheese bagel is going to fit the bill as far as he’s concerned. All his life he grew up eating complex curries. His mother is an amazing cook, the best I know, but she has spent a lot of her time chained to the stove. I wanted to be able to make Mr P something that would really impress him. Something that would rival one of his mom’s dishes. This is why I really wanted to make him an authentic biryani.  In choosing which recipe I would attempt, I scoured the Internet and found some favourites. I asked my dear husband to pick the one he’d like. Of course, he selected the most complicated of the bunch.  This particular recipe is constructed over the course of several days, and though it was not necessarily difficult, it was very involved. Lots of kitchen cleanup and dishwashing was involved in order to clear up the “aftermath.” I now have a greater insight into why my mother-in-law can be so cranky! The result, however, was authentic and deeply delicious. It was savoury, but not especially spicy. The biryani had quite a comfort food factor about it, but you can tell that there was something a bit special about it, something “elevated.”

I think this might be called “Wedding Lamb Biryani” for a reason: save it for an occasion. Life is too short, and ibuprofen is in short supply. I will not be running back into the kitchen to make this again any time soon, but I am going to keep this recipe as an ace up my sleeve for when I really  need to impress some of my husband’s relatives. That being said, Mr P did call me after having it again at work today for his dinner (as the recipe serves 8, we had a lot left over). He told me it was the best biryani he’d ever tasted… THE BEST. That made me feel like all my hard work was worth it. I guess if he loves it that much, I will brave it again. A smart housewife is wise to collect what I call “leverage tools.”  I am dying for a trip to Barcelona, and until I’ve got those tickets in my grubby (but soft and lovely) hands, Wedding Lamb Biryani it is.

I’d like to thank everyone who took part in this challenge with me. Do have a nosy around and check out their incredible biryanis (note: these links will be updated throughout the day as we are all on different time zones).

Stevie and his partner Hegui, my lovely co-hosts, at Weird Food Combinations

Teczcape: An Escape to Food’s Vegetairan Biryani with Chayote

The Glamorous Glutton

Vanessa from Sweet Artichoke

Moinette

Wedding Lamb Biryani from Serious Eats

Ingredients for lamb:

• Canola oil
• 3 to 4 medium to large onions, thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 to 3½ pounds boneless lamb shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
• Biryani Spice Blend (recipe follows)
• 1½ cups plain low-fat yogurt (not nonfat)
• 2 cups whole canned tomatoes with their liquid, crushed
• Ginger-Garlic-Nut Purée (recipe follows)

Ingredients for rice:

• 4 cups basmati or other long-grain rice
• 4 tablespoons salt
• ½ teaspoon saffron threads, or a generous
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¹⁄³ cup milk
• Unsalted butter for the baking dish

Ingredients for garnishes:

• ¼ cup canola oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium to large onion, thinly sliced
• Salt
• ½ cup raisins
• ¾ cup roasted cashews or almonds

Ingredients for biryani spice blend:

• 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 4-inch cinnamon stick, broken
• 1 generous tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Ingredients for ginger-garlic-nut puree:

• ½ medium onion, cut into chunks
• 6 large garlic cloves
• 2½-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into pieces
• ¹⁄³ cup salted broken cashews
• 1 fresh serrano chile, or to taste
• Canola oil

For the Biryani Spice Blend: Blend all of the ingredients in a small bowl.

For the Ginger-Garlic-Nut Purée: Make the purée by combining the onion, garlic, ginger, cashews, and chile in a food processor and puréeing to a paste. Generously coat the bottom of a 12-inch, straight-sided sauté pan with oil. Heat the pan over medium heat, stir in the ginger-garlic-nut paste, and sauté, stirring and scraping up any brown bits that are sticking to the pan for about 18 minutes. Watch carefully that the paste doesn’t burn. You want it to become dark golden brown and have a rich, spicy aroma. Adjust the heat as needed, and stir often. Scrape the paste from the pan, adding a little water to collect all the glaze and browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Set the paste aside or refrigerate it for up to 2 days.

Make the lamb: One or 2 days before serving, place a 12-inch straight-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat, coat it with a thin film of oil, and add the sliced onions with a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Sauté the onions over medium-high to high heat until they turn golden with lots of dark, crisp edges, about 6 minutes. Push the onions to the edges of the pan and spread out the lamb in the center. Reduce the heat to medium. Sear the lamb on all sides. It will throw off some liquid; let it cook away. Adjust the heat so the onions don’t burn. Once the meat is seared, stir in the spice blend and cook until it is aromatic, about 3 minutes. Add the yogurt to the lamb, ½ cup at a time, simmering each addition for 2 minutes, or until it disappears into the sauté. Stir in the tomatoes, the ginger purée, and enough water to barely cover the meat. Adjust the heat so the sauce simmers very slowly and cook, uncovered, for 1 to 1½ hours, or until the meat is tender and the sauce is reduced and rich tasting. There will be a generous amount of it.

Here, you can see I’ve built a rice “wall” around the rim of the pot. I placed the lamb mixture in the centre. There is no rice underneath the lamb, it is just around the edges.

Make the rice: The day the biryani is served, rinse the rice in several changes of water, until the water is clear. Then soak the rice in enough water to cover (with 1 tablespoon of the salt added) for 30 minutes to 6 hours. Drain. Lightly toast the saffron for 30 seconds to 1 minute in a small, dry saucepan over medium heat. Immediately add the milk. Pull the pan from the heat and set aside to steep for a minimum of 20 minutes. Fill a 6-quart pot two thirds full of water. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons salt and bring the water to a boil. Drop in the rice and cook it like pasta for about 5 minutes, or until it’s tender but with a slight firmness. Drain in a sieve immediately and spread the rice out on a towel or cookie sheet so it cools quickly.

Here I have covered the lamb mixture with the remaining rice, and sprinkling over the saffron infused milk. That saffron smelled soooooo good!

Assemble the biryani: Take the lamb out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 325ºF. You are going to dome the lamb, covered with the rice, in a baking dish; tent it with foil; and bake until it’s heated through. Butter the inside of a shallow 3- to 3½-quart baking dish. Mound the lamb in the center and cover it with the rice, patting it with a spatula into a smooth dome. Drizzle the rice with the saffron milk. Tent foil over the dome so that it does not touch the rice. Seal it around the edges of the dish, then bake the biryani for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it is hot at its center.

Make the garnishes: While the biryani bakes, prepare several layers of paper towels on a baking sheet next to the stove. In a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil and butter and fry the onion until crisp. Lift the onion out with a slotted spoon, spread on the paper towels, and sprinkle with salt to taste. In the same oil, fry the raisins until they puff, and scoop them out onto the towels. Finally, briefly fry the nuts until golden, then cool them on the towels. You are done!

To serve the biryani, remove it from the oven, lift off the foil, and scatter the garnishes over the top. Serve it hot, making sure each helping has some of the garnishes. Pass a yogurt raita along with the biryani.