I have never had much luck with cooking biryani at home. The recipes always seemed too complicated and long and the end product never worth the hours of slogging in the kitchen. I got recipes from my mamoo, from cookbooks, web-sites and what-have-you but was never satisfied with the outcome. And people eating it were also not satisfied, it wasn't that it didn't taste good but it wasn't biryani. Now, biryani for me is fragrant, non-greasy and NOT chilli-hot. So, I am really talking about a particular kind of biryani (the awadhi one, I guess) and definitely not the kind served in restaurants in and around Bangalore (Double Masala Chicken Biryani!!!). I do like the Calcutta Biryani but wish it would be less greasy. I like the "real" Hyderabadi biryani too but wish it was less spicy. I really dislike the tongue searing, gut burning variety of Andhra biryani where you can taste nothing except chillies in the rice and meat. And I am ok with the traditional Dilli Biryani but it has a lot more gravy than I expect in a biryani. So, you can see why I can never get my biryani right, in fact, I had almost given up on biryani being something that can be successfully made at home.
I don't know why I agreed to make biryani today. There was boneless lamb at home (most biryani is made with meat on bone) and I had to do something about it. And I hadn't tried lamb biryani in years. I found this recipe and decided to try it but of course, I modified things to my kitchen and convenience. I also made a sort of lamb korma to go with it, just improvised on my own. This was in case the biryani came out dry or not-up-to-the-mark, we could still have something for lunch. The biryani came out fragrant, and just right- ok may be on the lighter side but I like light and fragrant biryanis. The korma was more rich but it went quite well with the biryani.
To cook it:
I marinated the lamb (750 gms) for 2 hrs in about 1/4 cup of yoghurt with 1 tbsp of onion, ginger and garlic, 1 tsp of garam masala powder and salt.
For the Biryani:
Slice and fry two big onions till they are brown and crisp. Keep aside. In a pressure cooker take a tbsp of oil and a tsp of ghee. When it is hot put in all the whole spices (two black cardamom, 6 green cardamom, 2 2" stick of cinnamon, 7-8 peppercorns, 6 cloves, 1 bay leaf). Fry and when they start popping put in 4-5 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 " cube of ginger minced, and one very small onion chopped. Fry till they brown and add 2/3rd of the marinated lamb (~500 gms) and fry till it starts browning. Now add 1 med tomato chopped, 1/2 of the fried onions and mix and fry for a minute or so. Add about 1/4 th cup of yoghurt and 2 tbsp of chopped mint leaves. Add salt as well (remember that this is the gravy that will flavour the entire biryani so the seasoning has to be right). Stir well and then pressure cook for about 3-4 whistles on high and 1 on low (this actually depends on how you like your lamb and the cut and quality of it).
In the meantime, clean and soak 500 gms of basmati rice for about 15-30 mins. Drain and lightly fry in a tsp of ghee. Cover with water and add 2 black cardamom, 1/2" inch cinnamon stick and half a bay leaf. Boil till the rice is 2/3 rd done. Drain and keep aside.
Now assemble. In a handi shaped pot, first put a layer of meat gravy, cover with rice, sprinkle with chopped green coriander and a handful of fried onions, meat-rice-coriander-onion...continue to layer in this order ending with rice. Heat 2 tbsp of milk and add a few strands of saffron to it along with a few grains of sugar. Let it infuse for a couple of minutes and then daub it all over the rice top. Sprinkle the rest of the fried onions and some cashews (or almonds ) all over. And at this stage you have to give dum either in the oven or on stove top. I did it on the stove top for about 20 minutes as described in an the earlier post on vegetable biryani.
Lamb Korma:
In a a little oil and ghee fry all the whole masala and then add minced garlic, ginger and onion and fry till brown. Add 2 tbsps on ground almond (you can use cashew paste or poppy seed paste) and fry for a few minutes. Add the meat and fry till it starts browning. Add one big chopped tomato, salt (and chilli if you want) and fry till all the paste comes together nicely. Add 2-3 green chillies slit vertically, and 2-3 tsp of cream. Pressure cook for 3 whistles (or more) till the lamb is cooked. Sprinkle with chopped green coriander.
Serve the biryani and korma with onion-tomato and cucumber raita.
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