One of our favourite rice dish is Lamb Biryani or Goat Biryani. The meat is tender and delicious and the rice is fragrant & spicy. I prefer using goat meat to lamb as it is leaner but do realise that it may not be easy to source goat meat in some places. Don't be discouraged by the number of ingredients required. The steps are really quite simple. Try it, you will not be disappointed. 

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/o1k42Wzufyc?si=6BmBCwm8jIw4dVX5

INGREDIENTS

Lamb or Goat & Marinade:

• 500gm Lamb or Goat meat (cut into bite size)

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• ½ teaspoon Baking powder

• ½ teaspoon Black pepper powder

• 1 inch Cinnamon stick

• 3 Cloves

• 1 ½ teaspoon Coriander powder

• 1/4 teaspoon Cumin

• 2 Green Cardamon pod

• 1 teaspoon Ground chilli powder

• 1 tablespoon Ginger (grated)

• 1 tablespoon Garlic (grated)

• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice

• 2 tablespoon Canola oil

• 10-12 Fresh Mint leaves

• 6-7 Fresh Coriander leaves

• ¼ cup Fried onion

• ½ cup Yoghurt or Milk

Rice:      

• 250gm Basmati Rice (soaked for 30 mins)

• 2 teaspoon Salt

• 1 teaspoon oil

Assembly:            

• 1 tablespoon oil

• Marinaded Lamb (as above)

• Parboiled rice (as above)

• 5-6 Fresh Mint leaves

• 5-6 Fresh Coriander leaves

• 2 tablespoon Fried onions

• ½ cup Water (add a little saffron, if available), if not, use turmeric)

• 2 tablespoon oil

Method

1. Marinade Lamb or Goat meat for a couple of hours, preferably overnight. Stir the marinade from time to time to ensure even coating.2. The next day, parboil the rice:

• Boil some water and add oil and salt.

• Add in soaked rice and bring it to a boil.

• Once it starts to bubble, turn off heat and drain the parboiled rice.

3. Assemble the Briyani:

• Use a heavy base pot to avoid burning the food at the bottom. I use a clay pot and place it on a heat resistant plate.

• Coat bottom of the pot with oil. Put marinaded lamb or goat meat into the pot.

• Use a spatula to pat down meat, ensuring that there are no gaps and the base is fully filled.

• Pour parboiled rice on top of the meat. Use the spatula to smooth down the rice.

• Add mint leaves, coriander leaves and fried onions. Then pour over oil and saffron water.

• Cover and cook on high heat for 10 mins. Reduce heat to very low and continue cooking 40 mins. (no peeking).

• Switch off the heat and leave for 5 mins before serving with cucumber raita*.  Enjoy!

* Cucumber raita

• 1/2 cucumber (finely chopped)

• 1/2 cup yoghurt

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 8-10 fresh mint leaves (finely shredded)