Lamb Pilaf

For my husband's birthday I got him Anjum's New Kitchen. It was a great gift as since then we have made many delicious Indian recipes from there, dipping into our 'exotic' supply of spices from the Spice Emporium and introducing our taste-buds to new and fantastic flavours.


Yesterday I came home to a absolutely delicious Lamb Pilaf or Lucknowi Biryani.


What's unique about this dish is that the rice is cooked with the meat rather than separately, the latter I would assume is usually the case with rice-accompanying dishes.

Ingredients:
350g jasmine rice 
650g lamb neck
6 cloves of garlic
12g fresh, crushed ginger
1 tsp salt
1 big onion, chopped
10 cardamon pods (green)
1 tbsp black pepper
4 bay leaves 
4 pieces of cinnamon sticks
4 whole cloves
4 tsp canola oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
4 green thai chillies


Method:
Rinse the rice and soak it for 30 min.


Make a stock by putting the following ingredients into a large sauce-pan: 500ml water, the lamb, half the onion, garlic, ginger, salt, cardamom, black pepper, bay leaves, cinnamon and cloves. Simmer for 40 minutes or until the lamb is tender.


Take out the meat and place it in a separate bowl so that you can strain out the spices from the stock with a sieve. The stock shouldn't have any solids in now. Measure it and add enough water for it to reach 700ml.


Heat the oil in your saucepan and add the cumin. When the seeds start to make a sizzling sound, add the chillies and other half of the onion and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the lamb neck in again to brown (about 5 minutes). Your stock can now be added along with the drained rice that has been soaking.


Simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave it to steam for a further 5 minutes.


Note: This version is slightly different to the one published in the book, just describes how we cooked it.