Today I’m giving you two delicious recipes that I’ve been
developing over the last few weeks. The lamb biryani is made with a simple
homemade rogan josh paste and the whole thing is baked in the oven, which
results in tender fluffy rice and big beautiful flavours.
I’d recommend that you serve it with some really easy,
tasty homemade flatbreads (find the recipe here). Doing both is a bit of
effort, but actually it does work quite well in the kitchen – make the
flatbread dough and leave it to rest while you do the curry, and then once the
biryani is in the oven, you’ve got plenty of time to cook the flatbreads ready
to serve with it. Together they make the perfect feast for sharing on a
Saturday night in.
Ingredients
250g lamb mince
1 onion
For the curry
paste:
2 cloves of garlic (peeled & chopped)
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 red pepper
½ tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp fresh chilli
½ tsp salt
A small bunch of fresh coriander
Natural yoghurt, to serve
Serves 4
Start by making the curry paste. You could, of course,
buy a ready-made rogan josh paste and use that, but I absolutely love making my
own curry pastes (so much more flavour) so I really encourage you to give it a
go at some point. Deseed the pepper, then cut into pieces and lay skin-side-up
on a baking tray. Place under the grill on a high heat and allow the skin to
blacken completely.
While the peppers are roasting (keep an eye on them), pop
the garlic, ginger, smoked paprika, garam masala, turmeric, tomato puree, oil,
chilli and salt into a blender. Add a small handful of fresh coriander, and
blend briefly. When the peppers are completely black, take them out and set
them aside to cool for a minute. In the meantime, measure out the cumin seeds
and black pepper into a small saucepan and toast over a medium heat for no more
than two minutes. There’s no need to add oil, just give the pan a little shake
every now and then to make sure they’re not sticking, and then tip them into
the blender with the rest of the ingredients.
By now the peppers should be a bit cooler, so use your
fingers to peel off the skin – if it’s nicely blackened, it should have become
papery-thin and pulled away from the flesh so that it’s easy to remove. Add the
peeled pepper to the blender and blend again until you have a fairly smooth
paste (it should smell fantastic too).
Next, peel and dice the onion, and fry over a medium heat
in a bit of melted butter. Once the onion has started to soften, add the lamb
mince and fry until it’s just lost its pink colour, then add your homemade
curry paste and a splash of water. Give it all a good stir and let it bubble
for about ten minutes, adding more water if it looks too dry.
While the curry simmers, prepare your rice according to
the instructions on the packet. Now is also a good time to preheat the oven, to
250°C (230°C fan). Get a large ovenproof dish ready for the oven by greasing
the inside with butter and sprinkling with a little more turmeric (shake it
around so that it sticks to the butter).
When the rice is ready, you can layer up your biryani –
start with a layer of rice, and top with some lamb curry. Repeat once and then
finish off with a layer of rice. Dot the top with a few small chunks of butter,
then take a piece of tinfoil, oil one side, and place over the top of the dish
(oiled side down) and scrunch the edges tightly around the top of the dish.
Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
When the time’s up, the rice on top should be slightly
golden brown. Serve with a sprinkling of fresh coriander, some natural yoghurt
and, of course, these delicious Homemade Flatbreads.
Ingredients