Search Results for: lamb biryani

Mom’s Lamb Biryani

March 2, 2015 by Cherie Scott

This dish is a true labor of love and brings back a flood of memories. Mom slaved over it for days and fed close to 40 people at each of our family celebrations back in Mumbai. Biryanis date back to the 1600’s when Mughal emperors entertained and feasted on it.This signature dish cannot be thrown together in a rush. It demands love; patience; attention to detail and a bit of planning ahead. But when you take your first morsel of saffron-kissed rice and melt-in-your-mouth Indian-spiced lamb be prepared for a symphony of flavor to explode in your mouth. Open a bottle of your best wine: this lamb feast is fit for a king and calls for nothing less than a celebration!

Portland Press Herald’s (brilliant) Food Writer Meredith Goad captured the back story on this special family recipe in her new column: Signature Recipes. Meredith watched me make this dish from scratch and then we feasted on it together (just so she would know what the hype was all about!) I also would like to thank John Patriquin, PPH photographer who was so engaged during the demonstration and took stunning pictures. Peggy Grodinsky, PPH Food Editor for her diligence in making sure the recipe was clear and concise so readers could enjoy making it without sweatin’ it! Thank you to the design team for the gorgeous pagination on the article too! I got the last few copies at our local grocery store for posterity, the day it came out! Check out Meredith Goad’s Signature Recipe: Mom’s Lamb Biryani

MOM’S LAMB BIRYANI

Makes 8 to 10 hearty portions
PART 1: MARINATE THE LAMB
Ingredients:
2 cups thick Greek yogurt, beaten with a spoon
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons garam masala
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons garlic paste (available in tubes in the produce section of large grocery stores, or in Indian groceries)
2 tablespoons freshly ground ginger or ginger paste (available in tubes in the produce section of large grocery stores, or in Indian groceries)
2 teaspoons salt
Juice of 2 limes
4-5 pound leg of lamb cut into 2-inch pieces

Instructions:
Mix the yogurt, spices and lime juice together in a large glass bowl. Add the lamb pieces and coat with the marinade. Cover with plastic, refrigerate and let the meat marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
PART 2: MAKE THE GRAVY
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons ghee or salted butter
4 yellow onions, sliced lengthwise
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 6 pieces each
2 yellow onions, chopped ( yes, another 2 yellow onions)
4 large tomatoes, chopped
2 cups chopped cilantro

Instructions:
Remove the marinated lamb from the refrigerator and let it reach room temperature, about 2 hours.
Add 2 tablespoons of the ghee to a medium-sized skillet. When the ghee is warm, add the white onions and sauté for about 8 minutes on medium-high heat until they start turning brown; set aside. (You should have about 2 cups.)
Add 2 more tablespoons ghee to the now empty skillet and pan-sear the potatoes on one side on medium high heat about 5 minutes, until they are crispy brown. Turn the potatoes over, cover the pan and let the potatoes steam another 5 minutes; set aside.
In a 3-quart oven-proof pot or Dutch oven, sauté the yellow onions in the remaining 2 tablespoons ghee for 5 minutes on medium-high heat. Add the tomatoes and fry for another 5 minutes. Add the marinated lamb and cook until it changes color, about 10 minutes. Add 3 cups hot water, the cilantro and the reserved lamb bone. Cover the pot and simmer on low on the stove top until the lamb is tender, approximately 11/2 hours. Resist the urge to peek!
After 11/2 hours, add the reserved pan-seared potatoes and 1 cup of the reserved caramelized onions to the pot to thicken the gravy.
Re-cover the pot and simmer for another 25 minutes.
PART 3: MAKE THE RICE
Ingredients:
3 cups basmati rice
3 tablespoons salt
4 (1-inch) cinnamon sticks
15 whole cloves
4 black or 10 green cardamom pods
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
4 Turkish bay leaves
Red 40, Yellow 5 or Yellow 6 food coloring, a few drops each
1/4 cup milk
Large pinch of saffron

Instructions:
While the lamb is simmering, soak the rice in 3 cups of water for 25 minutes. Run your fingers through the grains to help remove the starch; do this gently so the grains don’t break. Strain through a fine-meshed sieve.
Fill a large pot with 15 cups water and the salt. Add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, cumin and bay leaves.
Bring the spiced water to a roiling boil. Gently add the basmati rice. Boil the rice until it is three-quarters of the way cooked. Keep an eye on it and check a couple of grains after 5 minutes to make sure it is parboiled and not overcooked. The grains of rice should feel a bit starchy or gritty in the middle, as if they could crack in your hand. The rice will finish cooking in the oven with the lamb.
Drain the rice, leaving in the whole spices. Pour the drained rice into the pot with the lamb. Add the food coloring.
Warm the milk, add the saffron and stir gently. Let steep for a couple of minutes at the most.
PART 4: ASSEMBLE THE BIRYANI
Garnish with:
2 hard-boiled eggs, halved
Handful of toasted cashews
Chopped cilantroChopped mint

Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to 335 degrees F.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the remaining caramelized onions over the pot with the lamb and rice. Save the remaining caramelized onions for garnish.
Pour the warm milk mixture onto the lamb and rice in circles. Do not stir. Close the lid and bake the lamb for 35 minutes.
Arrange the lamb biryani on a large platter. Garnish with the last ½ cup of caramelized onions, the eggs, cashews and a sprinkle each of cilantro and mint.
To serve, dig a flat serving spoon into the rice, being sure to go to the bottom so you get meat, rice and potatoes in every portion.

THANK YOU to my dear friend Ted Axelrod ( Ted Axelrod Photography) for this gorgeous image.

COOKING ONLINE WITH CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL’S MILK STREET COMMUNITY

June 29, 2022 by Cherie Scott

I had a blast teaching another Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street virtual class. I’m still amazed that 300 guests from the food obsessed Milk Street Community joined in to cook with me from all over the world on my debut class back in March.

Yesterday’s workshop was more intimate and sold out again! I walked my fabulous guests through every step of an iconic mouthwatering Hyderabadi/Kolkatta Lamb Biryani -start to finish! These workshops are like mini master classes and we get to dig deep into a recipe and nerd out on a signature dish!

Biryani is a true labor of love and brings back a flood of memories. My mother slaved over it for days and fed close to 40 people at each of our family celebrations back in Mumbai. Biryanis date back to the 1600’s when Mughal emperors entertained and feasted on it. This signature dish cannot be thrown together in a rush. It demands love; patience; attention to detail and a bit of planning ahead. But when you take your first morsel of saffron-kissed rice and melt-in-your-mouth Indian-spiced lamb be prepared for a symphony of flavor to explode in your mouth. Open a bottle of your best wine: this lamb feast is fit for a king and calls for nothing less than a celebration!

Finally three big shoutouts

The gorgeous Maine Tasting Center and co-founders Lisa Gross, Andy Gross and Sara Gross for being such attentive and helpful hosts throughout the evening. Be sure to put the Maine Tasting Center on your lists of places to visit this summer for a taste of Maine’s finest cheese, wine, beer and eats.

Guy Scott for always making me look and sound good – you are literally the BEST!

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street‘s talented Assistant Director of Education, April Dodd, for moderating the Biryani class with such flair!

Check out the recipe here!

MOM’S LAMB BIRYANI

CHAMPAGNE LOBSTER: Champagne. Lobster. Butter. Cream. Perfection

February 8, 2021 by Cherie Scott

Champagne Lobster, in homage to the one and only Phil Koskela, the culinary mastermind behind this recipe. Thank you Phil for sharing it with me and the world!

I’ve been known to go to great lengths to prepare a magnificent meal and source the rarest of ingredients for someone I love. My mother did the same for us growing up and apparently I’ve inherited her penchant for pleasing. My parents made sure our birthdays were an opportunity to bring our friends and family together to celebrate and feast over my mother’s legendary Lamb Biryani.

Back in Mumbai, where I grew up, everyone in our apartment building knew my talented mother, Regina, was cooking up an Indian feast when she started roasting cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, cumin and Kashmiri chiles spices on her tava (cast iron skillet). We lived on the first floor so by the time she was done, her aromatic garam masala would carry through the entire building. She cooked for at least 40 guests and then sent me to every neighbor with left overs the following day.

Cooking Indian food is no easy feat. Sometimes it takes a day or two to prepare one dish. Roasting and grinding the spices; preparing the marinade to tenderize the lamb overnight; chopping pounds of onions for what seems like days; slowly caramelizing them in ghee, and then adding in all those freshly ground spices to the onions so they can bloom and release all that incredible flavor making for a rich, thick and memorable lamb korma. But that is the beauty of slow cooking and the results are outstanding and memorable.

But then, a simple but exquisite dish like Champagne Lobster came into my life and it was a game changer! And, the best part about this dish is since I now live in Maine, the lobster capital of the world, I can source lobster – steamed, shucked and ready to go with one phone call. But please don’t let this hinder you. You can now do the same thing by ordering your lobster here.

This decadent dish has only 4 ingredients: champagne, lobster, butter and heavy cream. Yes, I repeat, four ingredients. I could not get over how incredibly simple it was to throw together. Imagine the sweet and succulent lobster meat sautéed in rich melted unsalted butter picking up the floral and bubbly notes of champagne added in and the decadence of heavy cream bringing all the sweet, savory flavors together in under 5 minutes for a delicate and silky, smooth finish.

I can hear my husband’s voice saying, “For heaven’s sake, just share the recipe already!!!”

I’m all for sharing a story AND the back story. So stay with me, I promise, once you are done here, you’ll add Champagne Lobster to your repertoire forever!

BACKSTORY:

Years ago, I worked at the Boothbay Harbor Chamber of Commerce and kept hearing rave reviews about Champagne Lobster from the local community. So one year my husband, Guy, and I tried it for the first time on our anniversary. Get this, it was our anniversary and we barely said a word to each other while we ate this in dead silence . Then Guy looked up, his blue eyes piercing into my brown ones and said, “You NEED to get this recipe from Phil!”

Phil Koskela, a local from Southport Island, Maine, put this legendary dish on the map here in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Phil was the General Manager at the famous and beloved Rocktide Inn (no longer in operation) for 39 years. In that time he probably served thousands of Champagne Lobster orders and built up an iconic following for this exquisite dish. Phil always served it along side Rocktide Inn’s legendary popovers. ( I’ll save them for another post. )

So years later, I reached out to Phil and begged him for the recipe, promising never to share it. I told him I just wanted to surprise Guy for our anniversary. Phil being as kind and gracious as he is known to be, started rattling it off. I didn’t even have a pen ready, so I literally memorized it over the phone.

Guy was in shock when I surprised him with it at our anniversary dinner. It was definitely a nostalgic blast from the past. But this time around Guy convinced me to go back to Phil and ask him for permission to blog about the dish and even do a fun video in homage to the dish and the man behind it! As soon as I got Phil’s blessing I reached out to another Maine culinary icon, Rod Browne Mitchell, the national authority on caviar and owner of Browne Trading Co, located on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine. I shared the good news that I had scored the recipe to this prized dish and went on to describe it. I added that I would love to collaborate with him on producing this piece which I now consider a gift from Phil — one that had to be shared with scores of lobster lovers out there.

Rod was all in! He and his fabulous team at Browne Trading Market, set aside one of the finest bottles of champagne, an 1851 Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve, a pound of the freshest shucked Maine lobster and 2 beautiful lobster tails for pickup.

So, here’s how I set the mood: I set the table first, chill the Champagne while I get my mise en place (prep for the dish) together. Then I turn off my kitchen lights, light a candle, pour myself a glass of bubbly, channel some Stacey Kent and get in the CL zone.

Check out the recipe below. A couple of notes:

I added some Italian angel hair pasta to it because you need something light to soak up every last drop of that sauce.

Phil said you don’t need the most expensive champagne to make this dish. In fact Phil admitted that he used Cook’s Champagne for years because he was making hundreds of Champagne Lobsters a week. But it’s not everyday you splurge on lobster and champagne, so if you can afford to, just do it right and go all the way!

Special thanks to Rod Browne Mitchell, Browne Trading Company, for sponsoring the lobster and champagne for this post.

A huge thanks to Phil Koskela, for sharing the recipe. I’ve posted his iconic dish with his blessing and permission.

Phil Koskela, on his way to work one afternoon, I stopped him in his tracks and captured this pic of him outside the food store…!

Slowly poached lobster tails in a 1/2 cup of unsalted butter. You can skip this step if your lobster arrives already cooked and shucked. These came raw from Browne Trading Company so I cooked them gently.

Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve, compliments of Browne Trading Company

Rod Browne Mitchell, aka, ‘The King of Caviar’, owner of Browne Trading Company “has been operating out of the working waterfront in Portland, Maine, for almost 30 years. In that time Browne has developed an international reputation for sourcing only the finest imported and American caviars. Browne Trading Company also is the premier supplier of fresh fish, shellfish, and smoked seafood to both elite restaurants and home kitchens across the U.S.”

This has nothing to do with Champagne Lobster, but I could not resist capturing this when I went to pickup the lobster and champagne. The world’s finest caviar and beluga available at Browne Trading Company online or at the Browne Trading Market, Portland, Maine.

Mise en place for Champagne Lobster – Champagne, Lobster, Butter and Heavy Cream.

Champagne Lobster for two!

Be sure to set the table before you make the dish and chill the rest of that Champagne. You won’t want to waste anytime digging in. Don’t you just love these Nancy Buzer heart plates?

CHAMPAGNE LOBSTER: Champagne. Lobster. Butter. Cream. Perfection

Recipe Type: Entree

Cuisine: Italian

Author: Cherie Scott

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 2 generous servings

This 4 ingredient dish is the stuff that dreams are made of!!! Champagne, lobster, butter and heavy cream. Recipe by Phil Koskela, posted with full permission.

Ingredients

2 lobsters – claws, knuckle and tails – shucked and pre-cooked
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of Champagne
3/4 heavy cream
8 oz De Cecco Angel Hair no.9 Pasta, cooked al dente

Instructions

In a heavy-bottomed skillet, on medium heat add the butter .
Once it melts, add the cooked lobster and sautee for about 1 minutes on low heat.
Now, take out the lobster, set aside.
Add in the Champagne and bring it to a boil, until it cooks off.
After a minute, lower the heat and add the heavy cream.
Give it a good stir.
Now add the lobster back to the pan and let it cook for another minute on simmer.
The sauce will start taking on a pinkish hue from the lobster.
Now, toss in that al dente angel hair cooked pasta and stir well.
Add a few scallions for color and serve warm immediately but with a chilled glass of Champagne.