1 Ramadhan 1431 H

Alhamdulillah Allah has showered us with rahmah to meet another Ramadhan this year. I remembered during previous Ramadhans, my kids were crying and begging from me to break their fast just a few minutes before iftar as sunset was quite late in summer encroaching to almost 9pm. This year supermum has to come up with a strategy to stengthen their inner spirit to withstand the hunger pangs of Ramadhan in summer. So I downloaded a few articles on fasting from the internet and gave a 40 minute tazkirah a week before Ramadhan began. Alhamdulillah, they are very receptive and are a lot more mature this year. So we breezed through 5 days of Ramadhan without much agony. Even on the day when we missed our sahur was not a problem at all. Alhamdullilah, thank you Allah for giving us strength to be a good follower of your deen.

As this is our first day of fasting, thought of cooking something a little special. Made lamb briyani for iftar and sahur. Got this superb recipe from http://resepiraidah.blogspot.com/search/label/Nasi. Love your blog Raidah.

Being a Malay, we can't survive without chillies, so made some Pakistani chicken as well to complete the dish.

Lamb Briyani
1 kg lamb with bones
5 cups basmathi rice~ wash, soak for 30 min and drain
1 cup yogurt

3 Holland onion ~ sliced

2 tomatoes ~ diced

3 bird chillies

1 tsp garlic- crushed

1 tsp ginger- crushed

1/2 tsp garam masala

2 tbs biryani powder
1 tsp turmeric powder

4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

4 cardamoms

2 bay leaves

1- 2 cawan fried onion

1/2 cawan fried raisins
1/2 cup fried cashew nuts

a pinch of saffron ~ soak in 1/2 cup hot water.

1 cup chopped coriander leaves

2 tbs Ghee

salt, sugar

Method:

Lamb:

1. Fry cinnamon stick, cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and add blended onion, ginger, garlic.

2. Add biryani spice, garam masala, turmeric powder, tomatoes the oil separates and add lamb and yoghurt. I also a tbs of kurma powder.
3. Simmer till lamb is cooked and add salt and a bit of sugar and coriander leaves. Put aside.

Rice:

~ Boil 5 cups of water, add 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp cumin powder dan 1 tbs oil. Add rice and boil till half cooked.

Biryani Rice:

1. Scoop 1/3 portion of rice into the rice cooker, sprinkle some fried onion, fried raisins and saffron water.

2. Scoop the lamb briyani mix on top of the rice and repeat process 1 and 2 till lamb is finished.

3. Cover with the last portion of rice and pour saffron water and coriander leaves.
4. Cover the pot and press start. Cook for 20 minutes.
5. Once the rice is cooked, sprinkle some cashew nuts and mix the rice and lamb together. Ready to be served.

I cooked some vegetable dalca to eat with this delicious briyani rice. Beware of the cholesterol content hihi..Since we have been fasting the whole day, so it is a good excuse to indulge on this rich recipe.