- LK Bonabi
Green Bean & Minced Lamb Pilaf
This is an amazingly scrumptious dish. The art is to ensure you don’t over power it with the meat and allow the subtle flavour of the green beans (also referred to as runner beans) and spices to come through.
There are a number of ways you can use the lamb in this dish, I've used minced lamb, but you can also make mini meat balls (ghosht-e-ghelgheli) with the mince or you can also use diced lamb as well. As a busy mum, the important point to all the dishes I make is flavour and using minced lamb is easier for me, no need to dice the lamb in to small pieces or make any meat balls, both time consuming for me.
However, that said, which ever way you make this dish your guests will definitely be asking for seconds!
This dish serves 4 people.
Ingredients
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
generous pinch of ground saffron
1 tsp salt (I used sea salt)
250g minced lamb
200g green beans
3 cups cold water
2 tbsp tomato puree
1/4 cup oil for frying the onions
For the rice
2 cups white rice (I used basmati)
1/3 cup oil for making the rice
2 tsp salt
5 cups cold water
For the rice spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground saffron
generous pinch of cardamom
generous pinch of nutmeg
generous pinch of ground black pepper
Method
Step 1
Finley chop the onion and fry in 1/4 cup oil till golden brown.
Add the turmeric and fry with the onions for 30 seconds.
Add the minced lamb and fry for 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the dry spices; salt, pepper, cinnamon and saffron.
Mix well and cover the top of your pan.
Step 2
Wash and chop the green beans
Add the green beans to the minced lamb
Stir well and add the tomato puree and garlic
Stir well for 2 minutes to mix and fry everything together
Add 3 cups of cold water
Allow to boil on a high heat for 10 minutes
Step 3
Reduce the heat and allow the stew to reduce to more than half of what it currently is.
Remove from the heat and set aside to cool down.
For the rice spice
Add all the rice spice; cinnamon, coriander, saffron, cardamom, nutmeg, salt, pepper in a small bowl / container and mix together.
Set the rice spice to one side. You will use this to sprinkle over each layer of rice
For the rice
Step 1
Wash 2 cups of rice and add to a pan
Add 5 cups of cold water, 2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp oil.
Par boil the rice
Once par boiled remove from the heat and drain all the water
Step 2
Allow the rice to cool down.
Once cooled down pick at the rice with a fork to separate any that may of stuck together
Add 1/4 cup of oil to the bottom of the pot
Add the first layer of rice, then a layer of stew
Sprinkle with the rice spice and gently mix with a fork so that all the white rice has mixed with the stew and rice spice
Step 3
Place the pot of rice on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes with the top covered
Reduce the heat and allow the rice to gently steam for 20 to 30 minutes or until the rice has cooked and comes apart easily.
That's it. Happy eating or as we say 'Noosh-e-Jaan’
