Ingredients:

• 10 Cardamom pods
  
• 1/2 tsp ground Mace
• 1 tbsp Garam Masala (bought or home made)
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 small Cinammon stick
• 2 tsp Cloves
• 1 Chilli, deseeded and chopped finely
  
• 3 cloves of Garlic, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 5cm square piece of Ginger, peeled and chopped finely
• 6 small Mint leaves
• 3 Onions
• 3/4 kg of Lamb, shoulder or neck fillet is best, chopped into medium chunks
  
• 200 ml natural Yoghurt
• 1 tsp Saffron, soaked in warm water
• 1 Lime, juice only
• 400 gm good quality Basmati rice
• Salt and pepper
  
• Butter or Ghee (Ghee / clarified butter is best)
• Vegetable oil
  

Method :
Ok this isn't a particularly difficult recipe, but it takes a while and needs planning.
Firstly finely slice 2 of the onions and place them on a few layers of kitchen towel, now drizzle salt over them. Leave them for 15 minutes and the salt will draw out most of the moisture. While this is happening grind up the mace and a couple of cardamom pods with a pestle and mortar and set aside.
After the 15 minutes pick them up in the kitchen towel and give them a really good squeeze, basically we want these onion slices as dry as possible. Now get some of the veg oil nice and hot in a frying pan, and throw the onion slices in. Fry until a nice golden brown, then take them out with a slotted spoon and dry on some more kitchen towel. Put half of the fried onion slices in a small bowl and set aside, the other half need to go into a mini-blender or liquidizer. Blitz them, it should form a paste, you may need to loosen it a little with a tbsp or 2 of warm water, but be careful, we want a paste not a runny goop.
Ok we've got our onion paste, this is key, now we can move onto the spiced lamb itself. Take the cubed lamb and put it in a large mixing bowl, add to this bowl the onion paste, garlic, ginger, chilli and lime juice. Cover the bowl and leave it to marinade for a couple of hours at room temperature. Meat seems to absorb more flavour at room temperature than in the fridge.
Now, once all that's been done get a large pan out, and heat up a table spoon or 2 of the vegetable oil, chop the remaining onion finely, throw it in the pan and soften for a few minutes. To the onions add the remaining cardamom pods, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves. Stir around for a few minutes then add the lamb. Stir everything well and get the lamb coated in all the spices and onions. As this slowly heats up being adding the yoghurt slowly, this should take a good 15 minutes. Once all the yoghurt is in, cover and simmer on a low light for about an hour. Remember to stir quite regularly as this could easily catch and burn in the pan, if left for too long.
After about 55 minutes get a large pan of salted water up to the boil and add the rice. Basically we're going to par boil the rice, people have different methods for rice, adding lemon juice or a little ghee to the water etc. Use whatever method you prefer. Boil the rice for only 5 minutes then drain it off.
Now it's simply a case of layering everything up in a casserole dish. Add a layer of meat, then a dusting of the caramom/mace powder, a small bunch of the finely chopped mint leaves, and then some rice. Repeat this until you fill the casserole up, finishing with a layer of the rice. Dot this with a few blobs of ghee and drizzle over the saffron, including it's water. Cover this casserole dish tightly and slap in the oven at 160*c for about 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven and leave it to rest, still covered for about 10 minutes. Serve it straight from the dish on to warmed plates.

Serve with : Breads, raitas, chutneys. Biryani is a relatively dry dish so some people like to make a thin vegetable curry to add to it.
Source : The original idea came from the Curry Lover's Cookbook.
Serves : 4
Prep Time : 2 hours and 30 minutes
Cooking Time : 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• Shoulder of prime Welsh Lamb (You can use a leg too)
• 300 ml of Red wine
• Salt and pepper to season
  
• 6 Garlic cloves
• 1 small knob of Butter
  
• 4 sprigs of Rosemary
  

Method :
This is simply instruction on one method of cooking a shoulder (or leg) of lamb.
Get up 15 minutes earlier than you normally would! You're going to cook this all day while you're at work so you need an extra quarter of an hour to get it going. I am assuming you have a normal 9-5 office day.
Firstly take a good, heavy based roasting pot. My preference is cast iron, Le Creuset if possible, but a simply roasting dish will work, you can use tin foil as a lid if need be. Get the roasting pot nice and hot on your hob and then add the lamb shoulder, turning to seal and lightly brown it on all sides, scatter in some salt and pepper as you do this. It should take about 5-10 minutes in total, depending on the shoulder size. Now, to the roasting pot add the rosemary and garlic, leave the cloves whole. Shake it all about to get the rosemary and garlic under the lamb and turn the hob off. Now pour in the red wine and place a small knob of butter on top of the lamb, I tend to pop a small sprig of rosemary on the top too. Pop the lid on and place in the cold oven. Turn the oven up to 90*c^ and go to work.
When you get back take the lamb out of the pot, but be careful as it will be incredibly tender, place it on a wooden chopping board and cover the piece of meat with a large mixing bowl for 10 minutes to allow it to rest.
I tend to serve this piece of meat by cutting the butchers string it was held together with, unroll it and lift the meat out in the large lumps it naturally forms. The fat inside the shoulder will have melted away to nothing and flavoured the meat beautifully.
Source : My head.
Serves : A 600 gram shoulder serves only 2, it's an expensive meal.
Prep Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 8 hours approximately, an hour + / - won't make too much difference.
^Make sure you trust your oven, check the temperature inside using a thermometer before hand. Don't rely on the temperature dial.

Ingredients:

• 2 Venison Steaks
• 1 pack of Pancetta
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 glass of full bodied Red wine
• 3 tsp of good quality onion & fruit chutney
• 1 pint of Chicken stock
• 2 medium sized, yellow flesh Potatoes
  
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 2 sprigs of fresh Thyme
• 1 knob of Butter
  

Method :
To create the fondant potato peel the spud and chop of the two small, pointy ends so the potato can be stood up. Trim the potato down until it is roughly barrel shaped and using a speed peeler shave down the corner edges on each flat face (this prevents burning the edges). Now in a heavy based, medium pan warm the butter over a low / medium light, after it's stopped foaming add the thyme and potatoes, standing each of the spuds up one one of their flat edges. Lightly fry in the thyme and butter for 5 minutes until golden brown, then turn the potato over 180* and do the same to the other flat face. After 5 minutes VERY CAREFULLY add the chicken stock, only add the chicken stock up to the point it nearly covers the potatoes, you want the very top edge clear of the stock so it stays crispy. The stock will bubble, hiss, spit and generally go mental when it comes into contact with the hot butter so be VERY CAREFUL. Drop in the lightly crushed garlic cloves. Cover the pan and allow it to simmer for 25 minutes, occassionaly moving the potatoes around, remember NOT to turn them over. We want the top, flat edge to stay out of the stock.
Get the oven on to about 150*c. Now warm a small frying pan over a high heat and add a single tbsp of Olive oil. Now take the two venison steaks, and cut each in half, take each of these halves of the steaks and wrap in a single slice of Pancetta, or enough to wrap the meat completely. Add each of the four venison parcels to the frying pan and sear for approximately 2 minutes on each side. This will vary depending on the thickness of the steaks so use your own judgment. Once the meat is browned nicely add to a warmed plate and pop in the oven to rest and finish off.
Deglaze the frying pan by adding the glass of red wine and scraping up all the tasty, meaty bits off the pans surface with a wooden spoon. Now add the chutney and stir until it's melted away, reduce this by half on a medium heat stirring occassionaly, should take about 5 minutes.
The potatoes should be just about done, lift them both out of the pan, pop on the same plate as the venison and discard the stock.
Now take two warmed plates out of the oven, you do always warm your plates don't you? Pour a couple of spoonfuls of the red wine sauce on to each plate and top with two of the venison parcels, add a fondant potato to each plate and serve.
Serve with : Red Wine! Obviously. You can serve with anything from pan fried Asparagus, Savoy Cabbage fried with olive oil and garlic to glazed Carrots.
Source : Various, inspiration came from the Hairy Bikers and BBC Good Food.
Serves : 2
Prep Time : 10 minutes for the potatoes.
Cooking Time : 25 minutes, depends on potato size.

Ingredients:

• 500 grams Lean beef mince
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
  
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
  
• 2 tbsp Plain flour
  
• 2 Carrots, finely chopped
  
• 250 ml or 1/2 bottle of good Ale / Stout (Guinness works well)
  
• 1 red Oxo cube
• 1 squirt of Tomato puree
• 1 tsp English mustard
• 1 small handful of dried Wild mushrooms (Porcini, Oyster, Potabellini)
• 1 pack of JusRol premade Puff pastry
• 1 free range Egg, beaten
• Salt and pepper to season
  

Method :
First turn the oven on and set to 170*c. Put the kettle on a get a small bowl out for the dried mushrooms. Pour the boiling water over the mushrooms until they are just covered with water, now cover the bowl with a side plate to retain the heat.
Warm the oil in a large pan over a medium heat, add the mince and brown all over. As you're browning the mince, crumble in the Oxo cube, this makes the mince extra beefy, stir for a few minutes. Add the finely chopped onion and finely chopped carrot and soften with the mince for 5 minutes. Stir in the salt, pepper, mustard and tomato puree, once mixed stir in the flour. Uncover the mushrooms and add them to the beef mixture, include the water they were soaked in, stir and add the ale. Now, check the seasoning, cover the pan and turn right down, leave this to simmer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes pour the mince into your pie dish, and leave to cool, this should only take 10 minutes or so, during this time prepare the pastry. Flour your worktop and rolling pin and take the block of premade pastry and roll it out until it is atleast an inch larger than the pie dish all round. You can use the prerolled pastry if you prefer.
Wet the edge of the pie dish to help the pastry stick and roll the pastry out over the dish. Crimp with a fork if you like. Brush with the beaten egg, season the pastry a little with salt and pepper then make a number of small stabs in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Pop in the over for 20 minutes or until the pastry is a lovely golden brown.
Serve with : Boiled / mashed / chipped potatoes and steamed vegetables.
Source : My head.
Serves : 4.
Prep Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 50 minutes (including cooling time)