Sharon's first biryani

Had a stab at making my first ever biryani tonight, following one of my mother's recipes. Whilst cooking, I thought of the many cultures in which rice is used to make something special: Egg fried rice in China, paëlla in Spain, risotto in Italy, Jollof rice in West Africa and biryani in India. I say India but there are many variants of biryani popular not only in India but in other parts of South Asia and Arabia. According to Wikipedia, there are the following types of biryani:

Awadhi Biryani

Hyderabadi Biryani

Calcutta Biryani

Iranian Beryani

Sindhi Biryani

Memoni Biryani

Kacchi Biryani

Tahari

Danbauk

Thai Biryani

Sri Lankan Biryani

Enough of the history lesson though. So how did my attempt at biryani go tonight, you must be asking. I don't know what type of biryani my dish is - my mum describes it as a simple biryani topped with fried onions-- but it wasn't bad at all, even if I say so myself (see pics below...and I apologise for their blurriness).

The cooking went all too smoothly for my standards so no exciting stories to tell, I'm afraid. I certainly suprised myself because it tasted almost as good as my mum's. The only weakness to my dish was that the lamb needed to be cooked more and it therefore wasn't tender enough but all in all that was the only criticism that I got. I think that calls for a pat on the back...and a glass of wine. Off to enjoy some wine now.