• Firstly wash the rice until the water runs clear and leave to soak in cold water. Soak for at least 30 minutes. The longer you leave the rice to soak, the quicker it will cook.

Yakhni instructions

• Put the water the pressure cooker and add all the yakhni ingredients. Next, cover with the lid and bring the water to boil. Once you heat the steam pressure build up and the pressure cooker starts to whistle, turn the heat down slightly and let it cook for 12 minutes. The lamb will be tender after this time.
  

Rice instructions

• Whilst the yakhni is cooking in the pressure cooker, start to make the rice. In large saucepan, heat 5 tablespoons of rapeseed oil. Next add the onions and turn the heat down to low. You will need to brown the onions. Constantly stir to ensure that the onions do not burn.

  You will need to brown the onions until they are a very dark brown, the colour of the browned onions dictates the colour of the pilau rice. The darker the onions, the richer the colour of the rice.
  
• As you are browning the onions, you will see that the onions will start to stick to the pan, therefore you will need to add small splashes of water (100ml approximately) and keep browning the onions. The onions will as a result start to dissolve. This will take around 20 minutes, but don’t be scared of browning the onions for longer if you haven’t got that dark brown colour.
• Once you have browned the onions sufficiently, add the rice spices. Stir for around 3 minutes. Turn the oven on on at 90C, fan assisted.

Combine Yakhni to Rice Pan

• Next add the cooked lamb from the pressure cooker to the onion saucepan. I tend to do this using tongs.
• Add the lamb into the onions and brown. This gives the lamb pieces more flavour from the onions. Then add the drained rice and stir through.
• Next we will need to add 5 mugs of the yakhni to the rice pan (or 1750ml of yakhni).

  Make sure you use the same mug that you measured the rice with to measure the yakhni.

  When I pour the yakhni into the onion pan, I use a sieve to take out any additional spices/onion pieces.
• Once you have added the yakhni, stir through and cover with the pan lid. Make sure the heat is on medium.
• Once the water has nearly dried out. Turn the heat off. The next step is to do dham (steam) the rice. Put the lid back on the saucepan and put the saucepan in the oven for 35 minutes.

  You can also do the dham on the hob by covering with saucepan with a thin tea towel, putting the saucepan lid on top and turning the heat down to very low. However I quite like having my gas hobs free for making other bits and pieces.

  The rice strands should be separate and not soggy or stuck together, then you know the rice has been cooked properly.
• Serve your pilau with boondi raita or vegetable raita (yoghurt based with finely chopped tomatoes, cucumber and red onion, seasoned with salt, red chilli powder and cumin seeds) and kachumber (red onions and tomatoes marinated with lemon juice and salt). Perfect side condiments to accompany your pilau rice.