Moroccan Lamb Stew and Rice Pilaf/Biryani

What's up folks. Here's some food I made. I made it on Sunday. The lamb stew recipe is from a set of recipe cards Calypso and I bought at Ollie's for $2.99, and the rice recipe is from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

Moroccan Lamb
Ingredients:
4 tbsp blanched almonds, halved (but I didn't blanch them and I had a HECK of a time halving them)
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound, 5 ounces boneless leg of lamb, cubed (you can only get "semi-boneless" leg of lamb at Wegmans and it is semi-boneless in the sense of having a big leg bone in the middle of it)
1 medium onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups canned plum tomatoes
4 tablespoons golden raisins, soaked in warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch powdered cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cloves (or if you don't have ground cloves like me you could take whole cloves and smush them with a hard thing)
2 cups Portobello mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
salt and pepper

Perhaps you would like to see some photographs of its preparation? Join me on this flavorful journey.

Here's some lamb. It had to be put on the counter because a Charlie Cat would try to eat it otherwise. That cat!!!!

Now it's cooking. Be careful if your apartment turns on its side.






And now it's done.











Rice Pilaf/Biryani
Ingredients:
1 tsp ground turmeric
2.5 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
6 cardamom pods
Pinch ground cloves (see above)
.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 cups basmati rice
Salt and pepper

And what does it look like when it's done? It looks like this:


















PERHAPS......... the stew... could be put... on the rice? IT CAN!



















And I made custard, from Betty Crocker's Cookbook. Thanks, Betty.
Ingredients:
3 eggs, slightly beaten
.333 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash salt
2.5 cups v. warm milk
However, it was not as firm as I would have liked, which is likely because I split the custard mix among 4 custard cups instead of 6, as suggested. Since I only own 4, I'd probably either cut down on the milk or used heavy cream if I made it again.