Lamb Rogan Josh Over Cinnamon Saffron Basmati Rice

I was much more impressed by this Kashmir saffron from World Market than the Spanish saffron from Trader Joes. To be fair, the recipe for this cinnamon saffron basmati rice used the saffron threads differently than the recipe for the saffron risotto. This recipe asked me to steep the threads with cardamom in hot milk, whereas the risotto recipe only asked me to throw in the threads during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I basically dumped the saffron/cardamom mix along with extra cinnamon and the basmati, with water, into the rice cooker. Easy!

Anyway I prefer the taste and feel of this basmati (over the risotto). The basmati matched very well with both the fall-apart meat and flavorful sauce from this lamb rogan josh that I made with the slow cooker. I used a rogan josh spice blend from Penzey's which contains paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, Korintje cassia cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and saffron. I think I went a bit heavy on the cinnamon on the rice but otherwise I think this Northern Indian / Pakistani dish was a success!