MUTTON BIRIYANI (My Way)

Mutton Biriyani (serves 2-3)

Ingredients:


Marination:
Mutton - 1/2 kg
Curd - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt


For Pressure cook:
Marinated mutton
Water - 1/4 cup


For Masala:
Onion - 1 large grinded to paste
Ginger-garlic paste - 1.5 tsp
Tomato - 1 medium grinded to paste
Cashew nuts - 4 nos soaked in milk for atleast 30 mins. (optional)
Green chilli - 3 nos
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup
Salt

For frying

Onion - 1 large sliced thinly

For Rice:
Basmati Rice - 1 bowl (measure of a normal 4.5" rice bowl)
Cardamom - 2 nos
Bayleaf - 1 no
Clove - 3 nos
Star anise - 1 no
Cinnamon Stick - 1 no
Salt

Pudina leaves - 1 cup
Rose water
Ghee

Preparation:

Marinate the mutton pieces once cleaned well with all the ingredients mentioned under marination, for atleast an hour. (I kept for 2 hours)

Then in a pressure cooker, add water and rest of ingredients mentioned under pressure cook and cook for 3-4 whistles.

Meanwhile cut all the ingredients for masala and grind then one by one. Grind greenchilli and coriander together and set aside. Gind tomato and cashew and keep aside. Likewise, onion paste too.

In a pan, add about 4 tbsp oil and add onion paste. Saute till it turns light brown in color and then add ginger garlic paste Saute till brown in color and then add green chilli - coriander paste and saute for 2-3 mins. Then add cashew-tomato paste and saute till oil starts leaving the sides. Then add the masala powders one by one and saute till oil starts leaving the sides again. Then pick only the pressure cooked mutton pieces (leaving the stock behind) and add to the masala mix. Then add coconut milk and cook covered till all the water is evaporated and you get a thick dry gravy. Now you have the mutton pieces ready.

Soak rice for 20 mins and in a deep pan add the soaked rice, the spices and little salt and then instead of water add the mutton stock that we got in the pressure cooker. Measure of rice to water will be 1 cup of rice to 2 full cups of water (take water in the same cup you measured rice). Measure the stock first and rest add water to it. Boil till water is evaporated and rice if half boiled. Now rice is ready.

While rice is being done you can slice the 1 large onion and fry in batches till golden brown in color and drain in tissue. Cut pudina leaves and keep aside.

Now for the arrangement:
Rub ghee on the base of the dish and layer first with rice. Then on top layer with mutton pieces and on top pudina and fried onions. The again on top layer with rice again and finally pudina and fried onions again. Since quantity was less I got only 2 layer of rice with mutton in middle. Drizzle drops od rose water on top of the rice and add few drop of ghee too here and there. Cover with a aluminium foil and bake at preheated oven 190C for about 30 mins.

BIRIYANI JUST OUT OF OVEN

For non-oven users, you can arrange the dish as said above and cover with a tight lid and then coverig the edges with a dough or masking tape. Then on very low flame, dum for about 1 hour.

Serve warm with Onion raita, achar and pappad :)..

Cheers,
Neetz ;)