Mutton Biriyani

Today's recipe is everyone's favorite Mutton Biriyani. I know the name is enough to bring a smile on your face. Biriyani is one such delicacy without which most of our occasions are incomplete. Whether its chicken or mutton or lamb, biriyani is everyone's favorite from eight to eighty. While I'm thinking to write about a brief on the history and tradition of biriyani, I went through countless data on the net. It's not possible for me to write a short description and enlighten your focus on its history and tradition.
But all I can tell you that its the Mughals, who brought Biriyani to India. You must be aware that there is a diverse and extensive variety of Biriyani available. You can find different flavors of Biriyani available in different state of India. They all have a distinguished taste and flavor. But irrespective of the varied taste, Biriyani is an all-time hit for all occasions and celebration.
The traditional North Indian Biriyani is of two kind. Mughlai and Awadhi cuisine from Delhi and Lucknow respectively. The south is not behind and gives a perfect competition with Hyderabadi Biriyani.
The key ingredients for biriyani are long-grain aromatic Basmati Rice, meat, and a mix of different flavored spices. There are some other ingredients used in the recipe which varies from state to state. But it is needless to say, whether it is Chicken Biriyani, or Mutton Biriyani, or Lamb Biriyani, the divine taste is a sheer joy to enjoy.
Whenever you cook Biriyani, get ready to dedicate a good amount of time and your patience to the recipe. Again, there are basically two procedures to cook delicious Biriyani, kachchi or raw biriyani and pakki or cooked biriyani. In kachchi biriyani, you need to use the raw marinated meat layered with raw rice and cook them together is low flame, taking about a ample amount of time. But pakki biriyani takes lesser time as we use the already cooked meat and rice and layer them on each other.
Today I will give the recipe of pakki biriyani using lamb or goat meat.
So here goes the recipe. I can tell you this is purely the Calcutta or Kolkata style biriyani recipe.




Total time : 2 -2.5 hrs
Serves       : 5-6 people




Ingredients :

1. Lamb or goat meat      : 2 lbs
2. Basmati rice                : 1 lb
3. Potatoes                      : 3-4 (peeled and halved)
4. Onions                        : 4 large (little more, if size is small)
5. Tomato                       : 1 big
6. Ginger paste               : 2 tablespoon
7. Garlic paste                : 2 tablespoon
8. Plain yogurt or curd   : 1/2 cup
9. Turmeric powder       : 2 tablespoon
10. Red chili powder        : 2 tablespoon
11. Garam masala powder :1 taespoon
12. Green Cardamom        : 5-6
13. Cloves                          : 5-6
14. Cinnamon                    : 2 inches stick
15. Shah jeera                    : 1 tablespoon
16. White Peppercorn        : 1 tablespoon
17. Black Cardamom         : 1 big
18. Nutmeg or jaiphol        : 1
19. Mace or javitri             : 1
20. Bay leaf                        : 2
21. Salt                               : As per taste and preferred
22. Sugar                            : As per taste and preferred
23. Vegetable oil                : As much required
24. Ghee                             : As per taste and preferred
25. Saffron                          : 1 pinch
26. Rose water (optional, but still preferred)
27. Kewra water (optional, but still preferred)
28. Eggs boiled and halved for decoration (optional)
29. Fried brown onion
30. Water
31. Warm milk for diluting the saffron

Whole Spices

Directions:
For cooking the rice:

• Take a wide pot and put water to boil. Put some of the cloves, green cardamom, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, little salt, sugar and oil in the water. Put rice (wash and soaked for 20-30 minutes before) once the water starts to boil and cook the rice till it is half cooked.
• Drain the water from the rice and transfer the cooked rice in a separate pot to dry. The purpose is to keep the rice not sticky with each other.

For cooking the meat:

• I prefer to pressure cook the meat earlier. If you don't to do that, can skip the pressure cooking part and start from the next step. Cook the meat in a pressure cooker with 3-4 whistles (depending upon the type of you cooker) and then keep the meat aside separating from the stock. Keep the stock for using later.
• Dry roast all the whole spices, i,e, green and black cardamom, cloves, cinnamom, shah jeera, white peppercorn, mace and nutmeg and ground all the spices together in your blender.
• Take a big mixing bowl to marinate the meat. Marinade it with the ground mix spices, ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chili powder, yogurt, and salt. Coat well the pieces of meat with the mixture and keep it for atleast 1 hour.
• Take a wide pan or wok and heat oil and ghee. First fry the potato halves, sprinkling some garam masala on it, till the color changes to golden brown. Drain and keep the potatoes aside. On the same oil put some whole cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom and bay leaf and add onion slices once the spices starts spluttering. Fry the onion till browning and start adding ginger paste, garlic paste and the diced tomatoes. Cook all of them together with a lid on a medium flame and check time to time for not to burn them. If they tend to burn, don't hesitate to add some meat stock, which we kept for using later.
• Once this mixture is cooked and oil separates, carefully add the marinated meat and stir slowly. Cook this whole thing on a medium flame very carefully so that it doesn't burn from the lower part. So keep an eye and keep stirring. You can use cover if you feel like.
• It can take about 30-40 minutes to cook the meat. Time may vary accordingly.

For mixing and layering: Once the rice and meat are cooked and ready, comes the important part, i,e, the mixing and layering.


On stove top:

• Take a heavy bottomed pan, add more ghee and when its got heated turn of the flame and start layering the rice and meat one after another. Don't forget to add the fried potatoes and brown onions after each layer. Also add the saffron diluted in warm milk in each layer of the biriyani. If you want, add 2-3 teaspoonful of ghee from the sides.
• At the end sprinkle rose water and kewra water and put the lid. Make some dough with flour and water to tighten the sides of the lid. The purpose is to cook the biriyani in the air-tight pan very slowly on a low flame. In that way the flavor and aroma will stay intact and the whole thing will cook properly. Cook the biriyani on stove top for 30-40 minutes on the lowest flame.
• Do not open the lid immediately as it will be very hot. Finally, put the biriyani on your serving plate carefully and decorate with the boiled halved eggs on top.

In the oven:

• Preheat the oven at 200 degrees F.
• Take an oven safe wide container, add ghee and start layering the rice and meat one after another. Don't forget to add the fried potatoes and brown onions after each layer. Also add the saffron diluted in warm milk in each layer of the biriyani. If you want, add 2-3 teaspoonful of ghee from the sides.
• Sprinkle rose water and kewra water and cover with the aluminium foil keeping the sides tightly closed. Cook it for 20-30 minutes.
• Do not open the lid immediately as it will be very hot. Finally, put the biriyani on your serving plate carefully and decorate with the boiled halved eggs on top.

Mutton Biriyani