Nawabi Mutton Biryani

Homemade Nawabi Mutton Biryani

Serves: 3 - 4

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the  Onion paste:

3 onions, sliced
30 ml oil
3 red chillies

Fry onions in oil till golden brown. When cool, make a smooth paste with 3 red chillies.

For the mutton:

500 g mutton (lamb)

75 ml yogurt/ curd, whisked

1 tablespoon thick ginger - garlic paste ( fresh and homemade )

1 teaspoon salt ( or to taste )

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon ghee

Wash and clean mutton pieces. Drain out water completely. Marinate mutton pieces with ground onion paste, ginger - garlic paste, turmeric powder, whisked yogurt and salt. Cover and keep aside for half an hour.

In a pressure cooker, heat 1 tablespoon ghee. Add marinated mutton pieces and pressure cook for 25 - 30 minutes or till done ( reduce the heat to medium after 3rd whistle (3 quick whistle) and cook for 25 minutes ). Allow the cooker to cool naturally.

For the rice:

1 teaspoon ghee

4 black cardamom

4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick (2 - cm in size)

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

5 peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups ( Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity ) basmati rice

6 cups water

For the Rice:

In a pan, heat ghee. Add peppercorns,cinnamon,  cardamom, fennel seeds  and cloves. Fry till fragrant.

Put all the fried spices, salt and  in water and boil. Add rice, and drain when half done (do not overcook rice. Each rice grain should be separated). Remove whole spices when assembling.

To assemble:

1 teaspoon garam masala powder

1/2 teaspoon saffron, diluted in 1/4 cup ( 25 ml ) milk (optional)

1 tablespoon ghee

2 tablespoon shallow fried cashew nuts and raisins

2 tablespoon chopped coriander and mint leaves

Put the cooked meat in a large pan, and spread the parboiled rice and garam masala powder over it. Drizzle saffron milk over it. Sprinkle shallow fried cashew nuts and raisins, chopped coriander and mint leaves and ghee. Cover tightly and cook over low heat or bake for 20 minutes.

Or try this method

Dum method:

In a heavy - bottomed vessel or biryani pot, spread a layer of mutton masala and half portion of cooked rice Make 2 layers with cooked rice, garam masala powder and mutton masala. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon ghee, saffron solution, chopped coriander - mint leaves, shallow fried raisins and cashew nuts

Cover with a tight lid. Seal with maida dough on the edges of the lid. Heat a heavy - bottomed iron kadai. Keep biryani pot over it. Cook on a low heat for 25 - 30 minutes. One can find a color change on the maida seal. Open the seal carefully. Decorate with chopped coriander and mint leaves. Serve with hot with Raita and pickle.