Mutton Biryani

A Biryani preparation has a lot of versions, originating from different parts of India. The one that we are going to learn today is a ‘Mutton Biryani’ an absolute top draw.

Ingredients
Marination

• 2 lbs Goat meat cut into pieces
• ¾ – 1 cup yogurt
• 2 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 2 tsp Chili Powder
• 14 small Chilies split into two (adjust to your taste)
• 1 cup chopped Mint Leaves
• 1 cup chopped Cilantro
• Salt to Taste (sufficient for the meat)
• Garam Masala Powder
• 10 Pepper Corns
• 10 Cloves
• ½ tsp Cardamom Seeds
• ½ tsp Sahajeera or Black Cumin
• 1” Cinnamon Stick
• 1 Large Onion sliced
• 1 Lime
• 1 cup Oil (can use half oil and half ghee)
• ½ tsp of saffron strands
• ½ cup milk
• 4 cups Basmati Rice soaked for 30 minutes (rice cooker measuring cup)

Spices for boiling rice

• 6 Cardamoms
• 3 Cloves
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 Bay Flower or Biryani Flower
• 1 tsp Sahajeera
• ½ tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tbsp of Oil
• First Full of Salt

Preparation:

• Clean and cut the goat meat.
• Grind all the ingredients listed under garam masala to a fine powder.
• Mix all the ingredients of the marinade and marinate for at least 2 hour , preferably overnight in the fridge.
• Cook the meat with ½ the oil in a pressure cooker. Don’t add any water when cooking. In my cooker it takes 6-7 whistles and 5 minutes on low flame to cook. Let it cool. Once the pressure in the cooker goes away, open it and cook it until all the water evaporates. OR
• Can cook the meat on the stove top until tender. This will take about an hour. I prefer the pressure cooker to avoid the cooking odor by cooking on stove top.
• Squeeze the lime juice on the meat and mix well.
• In a pan, heat oil and fry the onions until light golden brown.
• Soak saffron in hot milk.
• In a big pot bring water to a boil, add all the spices required for boiling rice and mix well.
• Add rice and continue to cook until the rice is almost done. It takes about 7-8 minutes on my stove. Drain the rice and keep aside.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Now its time to arrange rice and meat in layers. Grease large baking tray with oil, layer half the rice at the bottom. Sprinkle some oil, fried onions and ½ the saffron milk. Layer the rice with meat followed by a layer of remaining rice. We should have 2 layers of rice and one layer of meat. Top it off the remaining oil, fried onions and saffron milk. Cover the tray with aluminum foil.
• Bake the biryani for 10 minutes on 400 degrees F and then for 20 minutes on 350 degrees F. The total bake time is 30 minutes, 10 minutes on 400F and 20 minutes on 350 F.
• Mix the rice and serve it hot with raita or chicken shorva /mutton shorva