Saturday, January 26, 2008

Mutton Biryani/ Mutton Dum Biryani

Mutton Biryani or Mutton Dum Biryani is a famous preparation in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is also well liked in the Muslim countries of Middle-East. Mutton Biryani is a delicious dish made from Mutton (meat of lamb or goat) chunks cooked with different spices and steamed with ‘Basmati’ rice.

It was invented by one of the royal Muslim bawarchis (cook) during the late hours of Mughal reign in India. According to the history, ‘Biryani’ was invented in the Hyderabad city of Southern India. At that time, people were suffering from severe famine. Some day, one royal cook of the then ‘Nawab’ (King) had discovered a new recipe. To reduce the wastage of foodstuff, he prepared a dish with ‘Basmati’ rice, mutton, vegetables and spices- all put into a big deep bottom pan and cooked in steam. This was the ancestor of Mutton Biryani. Very soon, this unique preparation became popular all over India. Gradually, many combination of spices were invented giving different styles.

At present, two distinct styles of Biryani recipes are popular-

· Hydreabadi style, and

· Lucknowi style

The Lucknow style biryani is a bit dry preparation and Hydredabadi style is juicy one.

Difficulty level- medium

Serves for- 4 persons

Marinating time- 6-7 hours

Preparation time- 1 ½ hour

Total time- ~ 8 hours

Ingredients

Basmati rice- 500 grams

Mutton- 500 grams (Cut into medium pieces)

Onion- 400 grams, chopped

Tomato- 200 grams, chopped

Ginger paste- 2 tablespoon

Garlic paste- 2 tablespoon

Mint leaves (paste)- 2 tsp

Clove- 12 pieces

Cardamom- 12 pieces

Black cardamom- 3 Nos

Cinnamon­- 8 strips

Black pepper- 15 Nos

Bay leaves- 5 Nos

Javitri (Mace) powder- 6 grams

Jaiphal (Nutmeg) powder­- ½ tsp

Saffron- 2 grams

Cumin powder- 2 tsp

Coriander powder- 2 tsp

Red chilli powder- 2 tsp

Garam masala powder- 1 tsp (find the content in the bottom of this recipe)

Ghee (Clarified butter) - 250 grams

Dahi (Curd) - 100 grams

Rose water- 10 drops

Cashew- 10-12 Nos

Salt- to taste

The Marinating procedure

Wash the Basmati rice and keep it soaked under water for 20 minutes. Wash the mutton chunks and add the curd, ginger paste and garlic paste, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp red chilli powder. Mix thoroughly. Keep it under refrigeration for 6-7 hours.

The Procedure

· Boil the mutton until it becomes half done. Keep the stock aside.

· Heat the 50 grams of ghee in a pan. Add half of the amount of cardamom, cinnamon, clove, bay leaves and black pepper. Stir fry until the spices become golden brown. Add 750 ml of water and 2 tsp salt into it. Add the soaked Basmati rice into it when the water turn to boil. Cook the rice till it is half done.

· Heat 100 grams ghee in a pan. Add the rest of the of cardamom, cinnamon, clove, bay leaves and black pepper. Stir fry till it becomes light golden in color. Transfer the chopped onion and stir for 5-7 minutes in low heat or till the onion becomes golden in color.

· Add the chopped tomato and stir fry for 2 minutes.

· Transfer the marinated and boiled mutton chunks.

· Add the garlic paste, ginger paste, cumin powder, coriander powder; rest of the red chilli powder, garam masala powder and mint leaves paste. Sauté for 15 minutes in low heat.

· Add a little amount of water if necessary. Cover the pan.

· Cook until the mutton becomes ¾ done.

· Soak the saffron with 20 ml of hot milk.

· Now, take a ‘Handi’ (deep bottom pan with round neck and opening with a lid). Brush ‘ghee’ all through the inner surface.

· Transfer half the amount of cooked ‘Basmati’ rice to the ‘Handi’. Spread some cashew, fried onion, 2 tsp ghee, javitri, jaiphal, and half the amount of rose water over the rice.

· Transfer all the mutton chunks with the spices over it.

· Add rest of the ‘Basmati’ rice over it. Spread the rest of the cashew, javitri, jaiphal, fried onion, 2 tsp ghee, saffron and rose-water over it.

· Transfer 500 ml of the mutton stock to the ‘Handi’.

· Cover the ‘Handi’ properly, so that steam can not escape from inside.

· Keep the ‘Handi’ inside the oven for 20-25 minutes under 250˚ C.

· Your ‘Mutton Biryani’ is ready. Serve hot.

Note

· ‘Garam masala’ contains three ingredients- equal amounts of clove, cardamom and cinnamon.

You can try ‘Chicken Biryani’ if you like chicken. Get the recipe of ‘Chicken Biryani’ here.

Tip

· You can make layers of rice, spices, mutton then again rice and so on, if you are dealing with greater amount of ingredients.

· Mutton biryani’ best goes with ‘Mutton Rezala’.

4 comments:

Aliya Abbas said...

thanx for sharing the recippe
me going to cook rt now
will comment bak aftr i cook

Unknown said...

I tried it and called my friends for dinner. It turned outr perfetc and I got lot of praises. it's actually not as difficult as i thought it would be. Thanks for sharing the recipe

Foodfindo said...

Good recipe for awesome food.

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Biswabhusan said...

I really like your Blog. Thanks to Admin for Sharing this Cooking Idea. Addition to this here I am Contributing one more Similar Stories Cooking tips for Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani Recipe.