MUTTON BIRIYANI (TAMIL NADU STYLE)

I love to prepare biriyani and pulao at home, because these items are very easy to prepare, if we know the sequence and recipe well… The main attraction to prepare biriyani and pulao is that everyone at home love to eat and the less number of side dishes requirement J As a Kerala person, we need more side dishes with rice… J Once we get the trick to prepare biriyani and pulo, we will prepare it at least once in a week, as I am doing nowJ… Here, I am introducing a Tamil Nadu style mutton biriyani for all of you, especially for Kerala people …. J If you prepare this biriyani for the first time, you may feel like lots of steps in preparation, but I am very sure that once you finish its preparation and taste it for yourself you will definitely enjoy eating a very mouth-watering and yummy biriyani …. J

Okay, then let’s start our preparation?

Ingredients:

1.     Basmati rice ----------------------------- 2 cups

2.     Mutton ----------------------------------- ½ kg

3.     Big onion -------------------------------- 2 medium sized

4.     Mint leaves ---------------------------- 2 cups (leaves take out from stem)

5.     Tomato --------------------------------- 1 big sized (finely chopped)

6.     Ginger ----------------------------------- 2 teaspoon (crushed)

7.     Garlic ------------------------------------ 5 -6 (crushed)

8.     Green chilli ----------------------------- 2 -3 numbers

9.     Curry leaves ---------------------------- 1 spring

10.     Turmeric powder --------------------- 1 teaspoon

11.     Kashmiri chilli powder -------------- 1 ½ teaspoon

12.     Black pepper powder ---------------- ½ - 1 teaspoon

13.     Curd --------------------------------------- ½ cup

14.     Salt ----------------------------------------- to taste

15.     Water ------------------------------------- 3 ½ cups

16.     Cardamom ------------------------------ 6 numbers

17.     Cinnamon ------------------------------ 2 sticks (medium)

18.     Clove ------------------------------------ 6 numbers

19.     Star anise ------------------------------- 1 number

20.     Oil ----------------------------------------1 – 1 ½ tablespoon

21.     Ghee ------------------------------------1- 1 ½ tablespoon

Preparation:

Ø Wash and soak biriyani rice for 5- 10 minutes and drain the water and keep it aside

Ø Wash and keep the mutton pieces aside

Ø In a pressure cooker, take mutton pieces, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder, 1 spring curry leaves, 1 teaspoon crushed ginger, ½ of the crushed garlic, ¼ cup curd, and a little salt, and mix well and keep it aside for 5 – 10 minutes to marinate the mutton

Ø Add ¼ cup water into the mix of marinated mutton and close the lid of the cooker and pressure cook for 1 whistle in high flame and 3-4 whistles in low flame and switch off the furnace and keep it aside

Ø If you are using the same pressure cooker for preparing the biriyani, take the content of cooked mutton after 5- 10 minutes and keep it aside and wash the cooker and take the same for preparation or take another pressure cooker for making biriyani (depends on your availability)

Ø Make a smooth paste of mint leaves (puthina leaves), 3 cardamom, 3 cloves, 1 stick cinnamon, ½ of star anise, 1 teaspoon ginger (other half remaining after add into the mutton pieces), ½ of crushed garlic, 1 green chilli etc and keep it aside

Ø Now  we are going to prepare the biriyani, so heat the pressure cooker, add oil and ghee and once it become hot put ½ of all the spices from 16 to 19 ( ie., 3 cardamom, 1 stick cinnamon, 3 cloves, ½ of star anise) and stir well and when the smell of the spices start come add chopped onions and  one or two green chilli and stir well

Ø When the chopped onion become soft, mash the same well with the spoon (wooden spoon), which one is used to stir

Ø Add chopped tomato and stir well and allow to cook and mash the tomato too

Ø Add the paste which we prepared and kept already, and put a little salt to it and stir well till it become brown in colour and oil separates

Ø Add the cooked mutton with water (if any) into the mixture and mix well ( if the mutton is not cooked well, close the lid of the pressure cooker and allow it to cook for 2 more whistles in medium flame), otherwise or after 2 whistles open the cooker and add basmati rice, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder, black pepper powder, ¼ cup curd and mix well for 3-5 minutes

Ø Add the remaining water into the mixture and mix well and allow the water to boil and adjust the salt according to taste

Ø Close the lid of the pressure cooker and allow it to for 1 whistle in high flame and 2 whistles in low flame and switch off the furnace and open the lid of the pressure cooker after 10-15 minutes

Ø Now, Tamil Nadu style mutton biriyani is ready to serve

Notes:

·         I used oil and ghee mixture for the preparation of biriyani, but you can either use oil alone or ghee alone for this purpose, as per your requirement

·        I used sunflower oil and ghee (taste will be better if we use sunflower oil other than coconut oil). Suggestion is for Kerala viewers J

·        Don’t use more water for preparation, use water correctly as per the quantity of rice used (normal requirement of water is double the quantity of rice, but here I used lesser than the same, because we are using water at the time of cooking mutton and curd is also using)

·        You can use small to medium sized mutton pieces, that will be better in this recipe than the larger pieces

·        You can add more green chilli or chilli powder if you need spicier biriyani. In this quantity of chilli itself, its normal spicy.

·        The cooking time or whistle may vary according to the rice and mutton variety, which you are using. I explained the standard time requirement

You can serve this biriyani, with onion raita, tomato and oinion raita etc..

I need your valuable feedback.  Your words are my inspiration…. So please leave your comments, suggestions, and criticisms, before you go into the next page J