Serves: 8 – 9 Prep time: 1 hour Cooking time: 2 1/2 hour’s.
Ingredients:
To cook mutton:
1/2 cup sunflower oil
3 bay leaves
5 cardamoms
3 piece 2 inch cinnamon
2 big onions, sliced
7 piece pandan leaf
3 tablespoon grated ginger
3 tablespoon grated garlic
2 scotch bonnet (githeyomirus)
1 kg mutton
2 tablespoon lonumirus havaadu or red dry chilly
11/2 teaspoon cumin powder
11/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoon coriander powder
11/2 teaspoon salt
40 grams mutton biryani masala
1 tin peeled tomato
1 cup cooking yogurt
1/2 litre water
500 grams potato
2 teaspoon salt
To cook rice
4 cups water
3 cups basmati rice
3 bay leaves
6 cardamoms
1 teaspoon cumin
3 tablespoon sunflower oil
3 teaspoon chicken stock powder or 2 cubes Maggie chicken stock cubes
To assemble and cook biryani
2 cups fried onions
1 bunch coriander leaves
1 bunch mint leaves
3 drops of orange food color
1/4 cup water
Method:
Mutton gravy:
1_ In to a wok or pan pour oil and heat to medium. Add bay leaf, cardamom and cinnamon fry until fragrant. Add onions, pandan leaves, scotch bonnet fry two minutes and add grated ginger and garlic. Fry onion mixture until onions gets soft. Add mutton stir to mix with the onion mixture and cook mutton in onion mixture for fifteen minutes with the lid on. Stir in between.
2_After fifteen minutes take the lid off and add lonumirus havaadu or chilly powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt , tomato paste and mutton biryani masala, stir and cook for few minutes then add peeled tomato and yogurt, stir to combine. Cook on low heat with the lid on for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally.
3_ After thirty minutes there will be some oil on top of the gravy that’s when to pour water. Again stir to mix gravy with water and cook on low heat for one and half hour. After one and half hour increase the heat to high and cook for another thirty minutes, check mutton has become tender. When mutton is tender add potatoes and cook another fifteen minutes or until potato becomes soft but not mushy, season with extra salt if necessary, now the gravy will be very thick. Keep aside until rice is cooked.
To cook rice
4_ Add water into a pan, add bay leaves, pandan leaves and cumin, cook until fragrant. Add chicken stock and cook 2 minutes, then add the rice and cook until all water is absorbed. The rice will be eighty percent cooked. Do not cover the rice.
To assemble and cook biryani:
5_Take half of gravy to a bowl leaving half in the pan, on the gravy in the pan add half of rice. Spread evenly, then sprinkle half of fried onion, then coriander leaves, then mint leaves, using a big spoon scoop and layer the mutton gravy in the bowl on top of the leaves, spread rest of the rice on gravy and layer with fried onion, coriander and mint leaves. Make holes on biryani using a chopstick. Mix orange color with water and pour little by little into the holes.
6_ Cover biryani with lid and cook on very low heat for twenty minutes. Check if rice is fully cooked. If it’s not cooked keep the biryani with the lid for few minutes but do not cook. When rice is nicely cooked fluff biryani with a fork and serve.